Where Customer Service is NOT a department...it's an Attitude!

---

Some common sense for your electrical system


    Your vehicle and its electrical system have special needs and precautions.
Two of the more common components that need maintenance are:

The battery:
    The battery is the heart of the electrical system. It's condition determines if you are going to be
able to get to where you want to go...after all, if it won't start, you're stuck! Jump-starting has
always been the option here, but more and more, jump-starting a vehicle can be detrimental to
the vehicles' electrical system - especially if the jumper cables were mistakenly hooked up backwards!

And the alternator:
    This device makes electricity for the vehicles' needs, as well as maintains the battery as you
drive. The battery "tells" the alternator how much electricity to make. There has been a mis-
conception that the alternator will "recharge" your dead battery...wrong! It will charge it to a point,
but will not recharge it. That needs to be done slowly and safely with a battery charger.

Let's take the case of a weak battery:
    The engine is just going rrrr...rrrrr... rrrrr...vroom! Whew! It started! I'm off the hook!
Yes the car started, but what you probably didn't know is that your weak battery just now "told"
the alternator to put out as much electricity as possible!
    This can cause a myriad of problems to your vehicles' electrical system, one of which,
is a spike in the voltage. (Does your personal computer at home have a surge protector or similar?
I bet it does...after all, you wouldn't want a power surge to wipe out all the data on your
hard drive, would you?) A spike such as this can destroy the circuits in any of the computers
in the car! This can literally cost into the thousands of dollars to repair/replace the computer(s).
Sounds bleak doesn't it?
    How can this be prevented? Maintain your battery, or have it professionally serviced at
regular intervals such as during oil changes. Have it checked at the first sign of slow cranking.
You just may save yourself a lot of grief (and money) by having it replaced when it's getting
weak. Don't wait until the last minute. These recommendations are based on the assumption that
the rest of the electrical system is in good condition. Battery cables, wiring, alternator and its belt
are all other items that need to be checked along with the battery.


Keep your eyes on the road!



2000 Petersen Automotive
All Rights (and lefts) Reserved