Your car's battery is its unsung hero. It's probably the only component that keeps things alive 24 hours a day, and you probably won't even notice it's there until you give up the ghost.
That is why it is important to periodically check the health of your car battery, test it and make sure to replace it in time to avoid being stranded. The voltage of the car battery is one of the indicators of its health, and in this article we will explain everything about it.
How many volts is a car battery exactly?
The label may say 12 volts but that's not the whole story and we'll explain what voltage is, why a car battery must maintain a certain voltage range under different conditions, how to test your car battery, how diagnostic solutions like Carly can help you here, and other things it can do with such diagnostic solutions.
Why does my car need a battery?
Even when your modern car is turned off, it's not really idle and there are many computer control modules that are in a hibernating state, rather than being turned off completely.
It is your car's battery duty to provide them with the energy required to stay safe and ready to go at a moment's notice while you flick the key or push the start button to start the engine.
Furthermore, there are certain systems in the vehicle that must operate even if the vehicle is turned off and these include the front and rear lights, indicator lights for the hazard light function, horn lights, and brake lights when the brake pedal is depressed.
The car battery provides the energy to run all of these devices, which is why it is so important to know how many volts a car battery has. Let’s not forget the moment when the car battery must muster all its reserves into a super effort, and that is when you turn the key or hit the start button to start the engine.
A starter motor draws as much energy from your car battery as it needs to power your engine and its pistons, so internal combustion takes place. That's why we call the car battery the unsung hero, it plays many crucial roles without your knowledge.
How many volts are in a car battery | What is the voltage?
If you want to know how many volts are in a car battery, there's a simple way to define it: voltage is the pressure from the circuit's power source, in this case, the car battery, that pushes charged electrons through a conductive loop, enabling them to do work.
Voltage is also known as the difference in electrical potential between two points. On the other hand, current is the rate of flow of electrons. Voltage and current are intrinsically linked. Vehicles with larger displacement engines and more complex electrical systems require batteries with higher current ratings.
How many volts is a car battery?
A typical modern car battery is rated at 12 volts (v) and it became so because, in early times, six volts was the usual amount of power that reasonable sized batteries could produce at the time, and the components were designed for that purpose.
As the demand for electricity grew, component voltage rates multiplied, as two six-volt batteries could be linked to provide increased power demands and over time this morphed into a single 12-volt battery and has remained so to this day.
There are other voltage standards in cars, such as the drive batteries in hybrid and electric cars that can reach hundreds of volts, as well as the 48-volt systems in some cars that run mild hybrid systems. However, we'll focus on the 12-volt battery in this article.
How do I check the voltage of my car battery?
One easy way is to borrow a multimeter, or buy a better one that you can find for cheap, from $20 onwards for a decent one, it's an invaluable piece in your home and car kit.
Locate the battery in your vehicle. Common locations include under the hood, under the passenger seat, or in the trunk. Turn on the multimeter and set it to measure DC voltage, with the maximum range set to at least 20V or 50V. Make sure your car is completely turned off at this point.
Touch the red probe of the multimeter to the positive terminal of the battery, marked with a +, and the black probe to the negative terminal marked with – making sure not to touch any other part of your vehicle with the probes.
If the multimeter is indicating a reading of about 12.2 volts or more with the car fully shut down and if the value is 12.0 volts or less, the battery is bad and needs to be replaced. However, if your car has been parked for several weeks, it is a good idea to start your car first for a few minutes. and close it.
Now, start your car and take another reading and the voltage across the terminals should read between 14 and 14.5 volts and if this is the case then this indicates that your car's battery charging system is working as intended and if the indicators are lower then it could be a bad battery or charging system Wrong However, this is a very difficult test method and for a more comprehensive method, a diagnostic scanning solution is your best bet.
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