CHAPTER XX

WHAT’S THE TROUBLE WITH MY BATTERY?

With the coming of the shorter days in the year a frequent complaint to garage man and battery or electric-system expert has to do with the battery, though in nine times out of ten the man with the kick does not know that it is the battery. He will talk about the lights failing every once in a while, or the horn refusing to honk on demand. But in the majority of cases it is the battery which is at fault.

It is more difficult to keep the battery charged at that time of the year than it is in the summer. The reason is that the sun sets earlier, and just as our electric light and gas bills mount at home, because we light the lamps earlier, so it is with the auto. The driver who obeys the law uses more current.

One complaint came from an owner who was experiencing trouble with his electric plant. The lights would not work right when he was running. Starting out there was light, but after running a short time there was trouble. The lamps were fitted with dimmers and these would not work at all times; sometimes one would light and the other fail. He went to the garage repair man and then the dimmers would not work at all. He went to an expert electrician, who looked over the battery and declared it to be all right, but on the ground that he was a battery expert and not a wiring expert he could not say why the lights would not shine and the owner had visions of stern policemen and the possibility of having to face a traffic judge, and he sought advice elsewhere.

In the meantime his troubles multiplied. The horn—electric—refused to honk at times and got so that it worked only after the car had been running half an hour or so. This was the case the writer was asked to diagnose.

While trying to determine the cause, questions asked developed that the owner was employed during most of the day and only ran his car nights, except that he was making long trips on Saturday and Sunday, and ran quite late into the night both days. During the week nights his trips were short, with numerous stops. This caused frequent use of the self-starter. He found it took longer to start the car, a natural result of the cooler weather.

These facts suggested that the battery was being starved; that is, that it was not getting enough charge to keep it at its best. There seemed to be no trouble with the wiring and the owner was told he had better have the battery charged and see if his troubles did not end. They did. Then he went to school to learn some more about his car.

His trouble was that he did most of his running at night and as he carefully observed the speed laws, consequently the generator did not generate very much extra current and the battery was being recharged at a very low rate and being discharged at a rather high rate. In other words, he was chopping off both ends—burning both ends of his candle. He was using an excessive amount of current and generating less than usual because of running at night, starting often, and running slow to observe the speed laws. Up to a certain point, the amount of current which goes into the battery is increased in proportion to the speed of the car.

Generators are constructed so that they will deliver a normal charge to the battery for normal running; they must not be constructed so they will send out excessive current, or they will overcharge the battery, and that is harmful. The sun sets much earlier in winter and the cool weather makes it necessary to use the starter more. In warm weather one little kick will start the car off; in cold weather it takes often from half a minute to a minute.

Most engines now are equipped with carburetor check and priming devices to facilitate starting when the engine is cold, but even with these more current is consumed in starting the engine than when it is warm.

Then, too, the storage battery drops off in efficiency as the temperature is lowered and will not deliver so much current on a full charge as at a higher temperature. This comes at a time when there is a greater call on the battery, and where a battery fails under such circumstances, it is wise to get an occasional charge to help out the generator.

It is becoming the practice to take all current for lights, ignition, and other purposes direct from the battery, using a generator to recharge it. Inside of a year at the most the bottom of the battery will become filled with a sediment from the plates. This causes an internal short circuit and the battery will discharge itself inside instead of outside. At least once a year a battery should be taken apart and the sediment be cleaned out.

Some generators are constructed so that they can be adjusted to deliver more current on demand; that is, there is one adjustment for summer and one for winter running. Wherever it is possible to do this it should be done. Otherwise, when a battery loses voltage, it can be taken off the car and be charged. It need not be necessary to leave it for a twenty-hour charging period; if taken soon enough it can be charged in six to ten hours, or, when the car is laid up over night. Two nights would be enough at any rate.

As a matter of fact, in self-starter practice, everything is done to the storage battery that formerly was included in the list of battery “don’ts.” On account of the exceptional demands of self-starters, batteries have been improved so that they stand this to some extent; but the improvement has not kept pace with the extra demand put upon the battery.

Some of the old “don’ts” are:

You should not charge the battery at a high rate when completely discharged.

It should not be charged at a high rate when almost fully charged.

It should not be overcharged too often; occasional overcharge is good, but not too often.

It should not be discharged at a very high rate.

Most self-starters are of the two-unit type; they have a generator for recharging the battery and a motor for cranking the engine. In other self-starters the two units are combined; the same instrument, when current is fed to it from the battery, kicks off the motor and when driven by the engine acts as a generator.

When self-starters were first introduced they had all sorts of devices to offset the high-current demand and regulators and cutouts to comply with the battery-makers’ directions in recharging. These devices were complicated and could not be depended upon, and consequently were discontinued, and it was put up to the battery to stand the abnormal conditions. The battery makers have been trying to offset this and to a certain extent have succeeded, but as it is directly against former practice—for every one of the “don’ts” is disregarded in self-starter systems—the makers have not been able to rectify conditions entirely.

On account of these conditions the life of a storage battery may be considered to be about one and a half years, and if it lasts as long as that it is considered to have done its work and to be entitled to be retired.

But if your battery seems to fail with the coming of short and cool days, do not discard it until you have tried having it recharged, for possibly you have simply been overworking it and not feeding it enough current to keep it in condition.