Good Motoring
Battery for life
H.Kishie Singh

The Exide Metrix battery is priced at Rs 3,831. It has a five-year warranty

One of the most important fitments in your car is the battery. Without a battery you can’t start your car, and that can really be depressing if you are off to an important meeting, or coming home from a cocktail party late at night. So it is important to have a good, strong battery with a known brand name, and not the one locally made in Mani Majra basements. Such batteries are cheaper, no doubt, but don’t last long. They leak, corrode the surrounding area, and in the long run, are unreliable.

To overcome all these petty problems, buy a battery with a known brand name. The battery that came with the car would be a good choice. Informatively, Exide, one of the best known brands, has 80 per cent of the market share as original equipment on new cars sold in the country.

The most important point in keeping your battery reliable and long lasting is the maintenance. If you have an ordinary battery, it must be checked out every three months. Now is the good time to do it. Winter is approaching and cold temperatures are hard on a battery.

Here are some tips to ensure a long life for your battery and hassle-free driving. If you are a do-it-yourself person, there is a list of do’s and don’ts. If the level of electrolyte is low, top it up with distilled water, only distilled water. It is pure water. Nothing else will do. The battery comes with sulfuric acid, and to dilute it to 12.20 specific gravity, distilled water is used. Sulfuric acid does not evaporate, water does. Which is why the battery needs periodic topping up with distilled water.

If you have used water other than distilled, it will have impurities such as chlorine, iron and other minerals. These will stick to the plates, destroy them and no electric change will be produced. Battery dead. Should it be a battery under warranty, and you have added non-distilled water, your warranty is void.

Another very important point for batteries to operate at the optimum level is to have clean terminals. Terminals are the two lead poles that stick out of the battery top. One negative, one positive. They must be clean for the clamps to carry the electric change.

Remove the clamps, always undo the positive clamp first, then the negative clamp. Clean the terminals and the inside of the clamps with a clean, dry cloth. A roughened terminal makes for better grip and contact. To improve that contact, apply petroleum jelly to the terminals. I repeat, petroleum jelly (vaseline), and not grease.

Then slip the clamps over the terminals and tighten hard. The battery people in the market use grease. This is a strict no-no. They apply it to the terminals after tightening the clamps. It serves no purpose and is actually detrimental to the whole exercise of making a good contact.

The battery sits in the engine compartment, which gets very hot. The grease applied on the outside of the clamps hardens due to the heat, makes a layer and does not prevent corrosion. The whole purpose of the exercise of making contact and transmitting the electric change is defeated.

Opening the plugs on top of the battery should be done with care. Sulfuric acid gives off hydrogen, which is highly inflammable. So, no cigarettes, open flame or sparks near the battery. The bracket holding the battery in place should be secured firmly. A lose battery vibrates, shakes, bounces and could touch the metal of the bonnet. This could cause short circuits.

In case your battery is dead, and you have to jump start your car, follow this procedure. Fitting the cables is important. Attach the negative cable first, then the positive cable on the dead battery’s terminal, and finally clamp on the starting car’s battery. Start up the jump car, rev up the engine for a few minutes to allow a trickle charge to the dead battery. Wait a few minutes, then turn the starter. The car will start.

Never push start a car with an MPFI engine. It has a number of sensors that are activated as soon as the ignition is switched on. A dead battery won’t do that. So jump starting is the only choice.

In case all this is too confusing and hassling, there is a way out. Exide markets a battery that is sealed for life. It never needs attention or maintenance. The battery is called the Exide Metrix, and is priced at Rs 3,831. It has a five-year warranty and will be replaced free if there is any problem in the first two-and-a-half years. They also have a maintenance free battery called Max at Rs 2,863. This battery has a 36-month warranty. Keep in mind that the Matrix at the moment is available only for select cars.

Happy motoring.