How Often to Replace a Car Battery

Without your car battery working properly, your vehicle won’t start and your electrical components will not work at all. Your car battery will break down over time just because of the heat and cold that it goes through, and because of the way the electrical processes work in the battery after tens of thousands of miles driven on Stephenville roads. Learn how often to replace a car battery with the team Bayer Auto Group.

How to Know If Your Car Battery Needs to Be Replaced

Your car battery will need to be replaced at some point if you own your vehicle for three to four years. Some batteries last two years, while others last six to seven years. Here’s one way to know if your car battery needs to be replaced by watching for these signs:

• Dimming headlights
• More frequent engine revving or jump starts
• Longer times to start the engine when you turn the key/push the button
• Unusual power fluctuations

Now that we’ve covered how to know if your car battery needs to be replaced, we’ll go into the reasons why your car battery deteriorates over time.

What Causes Your Car Battery to Deteriorate?

How often to replace a car battery can actually change based on environmental factors.

• Heat: Hot weather causes the liquids inside a car battery to evaporate more readily. If you live in a more consistently hot climate, your battery life will be inevitably shorter.
• Vibrations: If your battery’s hold-down clamps are loose, or you drive over rough roads frequently, vibrations will cause internal battery parts to break down faster.
• Needing a Jump: Maybe you left the lights on overnight or let your engine idle for too long. You’ll need a jump start, which can shorten battery life significantly.
• Time: A car battery can only go through so many charge cycles, just like any battery that needs to recharge to work properly. The demise of your car’s battery is inevitable. But you can help it last as long as possible.

If you want to increase the intervals between how often you need to replace a car battery, take care of it according to the owner’s manual.

How to Test a Car Battery

The next time you bring your vehicle in for regular maintenance to our service center from Brownwood, our technicians can test the battery to see how it’s holding up. We recommend bringing your vehicle in for checkups at least twice a year. We’ll rotate the tires, change the oil, and test the battery.

If you want to test the battery during routine maintenance, many retailers offer free tests. Or you can test the battery at home with a few easy methods.

How to Test a Car Battery With Headlights

1. Turn on the engine.
2. Keep the car in park.
3. Turn the headlights on.
4. Rev the engine.
5. Look to see if the headlight brightness changes.
6. If the headlights get brighter, that means the current is not strong enough to keep the lights at normal brightness while the car is idling.
7. Take your car to a service center at this point for further assessment.

How to Test a Car Battery With a Digital Multimeter

1. Set the voltmeter to 20 DC volts.
2. Open the hood of your vehicle.
3. Touch the negative terminal (black) with the negative meter probe (also black).
4. Touch the positive terminal (red) with the positive meter probe (also red)
5. Have a friend turn on the headlights.
6. Check the voltmeter reading.
7. At 80℉, 12.5 volts or higher means your battery is fully charged. 12.3 volts means it’s at about 75% charged.11.8 volts or lower means you have 25% or less charge.

How Much Is a Replacement Car Battery?

A replacement car battery can range between $75 and $120. If you have a premium battery it could cost up to $200. When you’re concerned about how much a replacement battery is, think about how long you want one to last. Also, check with the manufacturer to see what battery they recommend.

Hybrid car batteries are much more expensive because they’re bigger. They can cost anywhere between $1,000 and $6,000, depending on your vehicle. But if you’re worried about how much a replacement car battery is, you should know that in a hybrid the replacement battery will lower your overall fuel costs.

Service Your Vehicle’s Battery in at Comanche

Ready to replace your battery for more efficient Abilene drives? Contact us, call (325) 356-2541, or schedule a service appointment for your battery. Check out our service specials to see if you can save money on your next car maintenance.