You may have old car batteries lying around in your garage. It’s great if you haven’t disposed of them yet. You can start an easy restoration project with these batteries.
We would like to share with you some steps on how to recondition car batteries today! If you can do this successfully, you will have car batteries that can be functional again and you won’t be needing to buy new units any time soon.
You will save a lot of money while also helping the environment by not contributing to the growing pollution. Let’s take a look at when restoring your battery is a good idea.
Contents
How to Know It’s Time to Restore Your Battery
Car batteries are the kind that has lead-acid cores. Being lead-acid batteries, they are vulnerable to sulfation after some time. Sulfation happens when there is a buildup of sulfur on the battery’s lead plates. These plates are inside the casing of the battery.
Hopefully, your batteries don’t have a lot of sulfur corrosion so that they can still be restored. There are some batteries that are in a really bad shape that there is not much hope for restoration.
But you can still try to restore your battery so you can see if its performance will improve. It is still worth a shot, and it won’t cost you a lot of money. In fact, you will save money from it because you won’t have to buy a new one.
Car Battery Can’t Start Your Car Anymore
Before anything else, check your car battery for any physical defects such as melted housing, burnt connectors, and warped sides. If there are any of these damages, do not attempt to fix it. It is best to get a new battery. However, if there are no signs of damage, it is a go signal for you to restore it.
Car Battery is Old
Many car batteries can last for years. On average, they can serve you for a good four years. If your car battery is already older than four years and you start to notice that it is beginning to have some issues with starting your car even though you charge it regularly, you should try restoring it. But before that, we need you to read our article on average life car battery we have written for you!
Low Voltage
Check also the voltage of your battery using a voltmeter. If you see that the battery’s charge has fallen below 12v, then it may be suffering from corrosion. This car battery can still be restored. If this is the case for your car batteries, it’s time to prepare your tools and start a restoration project.
23 Steps of Restoring a Car Battery
For this restoration project, here is a list of the things that you will need. Prepare them before doing anything so that they are within your reach when you need them.
● Distilled water
● Baking soda
● Epsom salt
● Power drill
● Storage container (non-metallic)
● Storage funnel (non-metallic)
● Battery reconditioning charger
● Plastic replacement plugs
● Gloves
● Safety goggles
● Wrench
Once you have everything prepared, it is time to begin the process of reconditioning your car battery. Here are the steps.
1. Turn off your car and then leave your battery to cool for an hour.
2. Check to see if your battery is cool by opening the car hood.
3. Using your wrench, disconnect the battery’s negative cable first and then the positive one.
4. When handling your wrench, be mindful not to touch it on to the metal parts of the car, or you may experience a jolt of electricity.
5. Remove the car battery from the vehicle carefully.
6. Remove the cell caps from your car battery.
7. Look for the sealed cell’s location inside the battery’s casing. It has visible indications.
8. Wear your safety goggles and then drill into it with the use of your power drill.
9. Wear your gloves and then drain the battery of its fluids onto the container.
10. With the battery’s liquid, add a few tablespoons of baking soda. This will neutralize the fluid.
11. When it has stopped bubbling, seal the container and then you can take it to a disposal site for hazardous waste. You can do this after the whole process is done.
12. With your Epsom salt, dissolve one part into three parts of warm distilled water.
13. Using your funnel, insert it into the cells of the battery and pour the solution you’ve made.
14. Shake the battery so that the solution can be distributed evenly.
15. Leave it to sit for some time and then repeat it for the other battery cells.
16. The next step will involve the car battery charger. Don’t plug it in just yet. Connect the positive lead to the battery’s positive terminal. Do the same with the negative lead to the negative terminal.
17. Turn the dial to 12v. You can now plug in or turn on your charger.
18. Charge it for a full twelve hours.
19. After the battery has been charged, you can turn the charger off and disconnect the leads from the terminals of the battery.
20. Place the caps back on to the cells.
21. With your plastic plugs, you can cover the holes you have drilled in.
22. You can now place the battery back in your car.
23. Connect the positive cable and then the negative cable in this order.
And that’s it! You have successfully done the refurbishing of your car battery. We recommend that you repeat these steps weekly for a month so that you can be sure that all of the sulfur buildups have been dissolved completely. You now have a healthier battery that can last for a long time.
Next Step
Now you know how to recondition a car battery. Hopefully, your restoration project will be a success. Let us know the results in the comments! Also, if you have any questions about the procedure or about restoring other batteries such as how to recondition power tool batteries, just email us, and we’ll send you valuable information about it.
Returning to https://HowToReconditionBatteries.org to find out different type of battery reconditioning guide!
