Time for a New Car Battery? Visit Your Fayetteville Kia Dealer

Your Kia’s battery is essential for starting your engine. It provides the electrical charge that’s used to power the starter motor, which causes your engine to crank and turn over. Your battery also provides electrical power to your car’s systems when its engine is switched off. The battery will wear out, and as your Kia dealer, we’d like you to know some of the signs that you need a new car battery.

Signs Its Time for a New Car Battery From Your Kia Dealer

Dim Lights

This is one of the first signs of a weakening battery. When your engine is off, your battery supplies power for the headlights, alarm, interior lights, and other components. Maintaining these components does use a large amount of energy, and this electricity is recharged by the alternator as soon as your engine is running.

A worn battery, however, loses its ability to charge completely, and it also stores less energy. If you find that your dash lights, interior lights, and headlights are dimmer than they should be, you could have a weak battery. To test this switch on your engine and check all these lights again. If they seem brighter, your battery could be wearing out and need to be replaced.

Corroded Battery Terminals

Your battery has several different chemicals inside it. The reaction of these chemicals with the other battery components allows your battery to store and recharge electricity. One of the signs of your battery aging is a breakdown of these chemicals inside the battery. Sulfuric acid is the main chemical in the battery, and over time it breaks down and releases hydrogen gas.

Hydrogen gas can escape the confines of your battery and enter the engine compartment. In the engine, it mixes with other chemicals in the air and forms hydrogen sulfide. This new chemical is drawn to the positive and negative terminals on your battery, and it will form an acidic salt around them. Gradually, the acidic salt will corrode your battery. A corroded battery can’t be repaired and will have to be replaced.

Parasitic Drain

As we’ve seen, your battery maintains your car’s electrical systems when the engine is off. This doesn’t normally place any strain on the battery as most components, for example, the headlights, only draw power when they’re switched on. A parasitic drain is a short in the electrical system or a fault where a component doesn’t switch off when it is supposed to.

In either case, this problem causes a drain on your battery power, and it can be severe. You can have a fully-charged battery when you park your car at night and wake up to an almost dead battery the next day. Our technicians will find the source of the problem and repair it.

A car battery very rarely just dies. Most of the time, you’ll start to see signs that it’s failing, which gives time to plan for a replacement. If your battery shows signs of wearing out, call us at Crain Kia of Fayetteville.

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