Battery Corrosion

Just two weeks ago, I cleaned a fair amount of corrosion off my battery terminals with a wire brush. While filling the wiper fluid today, I noticed the battery corrosion is back again - maybe a little worse than before...

Is this a sign of somekind, like the battery is about shot?

What causes it? How do you prevent it? Is this some kind of voo-doo?

http://www.batterystuff.com/tutorial_battery.html

"To prevent corrosion of cables on top post batteries use a small bead of silicon sealer at the base of the post and place a felt battery washer over it. Coat the washer with high temperature grease or petroleum jelly (Vaseline), then place cable on the post and tighten. Coat the exposed cable end with the grease. Most folks don't know that just the gases from the battery condensing on metal parts cause most corrosion."

Rpg

Here is my 2¢ worth...

I routinely take both battery cables loose and dip them in an (old) cup of hot
water with two tablespoonfuls of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) in it.

The cable ends will foam to beat the band! Do this with fresh bicarb in hot water
until the cable ends quit foaming - takes a while!

You may find after doing this that not much of the cable clamp is left! Replace it if so.

Rinse them off well in hot water several times.

Take the Battery out of the car. Wash the battery box down with a slow
running hose to wash all the Sulfuric Acid (Battery Acid - 4 Molar BTW) away.
It gets everywhere! Eats metal quite nicely....

Pour powdered Bicarbonate of Soda on all the places the acid got to and leave it there!
It can't hurt anything! Acts to neutralise any further acid leaks.

I wash the battery off with a hose and let it dry.

Replace the Battery and grease the posts as Rpg0 says.

Reconnect the cables and then pour Baking Soda - Bicarb - over the cable ends!

I leave a mound of Bicarb on my battery posts.

About four times a year, go out and sweep off the old Bicarb and add some new.

This helps keep your Battery connections working - some batteries seem to be
worse than others for this problem...

If you have a bad "leaker", the Sulfuric Acid will eat away the metal battery
box holder and perhaps a lot of other things you don't want damaged!

Bicarb is the way to keep it under some kind of control....
other than replacing the battery.

DoctorBill

It seems that on my Metro, the only terminal that gets the white fuzz growing on it is the negative one. I did the wire brush and bi-carb mix thing, making lots of foam. Rince with clear water and coated the works with vasoline. Any reason just the negative terminal is effected?

I know what you mean.....

It probably depends on the particular car (yours) and the particular battery (yours),
and the role of Fate....

I have had many cars and some do one or the other or both or neither!

Never could finger that out.

Ain't owning automobiles fun!? Like throwing dice!

Doing the Bicarb of Soda thing can use up a whole box of it each time!

The felt rings they sell work nicely. They soak up the acid and have a nitrogen
based "Base" in them (a high molecular weight amine) that neutralizes the
acid for a time.

But I like the Bicarb thing as "insurance".

I had a car once get so corroded, the battery holder plate nearly got eaten thru!

DoctorBill

Thanks for the informative replies, the link to batterystuff.com was educational reading for a novice.

I cleaned my battery and connectors as Doc suggested, no problems since. It could be my imagination, but my headlights seem brighter; they and the dashlights no longer dim ever-so-slightly while idleing at a stoplight.

People are surprised at how much trouble that Battery Post - Lead Connector
connection can cause them.

One of the best buys you can make is about $3 for a battery post cleaner tool.

It has a tapered wire brush on one part and a ring shaped wire brush in the
other end. The two parts fit together like an egg.

The tapered part is for cleaning out the lead clamps on the ends of the
thick wire cables. Run it thru while twisting it. It removes the oxide or whatever
it is that makes the connection bad.

The other ring shaped part is for brushing off the Battery Posts. Does a good job
if twisted as you put it on and pull it off.

Put grease on both the post and inside the lead clamp. Put those red and
black rings you buy at the parts stores on and put the clamps back on.

Tap them down gently with a hammer or big handle of something - make good
connections between the posts and the clamps!

Tighten well and then cover them with baking soda.

I have had several cars not start or act weird with clicking sounds. My son's
car wouldn't start and he had scraped the posts with his pocket knife.

I drove 40 miles to rescue him and did it with the device I described above.

A lot of amperes have to pass from the battery post to the clamp when you
start the engine.

If there is crap in the way, "...not go to Mall for to shopping, Missie!"

Carry one of the Battery Post Cleaners in each car - they'll save your bacon!
A set of new battery cables for $15 is a good thing to have in the trunk, also....

Do the above cleaning once each year and your wife won't be stranded in
some lonely Mall parking lot at 10 PM in the rain with hairy, nasty guys lurking behind
every low rider parked there also....waiting for her.

DoctorBill