Dead Car Battery Symptoms

According to experts, the average car battery life goes up to 5 years in idea conditions. However, due to obvious reasons, this is not the case. Once your vehicle gets seasoned, you cannot be sure when its battery would run out of its breath and give you a hard time fixing it. But the good thing is, a dead battery is easy to diagnose, once you are versed with the symptoms. Moreover, when compared to other parts of the vehicle, the battery is less pricey.

What Indicates A Car Battery Going Dead?

• Accessories like the headlights, taillights, radio, interior lights, power windows, music system, power doors, windshield wipers, etc., are driven by the power of the battery. So once the power source goes dead, these cease to function.
• Normally, when you give the ignition, the engine cranks. But if the battery is dead, you would hear a 'click' noise.
• If you are lucky then you can still jump-start your car even with a dead battery. However, even if this technique does not work, as in, the battery dies again after the initial jump, then it may indicate that the battery has completely drained off.
• Another common sign of a dead battery could be a foul odor, similar to that of a rotten egg. This smell is of sulfuric acid. Usually, this smell indicates that the jumping of the car battery has been done in an improper way.
• In case you did not know, the horn of the vehicle consumes more power than the headlights. So if the horn stops working, then you may suspect a dead batter, even if the headlights flicker.
• If the panic button does not respond, then it may also indicate that the battery has gone dead.
• If the battery is more than three years old, and show such signs, then you can be certain that it has run its course, and it's time you went for a car battery replacement.

Causes

Probable factors because of which you car battery has gone dead are as follows:

• You have left the interior lights on for a long time
• The car audio system has been running for an entire night
• A malfunctioning alternator (an electric generator that produces alternating current)
• A substandard battery is also a cause that is common for most cases
• Frequent use of accessories, as mentioned above, also drains the battery
• Problem such as the upper half lacking acid also drains the battery. This may occur when the electrolyte gets collected at the bottom of the appliance.
• Improper maintenance is also an obvious cause, and so is improper charging of the system.

Charging A Dead Car Battery

• You would require another car whose battery is fully charged.
• Place your car in front of the other car that you have arranged.
• Now get a positive cable whose one terminal is to be connected to the positive terminal of the good battery (mostly red) and the other end to the positive terminal of the bad battery.
• Now one end of the negative cable (ground cable) must be connected to the negative terminal of the reviving battery. The other end of the cable has to be connected to a non-painted metal surface that is not on the engine.
• Having gotten the connections set, now start the other car and wait for sometime. Thereafter check if you are able to start your vehicle. Ideally it should, but if it does not then run the other car for some more time.

As you can see the symptoms of a dead car battery are not difficult to decipher. So once such symptoms occur, try charging the battery or if it is too old, then get it replaced.