How Does A Car Run Out Of Battery?

Getting drained is always exhausting as you may know from your personal experience already. But a car battery makes it worse when it drains along with your days.

Even though, driving a car actually charges its battery but you still need a bit more information about this topic. How does a car run out of battery?

It is actually possible because of so many reasons that you ignore in the first place. There are some things that you need to take care of before your car runs out of battery. So in this article, we’ll tell you more about those reasons and what you should avoid related to a car to not get your car broken in the middle of the road.

How Does A Car Run Out Of Battery?

A car battery is usually made with good material to last at least a few years. But important thing is that nothing withstands the hardships forever after so you need to take care of certain things related to a car battery.

Making sure that all of the precautions are taken good care of prolongs your battery life very much.

Leaving your car headlights turned on

Old cars have a manual switch for the headlights and that’s why when the driver turns off the car, he/she needs to turn off the headlights manually. But some modern cars also come with a very unique feature that lets you feel free to not think about the headlights.

These cars have this feature in which you don’t have to manually turn off the headlights as they are fixed with a time limit. When they reach that time limit, they turn it off when they detect that the car is also off.

If your car has this feature and it keeps the headlights on, the headlights must turn off after they reach their time limit.  Otherwise, if the headlights do not turn off, it will keep draining the battery and will reach the point where the battery dies.

Or you’d need to turn them off by yourself if you see that happening.

It can be because of the Parasitic draw

Parasitic draw doesn’t seem like a big problem to many of you but it is a pretty serious issue with battery drainage. There are multiple items of a car that get powered by the battery when the car engine is on. But even when the car engine is not turned on yet, there are still some items of the car that get power from the battery but that is a very little amount of electricity.

Those items are the clocks, radio, alarm system, GPS, and all. Although these items do not consume too much energy from the battery still they need to be powered all the time.

When your car is turned off, you will need your battery to store as much charge as possible. Even though when the car engine is running, the battery gets recharged but still it has to withhold some charge so that the cars turn on. The electrical expenses even in small amounts should be monitored and should be allowed to become big enough to cost a battery.

Mostly the radio and alarms do not use too much power because it is the door lights, interior lights, and the bad wiring connections. To minimize this electrical expense, you need to turn off the door lights and interior lights, and all the extra items in the car.

Loose or corroded battery connections

Battery draining problem is very common in car batteries and there’re a lot of reasons for it. And one of those reasons is the corrosion of the battery terminals. When you keep using the same battery for years and years without even bothering to clean it, the battery terminals get dirty.

And that dirt leads to rustiness and corrosion because of the internal hydrogen gas and the chemical reaction of the electrolytes inside. So when you do not clean the battery terminals, they start to corrode, and eventually, when the corrosion occurs, the battery starts draining faster.

Hence, regularly cleaning your battery is one of the main precautions that you need to follow.

Another reason for that is the loose connections with the battery terminals. Sometimes, a newbie or unprofessional person tries to connect the battery terminals but that doesn’t work out properly.

This is because of the loose connections because battery terminals should be tied very tightly otherwise, the battery will keep supplying the electricity and the wastage of electricity will increase.

Extreme weather outside

Extremely polar weather outside stops the battery from delivering what is required. That means if it is too hot outside or too cold then your battery will not last long enough and drain too fast. This problem is not so common in newer batteries but the old batteries get affected by the weather condition very easily. It’s that the electrolytes inside the battery don’t store enough charge in the cells and the battery dies after some time.

Similarly, when the battery is new, it can easily withstand the weather conditions at least till it wears out. It is just because of the reason that they have proper protection from the weather and their cells and terminals are fresh to work properly.

It is not so common in moderate temperatures but if you live in such a moderate temperature and your battery is still dying too fast then you must consult the professionals. You can visit any nearest auto parts store or the mechanical and electrical engineer’s garage and they will take care of the rest.

Battery not charging during the drive

When your car isn’t running, you need to take power input from the battery. But if the car is running, the battery will not power the system after turning the car on and the car will, in fact, charge the battery. The battery gets recharged by the engine because there’s an alternator in the engine that runs the serpentine belt.

So when the alternator runs, the battery gets recharged at a constant speed. But when the alternator is loosely attached to the battery or it doesn’t charge the battery, then your car may run out of battery.

If you keep driving with the alternator not charging the battery, all your car’s other electrical items will get power from the battery. But the battery isn’t getting any power as input from the alternator.

Eventually, this faulty system will make the battery die at some point and you won’t even have left enough electricity in the battery to turn the car on for the next ride. Even if you’ve been driving the same car for hours and you just turned it off for a few seconds, it won’t start.

If you face such a problem with your car, you need to just visit the professional helpers in this matter who will replace or recharge your battery and make sure that the battery keeps charging even after leaving the place.

Too many short drives don’t let the battery recharge but drain very easily

It is common to see in cars that their batteries drain a lot faster than any normal driver if they’re frequently been going on short rides. Actually what happens is that when you start your car’s engine, the ignition system takes a lot of electrical power from the battery to start the engine. This electricity gap is then filled when the car is driven long enough.

But imagine you started your car and just drove about 5 minutes and then turned off the engine for like 3-4 hours. In this case, the car battery has supplied much energy to start the engine but when the alternator was recharging the battery, the engine turned off.

So what happens is that the alternator supplies electricity to the battery of about 14-15 Volts. And this amount of electricity requires a little longer to recharge the amount of energy used in the ignition system. According to the studies, a car battery takes almost 20 minutes of continuous driving to recover the electricity used in turning the engine on.

Old battery

Older batteries are reported to have more problems than newer ones. It’s because of the condition of the battery and the ability to withstand a lot of loaded usage. An old battery usually lasts only 2-3 years while a brand-new battery can go as long as 5+ years.

But this is not the exact figure as the lifespan of your car battery depends on how you use it and where you use it. The extreme weather, frequent short drives, your driving habits, and your everyday usage routine decides how long your car battery will last.

Conclusion

How does a car run out of battery? There are a lot of reasons for a car battery to die unexpectedly. We have listed the most common reasons in this article. But if your car battery died and doesn’t last long enough even after a jumpstart, it might be time to replace it with a new one.

Getting your car battery replaced is not so expensive if you think about it in the long run because you get a lot of benefits in terms of good performance and reliability. All the old batteries eventually become unreliable at one point.

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FAQs – How does a car run out of battery?

What happens if your car runs out of battery?

First of all, after reading this article and following all the must-avoid instructions of this article, your car battery will not die. But since it is just a device and can break at any point, so you have some recovery options for that.

If you are smart enough to be fully equipped with a charger and wires, then you can charge your car battery right in the middle of nowhere. But if you don’t have the charger with you, then you are left with two more options; getting towed or trying the jumpstart method.

But the jumpstart method requires another car battery to become the donor of the charge.

How do car batteries run out?

There are a lot of very common reasons for a car battery to run out. Most of them are faulty wiring, alternator defects, the car’s electrical components left running, short rides, and extreme weather either hot or cold.

How long can a car run out of battery?

A car battery is continuously supplying current to the basic electrical system of the car. It is the radio, alarm system, GPS, etc. But even if these components are getting power from the battery, the battery will still last at least 2 weeks without needing the car to be turned on.

But this is the maximum limit for a car battery to last because according to good practices, you need to charge your battery at least once a week.