Every contemporary car – including yours – will have a 12-volt battery and circuit, charged and powered by an alternator. Each time you start your engine, all the dashboard lights should illuminate and disappear, including the car battery warning light.
A car battery’s primary responsibility is to drive the starter motor, which gets your engine running when you turn the key in the vehicle ignition. Without it, we’d all still be hand-cranking our massive engines!
Once the engine is powering itself, the alternator takes charge of running most electrical components in your vehicle, with some battery assistance. This includes lights, spark plugs, radio, heater, windshield wipers, etc.
When you’re driving, the alternator is responsible for recharging. For this reason, a functioning car’s battery has a higher output voltage than a stationary one. The auxiliary drive belt powers the alternator.
It takes about 30 minutes of freeway driving to recharge a battery entirely. In a city, it could take around an hour. That’s why making numerous short journeys is detrimental for your car’s battery (and other systems, too).
With the engine off, connecting a voltmeter across the terminals of a fully charged battery should give you a reading of 12.6V (although 12.5V is low but tolerable). When the engine runs, the output should be about 14V (between 13.5V and 14.5V).
The battery comprises six 2.1-volt cells, which the observant amongst you will note adds up to 12.6 Volts rather than 12. The “12-volt” class is a nominal, general term for this kind of lead-acid battery, stemming from the days of 6-volt batteries.
If the battery light comes on while driving, the car’s ECU (basically, its brain) has registered thatthe electrical system isn’t putting out enough voltsto run the vehicle effectively.
The warning light means the electrical system isn’t getting enough power. This could stem from a few different places – the battery, the alternator, or the wiring connecting the parts and components.
You’ll know a battery can’t hold a charge if it struggles (or fails) to start or crank when you turn the key. The alternator might be operating fine, but if it’s trying to recharge a faulty battery, the ECU will realize and activate the light.
Use a voltmeter or battery tester to check its health, both with the engine off and running. You should see 12.6 Volts and about 13.8 to 14.2 Volts, respectively – any lower could mean a faulty battery.
An alternator is an electromagnetic generator driven by the auxiliary drive belt (the belt you can see on the side of your engine under the hood). It generates alternating current (AC) and passes through the rectifier, changing it to DC (direct current) before passing through the voltage regulator.
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