If your car is having car battery issues, this can cause problems with the rest of your car. A bad battery means problems with your ignition, for one, because your car is dependent on the battery’s power. It is very important to test your car regularly at your Utah auto repair shop.

You test your car’s battery performance by looking at the voltage output. The voltage output can tell you how healthy your battery is. It is good to check what the output voltage is so you have a general clue of whether or not your battery has an issue or not.

The best option is for your Utah auto repair shop to do the testing. Professionals can quickly ascertain the health of your car’s battery. However, if you are good with cars you can try to do it on your own as well.

If you are going to try to test the battery out on your own it is best to look at your car manual. Your manual will be able to give you instructions with how to disconnect the battery form the connections to the car. When you are doing this be sure to attach a 9V alkaline battery to the car PCM. Otherwise, the programmed settings you have will be erased.

Have a voltmeter that has the vials set between the 0-50 ranges. Take the positive red lead and connect it to the positive battery terminal. The black lead is attached to the negative terminal. If the vial range is between 12.6 and 12.8 this is ideal.

When a range is below 10 V that means there is a problem with your battery charge. You can try to charge the battery on your own. Reconnect the battery to the car and turn it on. Leave it on idle for a few minutes, and then check the voltage again. If the reading is above 10 V that means that the battery is doing its job correctly, and below 10 V means it is not .

If the reading is below 10 V you need to find out what is causing the battery to not charge correctly. There may be other problems affecting the battery that are making the voltage reading so low. Look at the battery fluid levels.

You can check the levels by disconnecting the battery and looking under the battery cover. When they have the right level of battery fluid the problem could be caused by the alternator. Professional Utah auto repair experts should always look at alternator problems.