Check battery life before cold weather arrives

FAIRFIELD — As winter is upon us, one of the most important parts of a car to be mindful of is the battery.

Dave Smithburg of Smithburg Automotive in Fairfield said his team of auto technicians begin testing batteries in September. If they’re old or have a low charge, the car’s owner needs to know right away, so they don’t get stranded somewhere with a dead battery.

“You don’t want to go into winter with a battery that’s much over 48 to 60 months old,” Smithburg said.

Smithburg said premium batteries can last up to 72 months (six years), but most have a life span of five years.

“We’ve seen some batteries make it to seven years, but that’s rare,” he said. “Panasonics that come from Japan, sometimes they’ll last seven to 10 years, but we don’t see many of them anymore because almost everything is made in America.”

Smithburg said he recommends changing batteries every 48 months. Waiting longer than those four years starts to get a bit risky.

“If you keep it into the fifth year, you’re going to have problems at some point,” he said. “Some people wait until they have problems, and others avoid the problems and spend their money a few months early.”

Smithburg said his auto technicians also check a vehicle’s antifreeze level, to ensure it has not been diluted too much with water. At the proper amount of antifreeze (about a 50-50 ratio with water), an engine should be able to start at temperatures as low as 35-40 degrees below zero.

Smithburg talked about common perceptions about what is or is not “hard on a car” during winter, such as whether or not to start a car, how long to let it warm it, and whether short trips are bad for it.

“If you don’t drive it 50 miles, you’re hard on the car,” he said. “It’s all about moisture, like moisture in your exhaust system.”

Smithburg said it takes a car about 50 miles for its exhaust system to become completely dry, where the exhaust pipe is no longer dripping.

“If you do nothing but run around town all winter, your motor is getting hot and cold, and that condenses moisture on the inside of the motor,” he said, explaining that he tells his customers to get an oil change right after winter, because of the water that seeped in during those winter months.

Smithburg said people might not realize just how harmful a lifetime of short trips is for a car. He said that a car that does nothing but in-town driving for 25,000 miles will have more problems than a car with 100,000 miles but that goes on long distance trips.

“Those short trips are a killer,” he said. “Highway miles don’t hurt anything. It’s starting and stopping that does all the harm because you’re not getting the car to fully warm up.”

On whether cars need to be warmed up in the winter before being driven, Smithburg said that’s not such a necessity now. He said that was more true of older cars, but today cars only need to be warmed up for about a minute before being driven.

“Even if it’s five below zero, a 1-2 minute warmup is fine,” he said. “If it is like it is today, 25-30 degrees, you don’t need any more warmup than on a summer day.”

Smithburg advises car owners to wash their cars during and after winter to remove the dirt, salt and brine that has entered all the little nooks and crannies. He said Iowa car owners need to be especially mindful of this because of the salt that is placed on the roads during winter, and because of the dirt that gets on the underbelly of the car from driving on gravel.

“Our cars are not made to withstand the salt and brine that we put on,” he said. “It can ruin them fast.”

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com