In this article, we’ll discuss some things that can place excessive or premature wear on your battery and we’ll also touch on where you can take your car when you’re in need of a new vehicle battery in Platteville Wisconsin.

Most people don’t pay much attention to the state of their vehicle’s battery.  Let’s face it, a car battery is something we take for granted up until the point where our car fails to start. 

 
There are a number of things that can cause your vehicle’s battery to drain. 

• • Mental lapse or kids. Everyone’s left their headlights on overnight at some point, right?   And chances are if you’re a parent, you may have encountered this scenario before:  You’ve just returned home after picking up your kid from daycare.  You park in your driveway and as you’re taking your child out of his/her car seat and they push the button for one of the internal lights embedded in the headliner (unbeknownst to you).  Why did they push the button to turn on the light?  No one really knows, but your vehicle’s battery slowly loses power throughout the night and then when you go out to start it in the morning, there’s just silence when you turn the key.  Many new cars alert you if you accidentally leave your lights on, but most cars don’t have alerts for open trunks or internal lights that were accidentally left on.

• • Accessory power drain is when certain features in your car keep running after you shut off your vehicle’s ignition. Now a certain amount of battery usage is normal after you shut off your car.  A good battery should provide enough power to keep items like your radio, your digital clock, and your vehicle alarm on long after your car has been parked and shut off.  But if there’s an electrical part that’s going bad or something’s been installed incorrectly, that may be enough to drain the battery to the point where your car won’t start.

• • A bad alternator. Over time, your vehicle’s alternator can go bad.  When this happens, it can put a drain on your battery.  In some cases, this excessive drainage of the battery can cause the battery to go bad as well.

• Time takes its toll on vehicle batteries. Over time, you car’s battery will wear down to the point where eventually it will no longer be able to hold a charge.  When this happens, you still might be able to jump start your car, but more than likely it means that it’s time for a new battery.

If you’re experiencing a drain on your battery or if you think it’s time for a new vehicle battery in Platteville, then bring your vehicle into Runde’s to have it check out by one of our trained technicians. 

Runde of Platteville’s service department offers many other services besides batter replacement.  Our staff routinely performs oil changes, tire rotations, as well as installing new brakes in vehicles.