How to Extend the Life of Your Used Car Battery? 4 Helpful Tips

The worst thing that can happen to any driver is to get a flat battery in the middle of the highway, on a cold winter night, with no one around. And then when you do manage to get help, you have to pay around $100-$200 to get your car’s battery replaced so that you can safely drive home.

Almost always, it seems that those car batteries give up their lives during winters. And it tends to happen just when you thought about taking a long drive. By the rule of thumb, car batteries are supposed to survive typically for 5 years. But if your’s is going flat more frequently, you must be maintaining it wrong.

For you, here are a few helpful tips to extend your used car’s battery life.

1.Drive for longer distances, more often

When you fire up your car or switch on the cabin light or even use the vehicle’s head and taillight at night, you burn the charge stored in the battery. And when you smoothly drive your vehicle for extended distances, without stopping much, you help your vehicle’s battery to charge itself by receiving power from the engine. Naturally, the longer you drive, the better your battery stays because car batteries love near-100% charge. But if you burn the battery more than charge it, the longevity will reduce significantly.

2.Keep the battery clean

Now, how many of us actually look under the hood of our used cars in Moore to see whether the battery is clean or not? We remain more worried about the engine and the oil and the used car battery rarely comes to our mind. Dirt and grime deposits on batteries leak the stored charge. Even when the battery is charging because you are driving long distances, you lose charge to dirt. Plus, grime near the terminals can cause short circuits that are detrimental to the battery and may kill the device within months.

3.Heat is not your car battery’s friend

Ever noticed good dealerships parking their used cars and used trucks in Spartanburg, SC, in the shade? Why do you think that is necessary? Because the sun’s heat is the real culprit behind car batteries giving up their lives during winters and you can avoid a pre-mature battery death by keeping your used car away from the summer’s heat as much as possible. During summers, prolonged heat exposure evaporates the water from inside the battery at a rapid rate. Then, when winter comes, the freezing temperatures deteriorate the batteries further and they go flat.

4.Avoid keeping the headlights on when the engine is standing idle

And that applies to your taillights, air conditioner, stereo, seat warmers, Apple or Android connects, and others. When the engine is idle, the battery is not charging. And keeping these features working means that your battery is discharging faster than it is recharging. Again, go back to the point where we said that your car battery loves a 100% charge. You can maintain that by minimizing battery energy wastage in your garages or parking lots.

For the best results, start by buying quality used pre-owned vehicles in Spartanburg with a quality battery inside and a clean maintenance history. And you can find such a used car in Uncle Joe’s Used Cars ad Trucks where you get impeccable vehicles backed by a comprehensive 2 years/36,000 miles warranty. You thus start with a fine battery under the hood. From there on, it is all about how you maintain the battery over time.