Electrical System
Electrical System Repairs in Santa Ana
Electrical system repairs in a motor vehicle encompass many things, and the technicians at Santa Ana Mobile Mechanic are familiar with them all. The electrical system furnishes the electric energy necessary to crank the engine by powering the starter motor. It also allows for the recharging of the battery after cranking. Additionally, it also produces the high-voltage important to fire the compressed air-fuel charges. Finally, it handles all the secondary functions like powering the headlamps, light bulbs, and even other electric devices. A vehicle's electric system consists of the battery, wiring, starter motor, vehicle controls, alternator, voltage regulator, electronic ignition, and electronic fuel injector metering.
Modern vehicle electrical systems are quite sophisticated and are accountable for much more than just operating the electric windows. It is essential in the running and also starting of the engine. If a component of the electrical system in your vehicle starts or stops working, it ends up being that you'll be not able to drive your car or truck, or at a minimum, have a problem starting it.
Battery
Your car battery is essential for starting. It also allows your car to continue running after it starts. But they don't last forever. Much like other types of batteries, the one for your auto has a limited quantity of charge cycles in it. While all auto batteries will eventually need to be replaced and are often the answer to many auto electrical system repairs, certain factors result in a quicker drain when they don't hold a charge.
Some of the leading causes of accelerated battery wear are:
Low Battery Fluid
Most newer batteries are maintenance-free and don't allow for the addition of battery acid. But for batteries that do, it's important to keep the battery fluid level at the specified levels. Battery acid is critical to the electrochemical process of a lead-acid battery.
Leaving Your Lights On
Just as newer batteries are maintenance-free, newer model cars are being built with design features that make them function for us in better ways. Take, for example, your late-model vehicle's lights. Most newer cars and trucks have lighting systems that work off of a light sensor that recognizes when it's dark outside and that lights are needed. This saves us from inadvertently leaving our lights on and running our battery down. For those who have older autos, ensure that your lights are off when you've finished your journey. This goes for the cabin lights as well as the vehicle's running lights. The energy draw from leaving your lights on overnight is often enough to drain your battery down to the point where your vehicle won't start. Repeated deep discharges (where your car needs a jump start) is not good for a lead-acid battery. They reduce the number of charge cycles a battery will offer.
Failed Alternator
Often, a customer will believe their battery is dead but the real problem is that the car's alternator has failed. A bad alternator is one that's not putting out enough amps to sufficiently recharge the battery for the electric load that you're placing on the vehicle. Many things can influence that including night driving (need more lighting), use of air conditioning, short trips that accentuate the limited alternator amp output per driving excursion, and ambient temperature (extreme temperatures increase the electric load that the starter needs to get the car started). Sometimes the alternator is fine but the fan belt that turns the pulley has failed. Santa Ana Mobile Mechanic's certified and experienced technicians will know just what to do to get your alternator problem resolved. Keep reading below to learn all about vehicle alternators.
Parasitic Leaks
Parasitic leaks are simply electric draws that occur when the vehicle is not running. Some parasitic drains are necessary like the electric draw needed to keep your vehicle's clock accurate, your memory seat right, and your powered mirrors in the right spot. But excessive parasitic leaks or draws (even if some are standard for the given vehicle) combined with a weakened battery will often cause faster battery degradation and problems where the car won't start. Added draws from things like aftermarket GPS systems, back up cameras, or anything else that added and uses electricity can have circuits that pull power from your battery when the car is off. Parasitic leaks can be found by good old fashioned testing. You have to check the draw on the battery and systematically pull fuses until you see where there's a noticeable difference. This will ID large amp leaks. Once identified, you can then make alterations in the way the electric accessory is wired or switched so that it's not pulling power from the battery when the car is off.
Alternator
You might assume that the battery powers the electrics in your vehicle, but that's not the case. The battery provides electrical energy needed for the starter motor to start the automobile. When the car runs, the alternator creates energy to feed the electrical system and charges the battery. What used to be called a generator, the alternator operates comparably and is the source of many problems that require automobile electrical system repairs. In this situation, an auto's internal combustion engine rotates interconnected pulleys that are connected by fan belts, which turn the pulley on the alternator which creates energy.
An alternator works together with the battery to provide power for the electric components of a vehicle. The output of an alternator is direct current (DC). When the alternator pulley turns, alternating current (A/C) goes through a magnetic field and an electrical current is created. Then the rectifier transforms it to DC, which is sent back into your battery.
The introduction of a built-in regulator in the 1990s made use of the warning light to initiate the alternator and begin the charging procedure. The alternator has to deal with differing electric loads and readjust its charging rate appropriately. These days it is very easy for these types of alternators to be misdiagnosed.
Fuses
When your vehicle has an electrical short circuit, the fuse box controls the electric currents that move through your auto and shield the cars and truck's electrical elements from severe damage. The main fuse box consists of high voltage engine fuses and relays. In contrast, other fuse boxes consist of fuses and relays for accessory vehicle systems and components like the car's radio or cabin lights. Automotive electrical system repair problems need to be properly checked out to eliminate them from causing other mechanical problems that could affect the fuel system or other issues of mobile auto repair in Santa Ana.