Your vehicle and the all-important battery

While older automobiles may need electricity just to start the engine and ignite the air-fuel mixture in the combustion chamber, you can even remove the battery once the engine has been started and it will keep running.

However, batteries today have been developed to play a bigger role, with sizes becoming smaller while being able to store more charge. There are also maintenance-free batteries so that you don’t have to keep checking the distilled water level.

Although the battery is an important component in the vehicle, engineers give little importance to the development of battery-checking devices. These days it is very difficult to find a new vehicle that comes with a volt meter or amp gauge as standard equipment as in luxury cars and sports cars of yesteryear.

Most passenger cars sold in Thailand are automatics, which means that you can’t push-start them. It is also difficult to push-start even cars with manual gearboxes these days.

However, auto manufacturers do not offer any equipment for emergency starts, and the owner has to purchase them himself. Meanwhile, auto-makers provide many tools that are of no use to the owner (except for the jack and spanner).

What auto companies should provide in the tool box is a jump-start cable, with the right cable size for each vehicle. They usually let the car owner purchase the cables but forget that if the cables are of the wrong size or have poor quality alligator clips, damage could be done. This could cause the fuse to be blown or the ECU to be damaged.

Having spoken about jumper cables, let me talk about jump-starting a car as well. Although it may seem like an easy thing to do as you just have to connect the battery terminals, there are many safety precautions you must be aware of.

First of all, the vehicle that is used to assist must be in good condition and the battery must be larger (or at least of the same capacity) as the car suffering from a low battery.

For example, if you have a pickup truck with a 110-amp battery that is down, and if you use a small compact car with a 35-amp battery to help, then the battery of the smaller car could be drained. So apart from not being able to help the pickup truck, the car’s battery will also go dead.

After making sure that the battery size is compatible, drive the assisting car as close to the other vehicle as possible so that there is enough slack in the cable when connected. If not, the clips could fall off when the engine starts or due to vibration. Sometimes the location where the car with the dead battery is parked may be a little difficult for connecting the cables, so be careful here.

Certain theories suggest that the assisting vehicle should switch off its engine during the process, but I would like you to keep the engine running all the time to allow the alternator to generate electricity back to the battery. But you must make sure that the vehicles are parked properly and safely, and the clips must be firmly in place on the battery terminals.

The jumper cables come in two colours – red and black. Red is for the positive terminals and black is for negative.

The sequence is as follows: 1. clip the red cable to the positive terminal of the dead vehicle; 2. clip the other end of the red cable to the positive end of the assisting car; 3. clip the black cable to the negative terminal of the dead car; 4. clip the black cable to the negative terminal of the assisting car.

Then rev up the engine of the assisting car and maintain it at 1,200-1,500rpm in order to generate more current. For the dead car, turn the key to the “on” position and leave it there for about 10 seconds before attempting to start the engine.

Once the engine starts, rev up to 1,500rpm and leave it there for about 2-3 minutes (during this time you can remove the jumper cables).

This can also be done in sequence, starting with removing the red cable at the positive end of the assisting car, followed by the other end of the red cable on the positive terminal of the dead car. Follow this up by removing the black cable, first from the assisting car and then from the dead vehicle.

Bear in mind that this is just a temporary relief for you to get the car to the garage and check what is wrong with the battery.

Have a mechanic check the battery – even if you have a maintenance-free type – as well as related components such as the alternator.

Usually, when a battery starts to wear out, you can easily notice this as the starter won’t spin as quickly. The engine will start, but with a little more effort. Then it becomes more and more difficult as the battery power dies out.