Did you notice that your car battery is draining faster than before? You may have tried to start the car but failed? The battery is an integral part of modern cars. Your car must have a functional battery to keep running.
In this post, we’ll be talking about the reasons behind the car battery drain and how can you prevent draining. Stay with us!
1. Parasitic Battery Drain
The most irritating battery drain problem is caused parasitic battery drain. It means no visible accessories are running on battery but it is draining.
Since it is hard to locate exactly what causing the drain and what to fix, a lot of people end up in the auto repair shop to recover from such an incident.
You’ll find a lot of resources on the internet that talks about parasitic drain but very few among them actually guide you to find the problem.
After spending a whole lot of time, I’ve found a great video on parasitic car battery drain and how to find out what causing the problem. Check it out-
2. Headlights Were On For Long
The second problem is not an invisible one nor is it needed any fix. A lot of the time, you’ll forget to turn the headlights off before leaving the car.
Leaving headlights on for a night will drain the whole of your car battery. Apart from the headlights, you need to turn every accessory of the car off. Your car speaker or the interior lights also takes a significant amount of energy from the battery. Keeping those on will significantly increase the load on the battery resulted in a car battery drain.
3. Defective Charging System & Alternator
A battery can drain faster than usual because of the defects in the charging system. Car battery recharges by the alternator when the car runs. If the alternator gets damaged or the charging wires get loose or broken, you may experience a battery drain.
This happens because the defective charging system or the alternator fails to recharge the battery as soon as it requires.
4. Uncomfortable Temperature
Too hot and too cold, both type of temperature is not good for car batteries. Car batteries require a comfortable temperature to function properly.
If the surroundings of the battery become too hot or too cold due to failure in the car or weather conditions, you’ll start experiencing problems in the battery. The most common of those is- faster battery drain.
5. Very Short Drives
As you know that the car battery provides energy to the starter and other accessories in the car, it recharges by the alternator in the car when the car runs. So, for recharging the battery fully, you need to operate the vehicle.
However, the car battery takes the most stress when you start the car. And if you go to a short distance, the car does not get enough time to recharge the battery. Although this does not cause any problem if you drive both short and long distances, it may cause the battery draining problem if you keep on driving short distances without allowing the battery to get enough charge.
6. Loose Battery Wire
The next thing that causes the battery drain problem is a degraded battery terminal or other connection wires. You need to make sure that the connections are fit so that energy is not lost for the bad connection.
I have seen a lot of people complaining about battery drain problems that are happening because of the corroded battery terminals or wires. Bad wiring throws a lot of the energy in vain. So, check regularly for any defect in the terminal and connections.
7. Battery Lifespan Reached
The battery does not last a lifetime. It degrades over time and becomes incapable to store energy and producing them. So, if you have a battery draining problem in an old car battery, you may need to replace it with a new one.
However, the lifespan of the car battery defers manufacture to manufacture and you need to check how many years your one will last before it is dead.
What to Do if Car Battery Drains?
As we have outlined 7 different reasons that drain your car battery, you need to avoid the factors that drain the battery to have comfortable riding experience. Here is a list what you can do to prevent battery drain in your car-
- Don’t leave headlights or other accessories on when you leave the car.
- If the alternator or other charging system accessories are defective, replace those with new and functional ones.
- Ensure a balanced temperature in the surroundings where your car battery is.
- Don’t stick to the short drives. Occasional long drives will make your mood fresh and give your car enough time to recharge the battery.
- Regularly do a full inspection of the car to avoid problems like battery drain or engine not starting etc.
- In case you can’t figure out what is causing the battery drain, follow the parasitic battery drain section of the article for locating the fault and fixing it.