Battery replacement in Coburg North
A slow crank on a cold morning is the warning. We test the battery and the charging system, then fit the right one rather than the nearest one.
Batteries almost never fail politely. They cope all summer, then the first genuinely cold Melbourne morning asks for more current than they have left and the car will not start at all.
A flat battery is also a symptom sometimes. If the alternator is not charging properly, or something in the car is drawing current overnight, a brand new battery just goes flat as well. That is why the test comes before the sale.
Signs the battery is on the way out
- The starter turns over slowly before it catches
- Headlights dim noticeably at idle
- The car needs a jump start more than once
- Stop start has quietly stopped working
- Dash warnings that appear at start up then clear
- Corrosion built up around the terminals
- The battery has never been tested and nobody knows how old it is
Test before you buy
Load test the battery
State of charge and its ability to hold up under load, so we know whether it is flat or finished.
Check the charging side
Alternator output at idle and under electrical load, plus the belt driving it. A battery that keeps dying is often not the battery.
Look for a drain
If the car goes flat while it sits, we measure what is still drawing current after the car should have gone to sleep.
Fit and register
Correct type and terminal layout, clamped down properly, terminals cleaned, and the new battery registered to the car where the charging system expects it.
Not every battery is the same battery
Modern cars are fussier than they used to be. A car with idle stop start needs an AGM or enhanced flooded battery, because an ordinary one will not survive the number of engine restarts it is asked to make and fails early.
Many European cars also expect the new battery to be registered to the body control module. Skip that step and the car keeps charging as though the old tired battery is still fitted, which shortens the life of the new one.
Physical fit matters too: the case size, the hold down, which terminal sits where, and the cold cranking current the engine needs. We match all of it to your car rather than to what is nearest on the shelf.
What kills batteries early
Short trips are the main culprit. Starting an engine takes a large slug of current, and a five minute drive to the shops does not put it back, so the battery lives in a permanently half charged state and ages faster.
Heat is the other one. Summers under the bonnet do the damage, and the following winter is simply when you find out about it. A car parked for weeks at a time also drains slowly through the alarm and the modules that never fully shut down.
What it costs
What the car is built to take sets the price. An ordinary flooded battery is one thing; an AGM for a stop start car, registered to the body control module afterwards, is another. Call 03 7054 8232 with the make, model and year and we will tell you what fits and what it costs, including registering it where that is needed.