Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Wester New Yorkers are waking up to even more snow and ice on their cars, but for some, a dead car battery.
Elizabeth Carey with AAA of Western and Central New York says this is the most common time of year for batteries to fail. In fact, it's so common, Feb. 18 is coined National Battery Day.
"Car batteries often die in these cold, frigid temperatures, especially when you have a situation like this. So we had a long weekend. A lot of people had offer Presidents Day and maybe chose to just stay home and hunker down because of the cold weather. Then they go to go back to work on Tuesday and they realize the car won't turn over. What happens is that outside air gets so cold, the oil in the vehicle thickens, and then it's harder to turn that engine over. So we always see an uptick in battery calls on day like that," said Carey in an interview with WBEN.
Although this is generally a problem with batteries that are older than 3-5 years, Carey says it can happen to anyone if they don't use their car isn't used frequently.
"The best thing to do is to drive your car. That's the best way to maintain its charge. People should go for a ride and keep that in mind. Be careful. But go out, take the car ride. Make sure it's starting, especially if you need to get to work in the morning and you want to make sure it's running like average span for a battery life around here is about three to five years. So if you know your battery's about that old, it's something you're going to want to be on the lookout for. If you have the luxury to park inside a garage where it's a little bit warmer, that should help," Carey explained.
Carey says there are a couple different things to look out for when a battery starts to die.
"Sometimes there are no signs at all, and all of a sudden it's just not starting. But other times, the vehicle might crank it's making a funny noise when you're trying to start it. You've noticed that lately that might be a sign that the battery is wearing down, kind of like a grinding or a clicking noise, maybe the vehicle stalled, or the headlights seem a little bit dimmer," she said.
AAA will have extra staff/drivers scheduled to keep up with the influx of callers this week.
"We've had a lot of cold weather this year, a lot of wintry weather. A lot of people going off the road, slippery conditions over the weekend, expecting a lot of battery calls. It's really going to be a busy week for AAA, so we do expect at certain times, delay in service, even though we have extra people on the roads and on the phones at the same time," Carey stated.