No driver likes hearing the sound of silence caused by a dead battery when you turn the key. It’s guaranteed that your battery will die just when you need your car. Fortunately, your Toyota dealer is here to help you when you need a new car battery. To prevent you from being stuck with a dead battery, we’d like you to know some of the signs that your battery is failing and needs to be replaced.
Do You Need a New Car Battery From Your Toyota Dealer?
Corrosion
Your battery is filled with chemicals, and one of these is sulfuric acid. This chemical is essential for the complex chemical reactions necessary to allow your battery to store electricity and recharge. When your battery is new, this chemical is safely shielded from the outside world by a thick plastic battery casing. The sulfuric acid in your battery will break down over time, and when this happens, the reaction creates hydrogen gas.
This gas can escape from the battery casing, and when it does, it mixes with other chemicals and forms hydrogen sulfide. This substance crystallizes around the positive and negative battery terminals and begins to corrode them. It’s possible to temporarily clean the corrosion with chemicals, but once corrosion has started it will return. Your battery will need to be replaced, as it can’t be repaired.
Bad Alternator
The alternator is responsible for charging your battery. When your engine starts, the alternator will begin recharging the battery energy used to start the engine. The alternator will charge at full power for five minutes, and then it will switch to recharging at 10% of your battery’s capacity. The reduction in charging is to prevent overstraining the alternator.
An aging alternator has difficulty in providing the electrical power it once did. The reduced power supply affects all your car’s electrical systems. It also reduces the amount of electricity available to recharge your battery. If the energy used by your battery isn’t completely replaced, it will start to get weaker due to a lack of power. Eventually, your battery will die due to a lack of recharging.
Battery Light Comes On
The battery-shaped light on your dash represents your Toyota’s electrical system. This light is connected to a variety of sensors that monitor your electrical system, including the battery and the alternator. These sensors are capable of detecting minute changes in the behavior of the components they’re connected to. If a problem is identified with a component, a signal will be sent to your computer, and the light will come on.
As we’ve seen, when your battery ages, it becomes more difficult to sustain a charge and recharge completely. These problems will be noticed by one of the sensors, and they will alert your car’s computer. Our technicians will check the error code displayed by your Toyota’s computer, and we will repair the problem.
If your battery isn’t working as well as it should, call our service department right away at Rick McGill’s Airport Toyota.
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