Is it time to check your battery and charging system before another McHenry winter

Having the confidence that your car, truck or SUV will start every time you go out to your McHenry garage or driveway and get behind the wheel this winter depends. It depends on how well you’ve maintained your vehicle and whether the starting and charging systems are up to the job.

If you’ve ever gotten in the car, truck or SUV and turned the key only to find that your vehicle won’t start and you’re stuck in your McHenry driveway or garage, or stuck somewhere away from home, you know how inconvenient that can be.

We tend to take our vehicles for granted and that includes the battery. But, when the battery in your car, truck or SUV fails, it tends to rush to the forefront of your priorities. That is inconvenient anytime of year but far more so in the winter. It’s also more likely in the winter.

Most people think that winter is the hardest on a battery. Actually, the summer heat is really brutal for car, truck or SUV batteries. The problem is that winter is harder on your vehicle in general.

In the winter, the oil in your car, truck or SUV’s engine is thicker. The cold does that to it. The starter has to work harder to turn the engine over fast enough to start running. It takes more juice from the battery to turn the starter so the starter can turn the engine.

The additional charge from the battery requires that the alternator is recharging the battery to its full capacity. If you have too much corrosion on the cables between the battery and starter, or battery and alternator, you could also have problems.

That’s one simple thing that can be done to help ensure your car, truck or SUV engine will start in winter. Checking the alternator to ensure it puts out enough of a charge, and the starter to ensure it doesn’t take more than necessary, are also critical factors to keep your vehicle starting all winter.

You can have all of these factors checked out by a trusted auto repair shop. At the same time, they can check your battery.

All batteries fail, at some point. Most batteries, however, have a reasonable life-expectancy. This is especially true if they vehicle and battery are maintained.

Did you know that a voltmeter can read a charge passing across the surface of a battery that has too much dirty grease on it? Keeping the battery clean can help. If the battery has refillable cells, filling those with distilled or deionized water and keeping them filled is critical. Dried cells don’t generally come back to life.

The distilled or deionized water is critical because tap water, for instance, contains minerals and elements that will build up between the cells in a battery.

It’s still October in McHenry. You probably don’t have to worry about a cold spell proving your battery and/or charging/starting system is up to speed. But it will be cold enough soon enough. Why wait?

Comments

Is your antifreeze safe from freezing this Richmond winter

You still have time to have it checked Well, there’s no denying it – winter tends to get chilly here in Richmond. We have to deal with snow and ice on the roads, scraping the same off our windows and windshield, and staying warm while we drive. Of course, you had your antifreeze checked before winter rolled into town. What?! You didn’t have your antifreeze checked before winter clamped down on Richmond? So, how’s your antifreeze doing? If you haven’t had it checked, there’s really no way of knowing, is there? This car has overheated in the middle of a Richmond winter. But, on the other end of the spectrum, the antifreeze can also freeze if it's not up to its job. Hopefully, you haven’t had a serious problem with your antifreeze already. If you did, you’d probably know. When antifreeze fails, it’s a potentially catastrophic condition for your vehicle’s engine. You could have hoses that have burst because of freezing antifreeze. Worse than that, your engine block may have crac...

Blocks of ice falling from cars in McHenry could cause accidents or damage

We’ve all seen those blocks of snow falling from behind the rear tires of a car when the snow rolls into McHenry . Fortunately, they’re just packed snow that will disintegrate under your vehicle’s tires as you simply drive right through them, right? Don’t count on it. Those blocks of snow are often packed so tight, condensed by the thaw-and-freeze cycle, that they’re anything but oversized snowballs . They’re often more like boulders. Hit one of those blocks and the collision between the block and one of your tires could send you careening off the road or into oncoming traffic. In some cases, they’re so solid you could pound them with a sledgehammer with little effect. They truly can represent a serious road hazard. The problem is that it’s difficult to tell how solidly they’re packed when you see them on the road, left their unwittingly by another driver. Either way, your best bet is to try to avoid them. But you want to be careful dodging blocks of ice in the road, too. You need...

Sap, Sun and Droppings conspire to attack your Richmond car’s finish

Who doesn't love summer time in Richmond? But this is also the time of year when sap, sun and droppings attack your car's finish. It’s a beautiful summer day in Richmond, IL, so you take the car to Richmond Carwash and give it a thorough cleaning. Or maybe you go for an entire detailing. On the other hand, you grab a bucket, sponge, brush and appropriate cleaners, drag the hose out to the driveway and wash the car yourself. Before you know it, the car is clean and shiny, almost like the day when it was new, right? But what does Murphy’s Law say about washing your car? Inevitably, if you wash your car, you can count on rain. It almost seems like, as soon as you give the car a good bath, the rain clouds start plotting and changing course to head straight for your Richmond home or wherever else you park your car. Let’s imagine that Murphy takes a pass when it comes to applying the Law of clean-car-precipitation onto your vehicle. You have the car washed but it doesn’t rain. You’ve...

Performance Unlimited Blog

Search This Blog