Generally speaking, a parasitic current of around 50mA is normal, if it exceeds this value, it is likely to indicate a problem with your car’s electrical system and excessive parasitic currents can affect the life of your battery.
How does parasitic current affect your battery life?
With your car turned off, current is constantly being discharged and your alternator is not able to power it. Excessive parasitic current can drain your battery, followed by over-discharge, and over-discharge can seriously affect your battery’s performance, harming its internal structure and shortening its life. In addition, prolonged parasitic current will also reduce the capacity of the battery, and also increase the internal resistance of the battery, reducing the battery’s discharge capacity and charging efficiency, making the battery unable to continue to use for a long period of time.
Why does parasitic current exist?
Even though you turn off your car, your battery will still be powering some electronic devices, which will generate a tiny amount of current, which is called parasitic current. Parasitic current is generally used for two purposes, to maintain the memory function of certain devices, and to power an anti-theft system for 24/7 monitoring. It is very normal for car batteries to have parasitic cells and it is a very small current, however, if an inferior fuse is used or if it is not properly designed and protected, it can lead to leakage and create a larger parasitic current. When the parasitic current is too high, it can have a significant impact on your car battery.
How do you go about measuring parasitic current?
1. Make sure your car battery is fully charged, as well as turn off all electronic devices and turn off your car to avoid the current they generate from affecting the test results.
2. Disconnect your negative battery terminal from the negative cable, then adjust your ammeter, turn the selector knob to DC current, choose the appropriate process, then connect the black pen of the multimeter to the negative battery terminal, connect the red pen to the negative cable, wait for the display to stabilize, read the current size.
3. If this value is not within 50mA, then it means that your car may have a leakage problem, and you need to contact a professional for further inspection of your car.
How to reduce the impact of parasitic current on battery life?
1. Check your vehicle’s electrical system regularly to avoid any leakage.
2. Make sure all unnecessary electrical devices are disconnected when the vehicle is turned off to reduce the amount of parasitic current.
3. the use of high-quality electrical systems can reduce the risk of the presence of parasitic currents, such as the use of well-sealed protection tubes, which can reduce wear and tear on the circuitry, avoid circuit leakage, and reduce the magnitude of parasitic currents.
Reducing parasitic currents can effectively reduce the output of battery power during a power failure, protect the normal operation of automotive systems, as well as extend the life of the battery.
Other suggestions to extend the life of your car battery
Using your car for a certain amount of time can give your battery a better range. Make your car available for 30 minutes of continuous driving every week so that you can recharge your battery while driving, and it will also keep your car system healthy as well as extend the life of your battery.
