How Often to Replace a Car Battery

Part of maintaining your vehicle’s health is making sure your car battery is healthy as well. Many of our North Myrtle Beach customers ask about how often to replace car battery. In general, our service team recommends that you replace it every 4-5 years depending on your Myrtle Beach driving habits. Learn more about your car battery with Bell And Bell GMC below!

How to Know If Your Car Battery Needs to Be Replaced

It’s important to know how to know if your car battery needs to be replaced. Your car will give you warnings to let you know it’s time. Some of those signs include:

• Dimming headlights
• More frequent need for engine revving or jump starts
• Takes longer to start the engine when you turn the key/push the button
• Unusual power fluctuations

How to Test a Car Battery

If you don’t want to wait until your car sends a warning signal, there are several ways to find how. You can have your car battery tested during a regular maintenance visit at Bell And Bell GMC. If you’re confident enough to do it yourself, we gave instructions on how to test a car battery:

The Headlight Test:

1. Turn on the engine, keep the car in park, and make sure the headlights are on.
2. Rev the engine and see if the headlight brightness changes.
3. If the headlights get brighter, that means the current is not strong enough to keep the lights at normal brightness while the car is idling.
4. Take your car to a service center at this point for further assessment.

Using a Digital Multimeter:

1. Set the voltmeter to 20 DC volts.
2. Under the hood, touch the negative terminal (black) with the negative meter probe (also black).
3. Touch the positive terminal (red) with the positive meter probe (also red)
4. Have a friend turn on the headlights and check the voltmeter reading.
5. At 80℉, 12.5 volts or higher means your battery is fully charged. 12.3 volts means it’s at about 75% charged.11.8 volts or lower means you have 25% or less charge.

How Much is a Replacement Car Battery?

So, how much is a replacement car battery? Most car battery prices lie between $75 and $120. If you have a premium battery, it could cost upwards of $200. Do you have a hybrid vehicle? Since this battery has a much more complex job, they are more expensive, ranging from $1,000 to $6,000. The benefit of this engine is that it doesn’t require as much fossil fuel, so you save plenty of money while driving through Conway.

Visit Bell And Bell GMC for all of your Service Needs!

Do you need your car battery replaced or is your car due for a general service near Myrtle Beach? Schedule an appointment with us and we’ll make sure you have a healthy car. Feel free to contact our service department if you have any questions!