Your Neighborhood Full Service Repair Facility
Open All Day on Saturdays!
Payment Plan with Delayed Check/Debit Payments
No Credit Check Payment Plans!
50% OFF TOWING WITH ALL MAJOR REPAIRS
December 17, 2018
Hello, welcome to Tuffy Kentwood (Kalamazoo Ave SE). Today's focus is batteries. It seems like everything in Kentwood runs on batteries. Of course, the batteries we're most concerned with here at Tuffy Kentwood (Kalamazoo Ave SE) are those in our customer's vehicles. Just like the batteries in our smoke detectors or TV remote, 
they wear out and need to be replaced . This can be thought of as the power output used to start a cold vehicle engine. The number of cold cranking amps you need depends on your vehicle and where you live in Michigan , specifically how cold it is. (Many Kentwood drivers have first-hand experience trying to start their car on a cold winter morning.) The two factors are that the colder your vehicle's engine is, the more power it takes to turn the engine over to get it started. It has all that cold, sluggish oil to contend with.
The other factor is that the chemical reaction in the battery that creates electrical energy is less efficient when the temperature dips. Let's say it's 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees C) in Kentwood. At that temperature, 100% of the battery's power is available. At freezing, only 65% of battery power is available, but it requires 155% as much power to start the engine as it did at 80 degrees F (27 degrees C).
As you can see, the colder it gets, more power is needed, but the available power drops.
So if you live where it's cold in Michigan , you need a battery with more cold cranking amps than you do where it's moderate or hot. The battery that originally came with your vehicle was based on averages. At Tuffy Kentwood (Kalamazoo Ave SE), we like to remind Kentwood drivers that they should always get at least as many cold cranking amps as their vehicle manufacturer recommends but may want to upgrade if they live where it gets real cold.
Tuffy Kentwood (Kalamazoo Ave SE)
4384 Kalamazoo Ave. SE
Kentwood, Michigan 49508
616.301.1436
November 17, 2024
When you start your vehicles engine, theres another motor that makes that whole process possible. Its called the starter, and its a small electric motor that gets your vehicle running. As you can imagine, its quite a chore for a little electric motor to turn over the big engine that powers you... More
November 10, 2024
You've probably never paid much attention to the writing on the sides of your tires, but they contain a wealth of information. There's a long combination of letters and numbers that can tell you a whole lot about what tires your vehicle was designed to be riding on. Let's check out this example... More
November 3, 2024
If your vehicles power goes to the rear wheels, then you have something called U-joints in the drivetrain. U-joints are connectors that allow the rotating power from your vehicles engine to deliver its power through a driveshaft to make the rear wheels rotate. You need U-joints because the surfa... More
