Faulty alternators and components that secretly drain your battery are often culprits when a car won’t start in the morning. Check that your car’s electrical system is in good working order.While there can be fuel efficiency improvements from this system, it can also take its toll on your battery. Depending on the age of your car, you could find that you’re asking more of the battery than you think. Cars fitted with ‘stop-start’ technology require special batteries. Drawing current from the battery while the car’s alternator isn’t charging it could have a life-limiting effect, so try not to use the infotainment system, the climate control or the lights while parked up. Avoid using your car’s electronics while the engine is off.

A wobbly battery could end up being internally damaged by vibrations and impacts, or could work itself loose from its mountings. There are products available that help clear corrosion from a battery, though home-made alternatives are significantly cheaper. While you’re under the bonnet, ensure the battery is tightly fixed in place. One major battery-killer is corrosion - the metallic gunk that builds up around the areas where the terminals and the cables meet. Visually inspect the battery regularly.You also run the risk of depleting the battery so much that it doesn’t have enough charge to start the engine - while the battery may be ostensibly healthy, you could find yourself needing a jump start to get going again.Obviously if you only ever use your car to commute ten miles a day, there’s not a lot you can do about this - you’ll just have to accept that you’ll need to replace your car battery sooner than someone who mainly undertakes long motorway journeys. By depleting the battery and not fully charging it up again, you risk shortening its life. But like almost every vehicle component, its lifespan will depend mostly on maintenance and sympathetic use. Other factors that determine battery life include the prevailing temperature, how much physical stress you put on it, and how demanding your car’s extra electronic features are. If you constantly make small journeys, the battery will deteriorate faster and need replacing sooner than if you regularly travel longer distances. This requires the battery to effectively empty itself in one go, before being slowly charged back up again by the engine. Your car’s battery is used to start the engine when you turn the key. Depending on the types of journey you tend to take your car on, you could find your battery starting to show signs of age at three years, and become practically unusable after four. How long should a battery last?Ī good ballpark figure for car battery life is five years, but there are a number of reasons why you might find yourself replacing your battery much sooner. And with technology placing increasing pressure on modern cars' electrical systems, batteries – which have barely changed in the history of the automobile – seem to be dying young. But of all the perishable components on our cars, we probably neglect batteries the most. Battery problems account for over two thirds of recovery call-outs in the UK, writes Ed Wiseman.

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