How To Prepare Your Car Battery For Winter

It's now that time of year again. We have to get up in the morning from our nice warm bed and walk out into freezing temperatures. It only makes matters worse when you turn the key of your car only to hear click click........ You have a dead car battery. If you have a weak battery the freezing weather will certainly finish it off. I will go over a few methods that will keep this from happening to you.

Auto battery manufacturers use the term maintenance free very loosely. The steps needed to maintain a good battery are simple, but necessary to keep you from finding yourself stranded.

The first thing you should do is to remove the battery cables starting with the negative. Clean the cable ends and battery terminals with a wire brush. Then carefully replace the cables, positive first.

Next you will need to check the battery acid levels. Just take a flat head screwdriver and gently pop the cell tops off. If not all cells are full you can fill them with regular tap water.

Once you have made sure everything is good, go down to your local parts store and have them to perform a battery load test. This will let you know if your battery is starting to show signs of weakening

Pick up a trickle cell battery charger at your local parts store or autobarn.com. This is just a mini battery charger that you can place on your battery overnight to give it an extra boost while it is setting.

I hope this will save you from having a cold hard morning this winter.