Is Your Car Battery Dead?

Did your car battery give up the ghost late at noon or sometime in the dead of the night? We will show you how to resuscitate the life in that dead battery as known by your favorite automotive team at Firkins but first let’s find out how to know if your car battery has given up the ghost.

How to Know if your Car Battery is Dead

Generally, you know that your car battery is dead if your ignition cannot call your car’s engine into motion when you twist/turn your key in the ignition or press the auto start button. However, there are other things to look at:

• If the starter is faulty, then your car battery is more dead than it is alive.
• When the terminals of your car’s battery are dirty and they are in need of cleaning.

What to do if your Car Battery is Certified Dead

If your car battery has been certified dead, that is definitely sad but before you go online or to a physical auto store to shell out hundreds of dollars for a new battery experience, there are nine steps you can take before calling it done on your dead car battery. Let’s take these steps one at a time:

• Ask for vehicular help – your neighbor’s car or your friend’s could be used, the good Samaritan’s car as well (just about anyone who can loan you their car for a good ol’ jumpstart process which should not take long).
• Get both cars as close to each other as possible, just enough for the leads to come in contact with both batteries.
• Pop both hoods.
• Working with both leads, colored red and black, affix the red lead to the positive terminal and the black lead to the negative terminal of the car with the functional battery.
• Locate the red terminal on your car with the dead battery and affix the red lead; for the other end of the black lead, affix it to the metal mounts of your car’s engine.
• Get the car with the functional battery running by starting the car.
• Deploy a “5 minutes wait period” before starting your car. If your car fails to get started, repeat the “5 minutes wait period” until it starts up.
• By this time, your car should be running so what you need do now detach the leads from both vehicles.
• Either drive or idle away your car for the next half hour to ensure a full charge of the battery.

Never mind these steps if you prefer having a professional deal with your car issues instead of borrowing cars and going the DIY way. We are at your beck and call at 2700 1st St (and 2900 1st St), Bradenton, FL 34208. Also, our Service Team is willing and able to help you on the phone: 941-216-7959 and 941-260-0562.