Another day, another delay – when you're trying to get to work. If you've ever seen the film Groundhog Day you know the feeling. Your car's battery seems to be dead each morning, in a replay of the previous day. What can possibly be causing this, especially as the battery is fairly new?

Checking Battery Connections

Before you run out of favours with your neighbour who is kindly helping to "jump" your vehicle on a regular basis, do some simple checks. Firstly, make sure that the battery itself has clean posts and terminals. If it's fairly new, then it's unlikely corrosion will build up to cause a potential issue. It may be worth taking the connections off, cleaning the terminals and then re-seating everything just in case.

Interior Light Problems

The next thing you should look at is your vehicle's interior light. In an older car, this is a critical component of the entire electrical system, believe it or not.

When you are actively using the car the vehicle's electrical systems are in active or standby mode. In short, they are ready to be activated at a moment's notice as part of the normal driving experience. However, they're are also designed to go to sleep when the car is not in use, so that they do not drain the battery needlessly.

A lot of these components and circuits rely on the interior light. This light is activated when you open the door and close it again. When you do this the activation and deactivation of the light sends a signal to turn off all the peripheral circuits. The light itself is triggered by a simple switch that is found next to the door opening. These switches can sometimes go bad and when they do, the net result is that your peripheral electrical systems remain active for no reason. This can certainly drain the battery overnight.

You can do a quick check right now by opening and closing the door and see if the light comes on and goes off. At the same time, check to see if the bulb in the light has failed, as this can trigger the same end result.

Faulty Relays

If neither of these simple tests help you, it could be that an electrical relay is stuck in the "on" position somewhere in the system. This once again could be allowing current to flow when it's not needed, draining the battery.

It may not help you to know that right now as you're on your way to work, but get in touch with a mechanic as soon as possible to check for this, or to check if you need to get a replacement battery.

For more information, visit websites like http://www.wollongongmechanical.com.au.