Car Won’t Start? Check Your Battery Terminals

We’ve all been there. You grab your coffee and head out the door on your way to work, or perhaps on your way to pick up the kids from school, but when you turn the key in the ignition nothing happens. Perhaps just a click or a few lights, perhaps nothing at all. That’s not good, the thought goes through your head. What could it be?

Well, the long answer is that it could be a few things but it is likely your battery if there’s no life at all. If you want to check it yourself, you should take a look to see if the connections on your battery are corroded in any way. If so, you could have found the culprit. If not, you will want to bring your car into Fort Collins Foreign Car Service for a more comprehensive auto repair diagnostic and some repair advice.

If corrosion is in fact the culprit, then you may be able to utilize a quick fix in order to get your battery back into working order. All you need to do is remove the corrosion from your battery terminals in order to make the connection solid and allow your battery to power the car ignition. You can purchase substances to remove corrosion at your auto repair center or you can use a trick with a substance you may already have at home.

That substance is soda, or more specifically cola. Coke or Pepsi will both do. These drinks are actually so acidic that they will help to remove most corrosion on your battery and can do it with ease in most cases. Pouring just a little on the battery terminals will not harm your battery and within a few minutes you can usually wipe corrosion away and hopefully the problem will be solved.

If, after removing the corrosion, the car still won’t start you might try testing the battery at a local auto repair shop to see if it is totally dead. It may need a charge or it may need to be replaced altogether.

Of course, it’s also possible that the problem isn’t the battery at all. In that case you should bring your car in for repair advice at Fort Collins Foreign Car Center. Doing so will give us the chance to run diagnostics to determine what kind of auto repair your car requires.