Five battery-draining causes you may not know about

It’s an hour drive to work. You’re already up and ready as you head to the garage and sit on the driver’s seat. However, your car won’t start. Why? It’s simply because the battery has been drained.

Definitely, a drained battery is one of the main headaches of drivers along with a busted engine and flat tires. When your car’s battery is drained, there is simply not enough power to start the engine, and you would be stalled where you are until you could connect to a charge or could employ a good jumpstart.

So, what causes a battery to be drained empty? Here are a number of them.

Powered units and devices unintentionally left turned on

Some units and devices installed on your car do drain your battery when they are left turned on. If you failed to turn off your headlight or failed to completely close your car’s trunk or glove box, they could suck out energy from your battery.

The same goes for some electronic accessories that derive their power from the battery. It is better to always check whether things that needed to be turned off have been switched off.

Electronic leeches

Yes, there are components and devices in your vehicle that parasitically drain your battery. Even though the car key is already turned off, these components and devices continue to operate and run, thus draining some energy from the battery.

However, this is normal, as these devices – security alarms, radio presets, clock and stereos – need to remain operational at all times.

Typically, the leech is kept to a minimum and won’t completely drain the battery. But when an electric issue occurs, the leech could drain more energy than usual and thereby deplete the battery.

Charging Issue

Vehicles with charging issues or problem usually result to a battery drain that is faster than usual. At the same time, the battery is not being recharged while the vehicle is on the move.

This means that the amount of energy drained from the battery is higher than usual, and the recharging system can’t cope with it, leading to a depleted battery. This issue usually leads to a stalled car.

Bad alternator diode

There are times that even though the electrical leech is at normal levels, the battery still gets depleted. This is because of a defect in the car’s alternator, which works to recharge the battery while powering some electrical systems in the.

Sometimes, the alternator would have a bad diode, which could cause the electrical circuit to charge even though the engine is shut off.

Old battery

Simply put, old batteries aren’t capable of holding a charge. You should always take note of the age of your battery, as units that are between four and five years old have to be replaced with a new one.