How Long Does a Car Battery Last Without Driving? | Guide for Beginners
Who wants to see a flat battery? A car will lose its energy if you do not drive it for a long time. A test shows every car will lose its power after two weeks when you won't recharge for a while. Thus, never keep your car idle to see how long does a car battery last without driving. Because, the more days you will keep it idle the less it will be proactive in coming days.
The life of a car battery directly relates to the owner's maintenance. Again, it drops its ability due to many reasons. Our nugget of advice will help you to save your car battery life or even if you are facing hard-time, let's face off and read this write-up.
How long does a car battery last without driving?
A car responds well when you regularly charge it up; turns out, it keeps every accessory alive. Understanding your car battery means you know how to cater it well.
The battery will activate the engine as it ignites just right after inserting the key. So what happens when you find a flat battery?
Feeding your car battery is not only the way to manage. A parking car in the garage requires you to fire up for 15 minutes at least once in a week. This will help your car alternator to recharge the battery.
The best car battery even loses its youth when you don't take the maintenance seriously. Because, a fresh battery even loses its performance up to 2% every month.
A poor battery condition often takes you to awkward situations. For that, we need to go for bad car battery exchange very soon.
The bad impact for not taking care of the car battery seriously
The performance of a car never drops all of a sudden. It begins from the very first day of your ignorance and they would be following:
- Different cars come with different voltages. For example, if you have a 12 volt car battery for the gasoline engine then don't let it drop below 10V. Here in this case, you won't kick-start it smoothly.
- Number 2 condition is with the charge up meter. Thankfully, your car tells you how much you charge up the battery. Regular full charging conditions will save the guts.
- We sometimes keep our car idle for months. It's okay not to drive regularly but it's not okay to unplug the battery connection with the systems. As a result, the battery drains fast and loses its life-time in just 6 months.
- Who knows climate may affect a battery? Don't expose your car to a harsh cold atmosphere. This is the worst maintenance ever as it will survive only 2 months.
What should you do if your car battery is flat?
The flat battery would have many conditions. Flat but rechargeable means it's easy to revive it soon. You should recharge it quickly with the battery charger. If you are on the road and find flat battery, you need to jump start with jumper cable. For this, you need support from another car and the knowledge to jump start a vehicle. It is very efficient and quick method.
Thus, you have to do the below needful:
- Your battery died badly, but a full-time recharge will fix it.
- Check your charging system, to find out whether it is faulty or not.
- Inspect your engine and see it works just fine.
- Learn how to revive the dying battery.
When to replace the battery
The most probable issues are given below:
- Your battery life-cycle is on the final stage.
- The battery won't take enough charge or it takes power but die very soon.
When we take care of our batteries accordingly then we seldom find it die before 5 years, and some others even last longer.
However, some riders need to replace it after a year or even close. What would be the consequences? We get to see some aspects with batteries which are not older than 5 years so let's see them:
- Owner didn't charge the battery from time to time so it slowly dies before the expectation.
- The battery often drains so fast either it remains idle without unplugging or it has other faults.
- The car travels frequently but the journeys were short and you didn't replenish it.
Other Problems May Face:
- Owners of the cars take frequent but very short trips somewhat like stop and start journeys. The headlights are powerful and alone consume power while you are not driving.
- Some components are left faulty and they make trouble with the battery now.
- Car's charging system has an error.
Unspecified Spectrum: A battery fails to survive for many reasons and a driver may not understand it all the time. For example, the driver was whimsical to take care of it during extreme temperature, the overcharging issue, and the engine is faulty.
How to take care of the car battery?
Who doesn't want to get rid of a flat battery? Thankfully, you can avoid it just by following a few hacks shown below:
1. Take your car for a regular ride:
You must have pointed out this issue earlier as we said it before. So even though you don't want to ride too often, make sure to run it once a week for half an hour.
2. Focus on the charging system:
A good EV Charger or charging system is a prerequisite to keep your battery healthy. Immediately, change it once you get to see it's faulty. Glad to know, nowadays, some charging system comes with AI based technology so it can understand when to disconnect the electrical supply when it is overloaded.
3. Don't put it in open space for long-time:
While doing some mechanical stuff, we often open up the battery box. However, we often leave it in an open space, and it turns out it badly reacts with the unfriendly environment. Moreover, if you are going to put it on a surface, make sure you won't put it on a concrete surface. We've already explained how concrete surface eats up the battery power faster than normal. So better off, you will keep a cardboard underneath of it.
4. Use a solar charger:
When you will keep an alternative charger, then you will never run out of power as the battery will take charge under every possible condition. However, a solar charger won't charge your flat battery just like the regular one.
5. Switch off every components of your car:
Why do you let the stereo, windscreen wipers, heaters and other accessories live when you are about to park the car? So, every time turn them off and let your battery breathe more.
6. Remove and safely store the battery without letting it idle for months:
We often go on vacation for even months or we are just sort of pissed off as our car is pretty old or something like that. Well, you can do it but there is no point to let the battery die soon. Therefore, safely remove your car battery and store it.
Wrapping UP
Hopefully, by this time you have understood how long does a car battery lasts without driving.
First off, different Volts of car batteries have different life-time. Aside from it, the general rule is the more you will use it the earlier it will die or get discharged.
However, some riders face issues with the fast battery drainage. We found drivers who often do not refill the charge tend to face it more of them do not even connect electricity within 2 weeks and do not drive for more than 2 weeks.
Another variable is with the age of batteries, so an old one easily gets exhausted and becomes flat compared to a new or fresh one.