copied from a post may months ago, as the issue is still open:

" i did have some very weird starting problems soon after i replaced the ground hardware. i was using a lead terminal and everything else bolted on. the battery and terminal were wirebrushed clean, and silicone dilectric grease put between the faces, and the external parts were spray painted. three or four times within two days of the new parts i would go to turn the car on, and it would (for a fraction of a second) start (with the engine turning, fuel pump running, etc) and then would die completely. completely dead. like the car coughed and died. no power whatsoever after that. no lights. no radio. no warning lights. the only thing that woudl bring it back is if i took the terminal off, looked at it with a grumpy face, and put it back on. sometimes i had to do this several times. multimeter readings would read weird stuff. ground/pos voltage: 12.6. lead battery terminal/pos voltage: one or two volts. repeatedly. it did not rationally or regularly respond to tightening, wiggling, cleaning, re-cleaning, etc. totally weird. the lead terminal was somehow not making a good connection. sometimes it took me fifteen minutes of taking things apart and being grumpy and putting them back together before the car woudl work again. at least once the ground terminal smoked (arcing?) when it 'coughed' and died."

this has been consistently happening every few months for the last year. despite excellent cleaning of the terminals (all mating surfaces, but not enough to remove material and change the shape), greasing, etc, eventually the contact between the battery terminal and the lead terminal clamp corrodes. there seem to be no problems, until one day when starting the car it turns over for a fraction of a second, and then dies completely. it can only be revived by taking the assembly apart and steel-wooling it, etc.

why me? does everyone have to re-clean, fit, grease their battery connections every month? ive tried several terminals now, and they all do the same thing.

This used to happen to my car... would start working normally then completely die (nothing worked) as soon as I tried to crank it. I would get out and wiggle the battery terminals and it would come back to life and start up on the next try.
Eventually I got around to just replacing the battery and it never happened again.

i actually got a new battery somewhere in the middle of that. same thing. pretty and clean, fine for a while, then start it up- and a quick arc, then dead car until i clean it up again.

incidentally, the new battery was a mistake. i bought it in the south, then brought it north for a cold winter. froze repeatedly. that sucked. off-topic, though.

Happens to me all the time. I replace the terminals at least twice a year after I tighten them to death. Real pain but it works for now, I have too much to replace.