Add in the fact that you’re probably idling with the headlights, radio, heat, heated seats, rear window defroster and wipers, and the alternator never has a chance to fully replenish the battery. Making short trips, or spending most of your commute in gridlocked traffic doesn’t help. Severe acid stratification can cause sulfation of the plates, effectively destroying the battery’s ability to hold a charge.ĭuring cold months, batteries dwell at just 75 percent charge level. Because there’s a high concentration of acid at the bottom of the battery, it can cause the battery to read as if it has a full or nearly full state of charge. The light concentration of acid at the top causes corrosion of the lead plates inside, and limits plate activation, reducing the Cold Cranking Amps (CCA) the battery can produce. In a stratified battery, the electrolyte settles toward the bottom of the battery (bottom image), leaving more water at the top. In a normal battery, the electrolyte is distributed equally throughout the battery case (top image). The problem is particularly an issue on modern luxury cars with a lot of parasitic draw and many power-sapping accessories. If your battery sits at below an 80 percent state of charge, never receives a full charge and charges and discharges quickly (as in a short trip), the battery may suffer from a condition called acid stratification. Throw in one cold morning and your commute just got a lot longer. Short trips that don’t allow the battery to fully charge, or any kind of moderate-term storage can deplete a battery. Security systems, keyless entry and remote start all require functions that remain on at all times, whether the car is running or not. Even the most basic of 2016 models has power-hungry accessories that are always on, no matter whether the car is running or not. There’s nothing worse than the impotent “click-click-click” of a battery that’s strong enough to turn on the lights, but too weak to spin the starter.ĭepending on your driving habits and the weather, your battery can fail at an alarmingly rapid rate, especially in a modern car. Most of those calls could’ve been avoided by testing the battery ahead of time. 17 million of those calls were due to a dead battery. In 2014, AAA responded to 29 million calls. Chances are good that if you end up having to call AAA, it’s going to be because of a dead battery.
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