A car battery is designed as a chemical reactor which uses lead plates to generate voltage. A battery goes bad when the chemical reaction inside the battery starts to become weak. This is due to the natural degradation of the lead plates in one or more of the batteries 6 cells and can normally happen in about three to four years of the battery's life.

A battery can fail in one of two ways. The first way is very quickly in others word you go out to your car and no lights will come on and the car is dead. In this case a jump start may not even help because the battery is so far gone it just dumps (pulls in) all the voltage supplied to it.

The second way is the battery can go bad while supplying a slow decline of voltage. This results in slow than normal engine cranking sound that you will notice in the morning or after the car has been sitting for a long period of time. Once you notice this it's up to you to be preventive and change the battery before total failure occurs.

Sometimes a good battery will be dead in the morning because the car has a voltage drain in the electrical system which is called a parasitic draw. This means there is something electrical staying on in the car when its not suppose to be.

WHAT YOU WILL HEAR

When a battery is new the engine will crank over to a particular tone and rhythm. Then a few years later this tone will change. You will notice the engine cranking a bit slower which is telling you the battery is getting weak.

WHAT YOU WILL SEE

There are two sure signs a battery is failing. While looking at the battery there will be battery acid covering the top of the battery. The next is if the sides of the battery are bulged out telling you the plates inside are warped due to age.

WHAT YOU WILL SMELL

Sometimes when a battery goes bad to will have a very distinctive sulfur smell which is the battery plates over heating a boiling the acid inside the battery cells. This could be due to the alternator overcharging as well so it should be checked for this condition.


Source
http://www.autoreportng.com/2017/02/signs-of-dead-battery-in-car.html

Prevention they say, is better than cure.


Read more here

http://www.autoreportng.com/2017/02/signs-of-dead-battery-in-car.html

Nice one.

Omo, car battery is expensive now ooooo. A car battery of 45-62Ah/hr is now 25k.

These are the type of topics I saw back then that made me join NAIRALAND. This new generation NAIRALAND of MMM, Tonto,..... It is well o.

Ok

thanks for this piece of info.

Thanks.....


But nothing lasts forever except "Hausa perfume"



Try it

That's true

Very valuable piece of info

Hmmm

Autojosh, Good write-up but Can you please shed more light on the parasitic draw/drain?

My battery seems to suffer from this.

Can anyone advice me on the battery to go for today?

There are so many substandard batteries flooding the market these days. And considering how expensive it is now.

I need a 75amps battery.

I'm thinking of Forgo, Chrome or Solite.

AutoReportNG2:
Prevention they say, is better than cure.


Lalasticlala, Seun

Also if you have an alternator that isn't charging properly, it shortens battery life. A good European or American battery could last you 3 to 4 years with a sound alternator. But a Chinese or Korean battery would be a blessing if you get 2 years. How do you test your alternator at home? Start your car, let it run for about 3 minutes, remove your battery terminals while it's still running, turn on your headlamps (full blare), put on your AC, put on your radio and wipers. If the car stutters or goes off during any of these, your alternator is definitely not strong enough.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Try the stunt above only on older cars. Probably pre-1990.

Your brainbox is at risk on newer model cars if you run your engine without the battery connected. Testing an alternator is done safely with a voltmeter.

Not sure this was beneficial.

dabongys:
Also if you have an alternator that isn't charging properly, it shortens battery life. A good European or American battery could last you 3 to 4 years with a sound alternator. But a Chinese or Korean battery would be a blessing if you get 2 years. How do you test your alternator at home? Start your car, let it run for about 3 minutes, remove your battery terminals while it's still running, turn on your headlamps (full blare), put on your AC, put on your radio and wipers. If the car stutters or goes off during any of these, your alternator is definitely not strong enough.

do I need to remove both cable or just one is enough?

So Duracell dey do car battery? Neva knew. Is tiger also producing car battery @ Op?

Waspy:
Autojosh, Good write-up but Can you please shed more light on the parasitic draw/drain?

My battery seems to suffer from this.

This is AutoReportNG and not autojos.h

Thank you op, pls shed more light on parasitic draw/drain, it tends to be a serious killer, because an average auto electrician may not be able to diagnose it effectively.

dabongys:
Also if you have an alternator that isn't charging properly, it shortens battery life. A good European or American battery could last you 3 to 4 years with a sound alternator. But a Chinese or Korean battery would be a blessing if you get 2 years. How do you test your alternator at home? Start your car, let it run for about 3 minutes, remove your battery terminals while it's still running, turn on your headlamps (full blare), put on your AC, put on your radio and wipers. If the car stutters or goes off during any of these, your alternator is definitely not strong enough.

A very dangerous procedure.
U could fry Ur ECU(brain box) while doing that.

AutoReportNG2:


This is AutoReportNG and not autojos.h

Oooh ..... Sorry

from my experience, Hankook battery is one of the best batteries in the market presently.

Whr s my Car key?

GlorifiedTunde:
Can anyone advice me on the battery to go for today?

There are so many substandard batteries flooding the market these days. And considering how expensive it is now.

I need a 75amps battery.

I'm thinking of Forgo, Chrome or Solite.

forgo batt is Ok same wit hankook batt,

got both recently and it has been awesome

I happen to be dealing with battery issue on my bike that has two separate batteries.

http://naijadrives.com/forums/topic/battery-on-a-bmw-r1200rt-p/

Still doing testing to see if the batteries are bad but definitely the starter is not swinging the flywheel with its usual authority.

MutantMetahuman:
do I need to remove both cable or just one is enough?

Both.