All car owners or drivers will experience car battery failure every now and then. It is important to know the probable causes so that if they are preventable, one can take the right measures for prevention.
Bad driving habits as opposed to perceived battery defects are the major causes of most vehicles battery failures. According to statistics, fifty percent of batteries returned under warranty are always in perfect working conditions. Studies also show that low charge and stratification are the most known causes for apparent car battery failures. This problem has been mainly associated with large luxury vehicle with vast power hungry auxiliaries not found in the basic vehicle models.
Sulfation
Car owners who drive mostly in congested cities form the highest percentage of people with car battery problems. This is because they mostly drive for as little as 13 km or 8 miles per day, which is not sufficient to charge a battery fully. As a result, batteries operating in these kinds of environments suffer sulfation. To prevent such situations, it is better for owners of cars in congested cities to go for smaller batteries, which will be sufficient for powering their engine as well as carrying out some rudimentary functions. Cars operating in environments that are more open are more likely to ride for longer distances. For this purpose, these vehicles are shielded from most battery problems experienced in cars operating in congested environments.
Since these situations are bound to occur in car batteries, it is important for battery dealers to ensure good battery performance on vehicles by offering expert advice to their clients. This can only happen, if the dealers have equipped their staff with appropriate knowledge on different aspects of car battery use. Unsatisfying services due to poor battery choices may also cause problems between the dealers and the customers during warranty periods. In fact, any service requirement transacted during the warranty period is normally published in trade magazines where prospective customers look for information on the best vehicle battery dealers. It is therefore crucial for battery dealers and supplies to up their game in these fields.
What Causes Battery Malfunction
Vehicle owners and drivers must understand that car battery malfunction is seldom due to some factory defects. On the contrary, it is caused by poor driving habits. These, according to studies conducted over the years, have come out to be major culprits, causing the bigger percentage of battery malfunctioning. Statistics have also singled out that heavy accessory power when a vehicle is driven for short distances causes inability for a battery to be fully charged. While battery defects resulting from manufacturing also exist, trusted leads suggests that these are responsible for only less than seven percent of the total defects on the ground.
Poor driving habits are also connected to battery stratification, which sums up to the overall reduced performance in a car battery. It happens because electrolytes are made to concentrate in the bottom of the battery causing the upper side of the battery to have a poor acid concentration. This situation mainly happens, if the battery is kept with a charge lower than 80 percent of the total charge it is supposed to store. That is when it does not get to charge to saturation. In most cases, stratification is highly attributed to running the windshields for longer periods or leaving the electrical heaters on. In addition, driving over short distances and at a low speed is the worst culprit causing stratification in batteries.
Author Bio:
This article is written by Mark Neyton. Mark is a freelance writer with more than 4 years experience and he is mostly interested in writing about cars. For even more useful tips and information for your car maintenance or if you want to find the latest offers online from Falck for car batteries (or as the Danes say Falck bil batteri) check out this web page.