AS WORKSHOPS GET REVVED UP AND READY TO TACKLE THE PROBLEMS CAUSED BY THE WORST OF THE WINTER WEATHER, AFTERMARKET SPECIALISTS HELLA UK OFFERS REVENUE RAISING ADVICE TO WORKSHOPS FOR THE PEAK BATTERY SEASON. One in three vehicles enters the workshop with either defective or under-performing batteries - the biggest cause of winter breakdowns. Lack of battery care and maintenance, combined with cold weather, has a way of bringing down borderline batteries that were fine in the summer but don't have the power for a cold weather start. For the workshop, proactively offering battery charging and conditioning as a value added' winter service not only helps prevent breakdowns resulting from failed batteries, it creates significant opportunities for increased revenue. Steve Hudson, Senior Product Manager at HELLA comments: "When temperatures drop, car batteries have to cope with a triple-strike. Power output drops; the battery's ability to accept a charge decreases so it doesn't recharge as quickly; and as lights, blowers, wipers, heated seats and rear window heaters, are all called into action, the load on the battery increases." Battery performance can fall by as much as 50% if temperatures drops below freezing, and coupled with a more than 250% increase in an engine's starting power requirement at 0℃ compared to a summer's day, winter signals serious problems for a failing battery.
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