Almost every vehicle on the road has a 12V battery. This battery is primarily used for starting gasoline engines, and in hybrids it is used for powering the electronics (fuel injection, climate control, lights, etc…). In gasoline engines it needs to be capable of producing several hundred Amps at startup. Once the vehicle has started the alternator will take over the job of providing electricity to needed components of the car. When a vehicle has troubles starting one indication that points to it being a battery issue, would be a series of rapid fire clicks that make the lights on the dash flicker. One thing to keep in mind is that it requires much more Amps to start an engine, versus running the dash light. Just because the dash lights are on, does not indicate the battery is capable of starting the vehicle. For hybrid vehicles, a failing 12V battery can cause the vehicle to not go into “ready mode” or may cause trouble codes in various systems. Batteries typically have a lifespan of 3-5 years on average, and will many times have a date on the top of the battery. There are many ways to test a battery. Here at the shop we use two ways predominantly, one is an impedance test, and the other is a load test. At every oil change we always check the battery against its rated capacity.
