Some Things To Know About Your Car Battery

The car battery plays an essential role in your car. If your battery isn't working properly, you could be in trouble while driving the car. Here are some things you need to know about your car battery.

What Do You Do If The Battery Isn't Working?

There will be times when you will try to turn on the car and it just won't turn over. Instead, the car may give a couple of clicks and then fail to actually turn on. The lights may flicker, or it won't even turn on. This usually means that the battery has died. Luckily, you can usually get the battery to work without having to tow the car. What you need are some jumper cables and another car with a working battery. Pull the two cars up side by side and attach the jumper cables so that the negative clamp is on the negative part of the battery and the positive matches the positive. Have the other car turn on and sit for a couple of minutes while it charges your battery. Then in a couple of minutes, you can turn on your car, and in many cases, the battery will jump back on.

Make sure after you charge the battery that you keep the car running for some time. If you were to turn it off right away, the battery would die again. Instead, as you drive, the engine will charge the battery, so once it is on, you shouldn't have to worry about it dying while you are driving. It may need to be jumped again to turn it on, but once it is charged and you don't turn off the car, you should be fine.

How Do You Know The Battery Is Close To Dying?

In some cases, if you just left the lights on or the doors open, it will cause the battery to fail. However, in other cases, the battery simply gets old and needs to be replaced. You can tell if your battery is getting close to dying by how it acts when you turn on the car. If the battery has a hard time turning over, even if it does start eventually, you know that the battery might be giving out.

Additionally, just having to jump the car one time isn't a big deal. But, if over the weeks, you are having to charge the battery often, you might consider getting a new one.

These are a couple things you need to know about your car battery.