Last week, we discussed the importance of a good car battery when facing the frigid riggers of a Midwest winter. A good car battery will help to ensure that your car, truck or SUV will start even on the coldest days and nights of the winter ahead – the winter that blew in with a fury Sunday night dumping several inches of snow in McHenry. But, a good battery requires a good charging and starting system to keep it ready to start your car.

Essentially, the charging system in your car, truck or SUV includes the following parts:

• The car battery
• The alternator
• The ignition switch
• The voltage regulator
• The starter solenoid
• The starter
• The belt and pullies to turn the alternator pulley

All of these parts need to operate properly, and work in unison, to ensure that your car, truck or SUV will start and run. A weak link in this chain of related parts will bring the system crashing down around you, which means that the battery will charge and the car will have enough voltage to keep running.

When the alternator doesn’t put out enough voltage, two things happen. One is that the alternator no longer charges the battery sufficiently. The other is that the car starts using the voltage in the battery to keep running. Unfortunately, with the alternator underperforming, there is a diminishing reservoir of voltage in the battery.

As the battery runs out of voltage, you’re liable to notice that the headlights aren’t as bright as usual. You may notice that the radio isn’t as loud. Whether you notice either of these phenomenon, you won’t be able to miss when the car stops running. The same thing would happen if the belt that turns the alternator pulley breaks or is too loose and slips.

As for the starter, this is a part that can either stop working altogether or that will start drawing too much voltage to operate properly without draining needed voltage from the battery. If the starter solenoid fails, the starter gear can fail to engage the flywheel to turn the engine when you want it to start.

If the voltage regulator isn’t operating properly, enough voltage may not go through to operate the vehicle properly If this happens, you may notice that the dash lights are fluctuating. You many notice warning lights in the dash.

The voltage regulator keeps the voltage provided to the car, truck or SUV between 13.5 and 14.5 volts. In the process, it protects electrical components from damage that could result from spikes in the amount of voltage.

The ignition switch is a fairly straight-forward proposition and is generally very reliable. You may have a short in the ignition switch but this doesn’t happen often.

The good news is that it is fairly simple, and inexpensive to have a qualified auto repair technician check your charging and starting system. Do this before our latest McHenry winter gets really serious and you won’t have to worry about what winter will throw at you; your car, truck or SUV will start when you want it to.