Welcome to Brainstuff from house stuff Works dot com where smart Happens. Hi. I'm Marshall Brain with today's question, what is the battery light on your car's dashboard actually mean? Almost every car on the road today contains a rechargeable twelve volt battery. This battery powers everything electrical, the ignition system, the engine's computer, the radio, the headlights, so the battery
is vital to the car's operation. Like all batteries, a car's twelve volt battery would eventually go dead if it were not recharged, so your car has a built in recharging system. Most cars have an alternator along with a voltage regulator that keeps the battery charged and also provides electricity to the vehicle when the engine is running. A typical alternator can put out between five hundred and a
thousand watts when necessary. Because your car is so depend ended on the battery, all cars have a battery light on the dashboard that's designed to warn you if that recharging system fails. A simple circuit looks at the voltage that the alternator is producing and turns the battery light on if it's too low. The battery light indicates a battery charging problem if the battery light comes on and stays on while you're driving. The most common cause is
a broken alternator belt. Total failure of the alternator is another possibility. The reason why your car can operate normally even though the battery light is lit is because your car can run off the energy stored in the battery for a little while. Your car will run fine until the battery goes dead. At that point, nothing in your car will work. When the battery light is on. You can still drive your car to the garage. You'll not damage anything, but you want to get to the garage
before the battery fails and your car dies. Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join Housteffork's staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The Hausteffork's iPhone app has arrived. Download it to day on iTunes.