A dead car battery is the most common car problem. Often the vehicle can be jumped and continue to run for a period of time. But eventually, repeatedly jumping the vehicle gets tiresome, or the battery dies completely. There are two main reasons a battery runs down:
In the first case, the problem may be with the alternator and the battery itself does not need to be replaced. The alternator, however, needs to be looked at. In the second case, and this happens quite often in South Florida's heat, the battery will no longer hold a charge and needs to be replaced. There are a couple other things that can cause a drain on the battery that we look at also to determine what's wrong.