The car battery market is expected to grow by 6.5% a year between now and 2024. These are for both new cars and for battery replacements.
Changing out a car battery seems like a simple DIY repair project. After all, you’ve probably jumped your car battery and cleaned the connectors to clear them of corrosion.
A lot can go wrong if you choose the wrong car battery for your motor vehicle. You could end up having other issues like having to replace the alternator.
Keep reading to discover how to find the right car battery and choose the right size for your car.
What are the Different Car Battery Sizes?
You’ve probably figured out that there are many different battery options for your motor vehicle. There are hundreds of different brands and dozens of different sizes.
Fortunately, these car battery sizes are standardized. The Battery Council International standardized sizes and labeling to make things easier for consumers and battery manufacturers.
Batteries have what’s called a group size, which assigns a number to a battery according to size specifications. A 35 battery is for batteries that are 9 1/16” x 6 7/8” x 8 7/8”.
Electric vehicles also have group sizes. You can learn more here about sizing your battery bank for electric motor vehicles.
Check Your Owner’s Manual
The best place to look for your car battery’s specs are in the owner’s manual. If you can’t seem to find yours, then you should take a look at car manuals online or contact your car manufacturer.
There’s a good chance that your owner’s manual refers to car battery sizes in group sizes. You may see a number ranging from 24 to 78 for your car battery.
Choose the Right Battery Power
Your owner’s manual may have a couple of other battery specs. These are RC and CCA. The RC is the reserve capacity, which is the amount of reserve power the battery has at a certain loan.
The CCA means cold cranking amps. This tells you the starting power of your motor vehicle. This measurement is just as important as the battery size. If the CCAs don’t match up, you could create additional problems for your car.
A car battery with lower CCAs than your car’s requirements won’t give your car enough power to start. That can damage your starter as it strains to power the vehicle on.
You want to have the CCAs to match the specs for your car. If you can’t find a battery with matching CCAs, you can get a battery with higher CCAs, but now lower.
Get Your Motor Vehicle Into Shape
Your car battery is an important part of your motor vehicle. If you’re going to change it yourself, you need to make sure you have the right car battery size.
The things you need to bear in mind are the battery size specs and the amount of power the battery puts out to start the engine.
For more car repair tips, you’ll want to check out the car repair manuals on this site.