How Do I Check My Car Battery Health?

The last thing you noticed your car is not starting; there could be several issues with the car itself. The prior case being the damaged battery. The damaged car battery can cause frequent starting issues in a car; even though we charge the battery today, the following day the same issue repeats.

External issues of a battery can be fixed quickly; what if the problem occurs internally? Let’s figure the issue and discuss a potential solution.

It’s really troublesome if you have to jump-start the vehicle and charge the battery again and again. The battery issue is rarely seen in new vehicles, but it’s serious when it comes to used cars. If you decide to buy a used car, don’t just fall to its aesthetic and design, there could be several not-known internal issues with a car. All car batteries degrade over time, and replacing them with another can be expensive.

Before you shop for a used car, make sure you have enough information about a car. You can get the history report through Revs Check in a matter of minutes. The Revs Check includes stolen report check, written-off check, and finance inspection. 

Testing a battery

Dead batteries are the main reason you spend hours on a highway due to the breaking of a car. A damaged headlight and non-functioning electronics all round up for having bad battery health. Here are a couple of tools we can get started with testing a battery to make sure we have a good battery when we are traveling.

Testing a battery has to be the first step on the list, and it can be done with few pairs of simple tools. We can use a battery analyzer, a refractometer, and a multimeter.  Here is brief detailing of the required tools.

Battery analyzer

Battery analyzers are great when it comes to testing battery health. It helps for maintaining, troubleshooting, and testing individual elements. It is the ideal tool that uses intelligence to perform operations like discharging a battery to measure its health. It is basically used for internal testing of a car’s battery rather than externals.

You can simply connect the battery analyzer to the car’s battery and go through the readings on the screen. The tool comes with different modes and tells about the battery condition, charge, and alternator.

Refractometer

Refractometers have a wide range of usage from battery tests to agriculture. As the name suggests, the refractometer uses the refraction principle to test the substances within the battery. The refractometer works when a ray of light passes from substances inside the battery, and the ray bends away from a normal path. It tests the concentration of battery acid, which leads to the calculation of battery health.

To get started, take a pipet or a toothpick that can go inside the cell and take a small drop of fluid.

Now release a drop of liquid from the pipet to the refractometer and let it spread. Expose the drop of fluid in the refractometer towards the light and see through the readings it shows. Record each reading and take an average value. The normal reading differs from one battery manufacturer to another.  

Multimeter

Multimeter comes in handy when you are testing the internal section of your car’s battery. Multimeters are great for testing voltage. It helps to determine the voltage drop when you are cranking car keys. 

Testing batteries with a multimeter is simple. Firstly set the multimeter reading to 15 volts and switch off the lights. Now, connect two ends of the multimeter to the respective ends of the battery of your car. If the multimeter shows a reading relatively low than 15 volts, then the battery is in bad health.

Safety measures while checking car battery health

Safety is paramount while you check the car battery. The cells inside the battery contain acid that can burn your hand. Grab a pair of hand gloves, eyeglasses, and other safety equipment at the time of necessity. Do not try to crank open the nuts and bolts of a battery with hands; Pry-bars and screwdrivers are the tools made for these purposes. 

Moreover, use a proper pipet while you take the acid out of the refractometer. Clean the pipet well after its use. For some reason, you might decide not to use safety measures and work all with your pair of hands. If you get acid in a place that should not be, neutralize the acid as soon as possible. However, safety protection should be your top priority.

Here, we have run down through the comprehensive guide on checking the battery health of a car. It’s better to check the battery health of a car occasionally rather than breaking your car down out of nowhere.