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Battery tips: How to keep going

<b>GOOD IDEA: </b>   Owners are urged to get their vehicle's battery tested before the icy cold of winter.   <em>Image: Quickpic </em>
<b>GOOD IDEA: </b> Owners are urged to get their vehicle's battery tested before the icy cold of winter. <em>Image: Quickpic </em>

Days are getting shorter, temperatures are falling  - it's time to give your car's battery a pre-winter once over. 

Tiger Wheels' Joe du Plooy, who sent Wheels24 the "check it!" suggestion, said: "Much like humans, car batteries aren't especially enthusiastic about cold mornings. The exercise is often accompanied by much groaning and, if you're lucky after a few failed attempts, a running engine.

"If you've ever been stranded with a dead car battery you'll need no encouragement to have your battery tested.

ALLOW THE RECHARGE

It bears mentioning that even a relatively new car battery can die prematurely if you don't maintain it. Here are some guidelines for how...

  • If your car is to be parked for some time disconnect the battery and attach it to a trickle charger or arrange to have someone come over regularly to start and run your car for several minutes at a time.

  • Some vehicle tracking devices draw power from your car battery and will drain it completely after  time.

  • Avoid short trips. Those of less than 20 minutes don't give your battery enough charge time to recover from the effort of starting the engine.

  • Garage your car to protect the battery from extreme cold which shortens its life.


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