Servicing Automotive Battery

Introduction

Know the basic parts of battery

 BAJ Website | Battery structure

Task

At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:

- Know the component of batteries;

- Types of batteries; and

-  Analyzes the battery condition

Process

NATURE OF AUTOMOTIVE BATTERY

Automotive Battery- 

he word battery simply means a group similar components. In military vocabulary, a "battery" refers to a cluster of guns. In electricity, a battery is a set of voltaic cells design to provide greater voltage and/or current than is possible with one cell alone.

Your car’s battery is essential to making sure your vehicle starts every day. It ensures that the lights light up, the wipers wipe and that the music plays. Your battery is charging whenever your car is running, but it only has so much life and will eventually need to be replaced. Modern vehicle electrics rely heavily on a constant battery voltage supply and even a voltage drop of a few volts can cause warning lights to appear. AA Roadservice stats show that up to 43% of breakdowns attend are battery related, so if your car sounds like it's struggling to start, now’s the time to get it checked.

The cells in an automotive battery are contained within the same hard rubber housing, connected together with thick, lead bars instead of wires. The electrodes and electrolyte solutions for each cell are contained in separate, partitioned sections of the battery case. In large batteries, the electrodes commonly take the shape of thin metal grids or plates and are often referred to as plates instead of electrodes.

How is the Size of the Battery Relevant?

If the physical size of a cell has no impact on its voltage, then what does it affect? The answer is resistance, which in turn affects the maximum amount of current that a cell can provide. Every voltaic cell contains some amount of internal resistance due to the electrodes and the electrolyte. The larger a cell is constructed, the greater the electrode contact area with the electrolyte, and thus the less internal resistance it will have.

Although we generally consider a cell or battery in a circuit to be a perfect source of voltage (absolutely constant), the current through it dictated solely by the external resistance of the circuit to which it is attached, this is not entirely true in real life. Since every cell or battery contains some internal resistance, that resistance must affect the current in any given circuit.

Voltage of a Car Battery

The battery is one of the most important components of a car, as it’s what powers the vehicle and all the electronics inside it.

If the vehicle isn’t performing as well as it used to, then a low voltage battery may be to blame. Below, we’ll tell you what the voltage of a car battery should be.

Car battery Voltage

A fully charged battery should read 12.6 volts or above. When the engine is running, that number should be between 13.7 and 14.7 volts.

If the battery is reading at 12.4 volts, then it’s 75% charged. At 12 volts, it drops to 25%. Once the battery reads at 11.8 volts, it’s considered to be completely discharged.

 

Battery Construction

What is An Automotive Battery & How It Works? - CarBikeTech

Car and Deep Cycle Battery FAQ, Battery Manufacturers and Brand Names List, and

You may watch this video for more knowledge about the parts of automotive battery..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1scJ0KJleE

To know how the battery works, you can watch this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzU0hjggR7g

Condition of Battery

A bad battery is usually five years old and won’t accept or hold a charge. It also can’t produce adequate cranking amps. Those are the number of electric currents that a lead-acid battery at 32 degrees Fahrenheit can deliver for 30 seconds.

Essentially, it’s how much power you have to start your car in most climates. If the car battery doesn’t produce enough cranking amps, then your car may not start. At that point, you’d have to get a new battery.

There are other signs that’ll indicate a new car battery is needed. They include:

-Slow engine crank: The battery may be failing if it takes longer than normal for your car to start.

-Swelling or bloating battery case: Excessive heat can cause a battery case to swell, which decrease its life.

-Low battery fluid level: Car batteries usually have a translucent casing; so you can see the battery level fluid.

Evaluation

Identify the following;

_______1. It is the main source of the electricity of the vehicle.

_______2. It is a liquid use to by the battery.

_______3. It is also known as battery division.

_______4. What is the effect of the size of the battery.

_______5. What should a fully charge battery read?

Write an essay about the following;

1.In your own idea why is it important to know how to compute electric load in the vehicle.

2. Why are we always depend our battery on the size of the engine?  

Conclusion

Exit ticket: What is the importance of batter in our car?

Credits

Teacher Page

This WebQuest material was prepared for Autotmotive Senior High Students of CSTC, Sariaya Quezon by Prof. Daniel Llobrera