Ride-share and AGM Battery Maintenance: What You Need to Know

The Ride-Share

If you’re picking up extra kids, running extra errands, or making a little extra cash on the weekend as a ride-share or delivery driver, your car battery is working extra overtime, too.

Episodio 2: The ABCs of AGM Battery Maintenance

While troubleshooting battery problems, Charles and Rich share tips on how to keep your car running even when it’s putting on 120 miles or more a day; plus, they share tips on making the daily drive safer and more comfortable. Grab your car owner’s manual and a roll of paper towels, and put your smart phones in the safety position. Let’s get started.

This car is racking up some miles when it doubles as a weekend ride-share car. In this video, Rich of Rich Rebuilds and Charles The Humble Mechanic walk us through ways to get a five-star rating when it comes to handling the car’s warning lights, scheduled maintenance and more. They also answer one of the most frequently asked questions in modern car maintenance: Where’s my battery? It’s not in the glove box—sorry, Charles.

Red or Yellow Flashing Dash Lights?

Naturally, whether you’re driving solo, as a ride-share with a passenger, loading up the back seat with extra weight, or simply carpooling kids around, you want to make sure no problems come up while you’re on the road. See a warning light that’s red or flashing? That’s something you should immediately address. Flashing “check engine” or “check oil” lights are examples of urgent warnings you could see in almost any vehicle. When in doubt, don’t touch anything and take it to your mechanic.

One of These Things Is Not Like the Other: Baterías con tecnología AGM

You may be wondering: What’s different about an AGM battery compared to a regular car battery? For starters, “AGM” stands for “absorbed glass-mat.” With twice the capacity of standard flooded batteries, AGM batteries charge faster and are created specifically for vehicles that have higher power requirements, or even just cars with high-tech features such as dash cameras and remote starting systems. These cars need extra power to be able to start and stop much more often, and may turn off and on around 30 times, or more, in one trip, while other cars without that feature might turn off and on a few times in one trip.

Where to Save, Where to Splurge

Rich and Charles also discuss when it could make sense to try to save on the cost of scheduled maintenance for hybrid cars. The No. 1 place not to go cheap? The AGM battery — the car simply won’t function without it. And if you use your hybrid car for carpooling or as a ride-share, you’re not going to look very reliable if the car breaks down because you tried to save a few bucks on the battery.

Not sure what battery your hybrid needs? Simple: Refer to the owners manual!