Here's How To Know If You Need A New Car Battery Or Just A Jump Start
Some things to think about to determine if your battery is bad or just needs a charge can be tricky. Batteries will age just like any other living thing, and as such, a battery is only good for a certain amount of time. On average, car batteries need to be replaced every three-to-five years. according to AAA. If yours is on the latter end of the scale, then the battery could be bad. But there are other ways to test this before you ask your neighbor for a jump start (and if you don't have any neighbors, there are a couple of ways to charge your battery without a donor car).
Read more: These Are The Worst Transmission Recalls Of The Last 5 Years
Is My Car Battery Dead?
The older a car battery is, the more likely you'll see some of these warning signs. If the headlights are dim, the motor cranks slowly, the battery smells like rotten eggs, or the battery is swollen, then it's already on its way down hill. If you manage to get the car started with a jump start, only to have it die immediately after, you're just prolonging the inevitable. Moreover, if you were driving and your car battery suddenly dies, then it's kaput, and a jump start won't save it.
Before you panic, there are a few things to check. If your car battery isn't that old, there could be a problem with the car's alternator. As you drive, the alternator is responsible for recharging the battery. Check with a mechanic to see if this is the issue and if the alternator needs to be replaced. Corrosion between the battery terminals can also reduce the flow of power. You can clean this with a stiff-bristle brush. What's the weather like where you live? Cold weather can make it tough for a battery to start up, draining it quicker. If it's too hot, then the water in your battery can evaporate and cause damage to it over time. You may want to invest in a heat shield.
Still unsure? Get yourself a multimeter. They're cheap, and you can test your car battery in minutes. Set the multimeter to 15-20 volts and hook it up to the battery terminals. Your owner's manual can tell you what the proper voltage should be, but on average, anything below 12.6 volts is a dead battery. If you don't see any of the above warning signs, then by all means, try to jump start that sucker.
Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox...
Read the original article on Jalopnik.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fast Company
24 minutes ago
- Fast Company
The EPA plans to block limits on vehicle emissions. Will that stop the shift to EVs?
IMPACT The Environmental Protection Agency is looking to rescind the 'endangerment finding,' which says greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health. Customers have embraced electric vehicles; policy changes may decrease that interest but will not eliminate it. [Photo: Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images] BY The U.S. government is in full retreat from its efforts to make vehicles more fuel-efficient, which it has been waging, along with state governments, since the 1970s. The latest move came on July 29, 2025, when the Environmental Protection Agency said it planned to rescind its landmark 2009 decision, known as the ' endangerment finding,' that greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health and welfare. If that stands up in court and is not overruled by Congress, it would undo a key part of the long-standing effort to limit greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. As a scholar of how vehicle emissions contribute to climate change, I know that the science behind the endangerment finding hasn't changed. If anything, the evidence has grown that greenhouse gas emissions are warming the planet and threatening people's health and safety. Heat waves, flooding, sea-level rise and wildfires have only worsened in the decade and a half since the EPA's ruling. Regulations over the years have cut emissions from power generation, leaving transportation as the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. The scientific community agrees that vehicle emissions are harmful and should be regulated. The public also agrees, and has indicated strong preferences for cars that pollute less, including both more efficient gas-burning vehicles and electric-powered ones. Consumers have also been drawn to electric vehicles thanks to other benefits such as performance, operation cost and innovative technologies. That is why I believe the EPA's move will not stop the public and commercial transition to electric vehicles, but it will make that shift harder, slower and more expensive for everyone. Putting carmakers in a bind The most recent EPA rule about vehicle emissions was finalized in 2024. It set emissions limits that can realistically only be met by a large-scale shift to electric vehicles. Over the past decade and a half, automakers have been building up their capability to produce electric vehicles to meet these fleet requirements, and a combination of regulations such as California's zero-emission-vehicle requirements have worked together to ensure customers can get their hands on EVs. The zero-emission-vehicle rules require automakers to produce EVs for the California market, which in turn make it easier for the companies to meet their efficiency and emissions targets from the federal government. These collectively pressure automakers to provide a steady supply of electric vehicles to consumers. The new EPA move would undo the 2024 EPA vehicle-emissions rule and other federal regulations that also limit emissions from vehicles, such as the heavy-duty vehicle emissions rule. The possibility of a regulatory reversal puts automakers into a state of uncertainty. Legal challenges to the EPA's shift are all but guaranteed, and the court process could take years. For companies making decade-long investment decisions, regulatory stability matters more than short-term politics. Disrupting that stability undermines business planning, erodes investor confidence and sends conflicting signals to consumers and suppliers alike. A slower roll The Trump administration has taken other steps to make electric vehicles less attractive to carmakers and consumers. The White House has already suspended key provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act that provided tax credits for purchasing EVs and halted a US$5 billion investment in a nationwide network of charging stations. And Congress has retracted the federal waiver that allowed California to set its own, stricter emissions limits. In combination, these policies make it hard to buy and drive electric vehicles: Fewer, or no, financial incentives for consumers make the purchases more expensive, and fewer charging stations make travel planning more challenging. Overturning the EPA's 2009 endangerment finding would remove the legal basis for regulating climate pollution from vehicles altogether. But U.S. consumer interest in electric vehicles has been growing, and automakers have already made massive investments to produce electric vehicles and their associated components in the U.S. – such as Hyundai's EV factory in Georgia and Volkswagen's Battery Engineering Lab in Tennessee. Global markets, especially in Europe and China, are also moving decisively toward electrifying large proportions of the vehicles on the road. This move is helped in no small part due to aggressive regulation by their respective governments. The results speak for themselves: Sales of EVs in both the European Union and China have been growing rapidly. But the pace of change matters. A slower rollout of clean vehicles means more cumulative emissions, more climate damage and more harm to public health. The EPA's proposal seeks to slow the shift to electric vehicles, removing incentives and raising costs – even though the market has shown that cleaner vehicles are viable, the public has shown interest, and the science has never been clearer. But even such a major policy change can't stop the momentum of those trends. Alan Jenn is an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, at the University of California, Davis. The early-rate deadline for Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies Awards is Friday, September 5, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today.
Bloomberg
25 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Hertz Shares Jump on Rental Company's Better-Than-Expected Loss
Hertz Global Holdings Inc. shares surged after the company's second-quarter loss improved from a year ago and beat Wall Street's expectations, a boon for management's effort to rejuvenate the business. The car rental company has been rotating older models out of its fleet and buying new vehicles in the first half of the year to get ahead anticipated higher costs from the Trump Administration's tariffs on imported models and lower depreciation expense. Hertz also reduced the size of its fleet to match its rental capacity with travel demand.
Wall Street Journal
an hour ago
- Wall Street Journal
The Minimum Car Insurance Requirements by State
Coverage types included in minimum car insurance coverage While minimum car insurance requirements vary across states, certain coverage types are often essential. Liability insurance Auto liability insurance pays when you or another driver of your vehicle cause injuries and property damage to others in an accident. Expenses that will be covered include hospital bills, physical therapy, medication, wages lost due to the injuries, and pain and suffering. Your policy's liability limits—meaning the maximum payments from insurance—are often shown as three numbers, such as 100/300/100. This translates to: Up to $100,000 for bodily injury per person Up to $300,000 for bodily injury per accident Up to $100,000 for property damage per accident Uninsured motorist insurance If you're hit by an uninsured driver, your uninsured motorist (UM) coverage can pay for injury-related expenses. In some states you can also buy uninsured motorist property damage coverage (UMPD) to pay for damage to your vehicle or other property. Uninsured motorist insurance can pay for costs such as: Your medical bills Your lost wages due to accident injuries Services you can no longer perform, such as house cleaning and child care Your pain and suffering Medical equipment such as a wheelchair Costs to retrofit your house or vehicle for a wheelchair Funeral expenses Survivors' benefits to help replace your income You can also generally make a claim on your UM coverage if you're a pedestrian and hit by an uninsured driver, or if your vehicle is damaged in a hit-and-run.
