For those of us who came from the colder part of the country, it wasn’t unusual to have a car battery that lasted 5 to 8 years. But here in the desert you may have noticed that it’s a different story. The official average car battery life in southern AZ is about 30 months according to this site and according to what we see at the shop it might be more like 24 months!
The worst part is that you never know when a battery will fail in this extreme hot climate like my daughter found out last Saturday morning at the mall. Odds are the only thing that you’ll hear are clicking sounds. At least in the cold winter up north you would feel the battery struggling for a while before failing. Still not a good enough reason to move back there… Here are a couple of useful battery tips:
- Batteries “dehydrate” just like us, fill them up if you can (some batterie are sealed) with distilled water. Here’s more info on maintaining your battery.
- Make sure that the alternator (charging system) is also checked before the battery is replaced. Nothing worse than getting stranded again because the battery is not getting recharged properly.
- Check the electrical drain to make sure it’s not running before replacing your battery, as this is another cause of a reduced life expectancy for your battery.
In conclusion, I would recommend that the next time you go to your repair shop make sure that they test your battery with a special tester that gives a life expectancy reading. It’s usually a free test and takes seconds. No one wants to get stranded on vacation in the middle of nowhere or at the mall on a Saturday morning. At Spectrum Car Care, we can check your car battery quickly and efficiently, call our shop today to speak with an expert.