Battery questions.

[ice745]

Today I noticed around the positive terminal of the batter there was white and baby blue crud forming. I then looked at the water level, and it was really low in all 6 cells. I have to fill it almost every month (I think it may be because of my sound system). Is this abnormal, and is the battery going to be completely dead soon? The voltage is 12.51 with the engine off, and 14.49 when the alternator is running.

[v10_viper]

Originally Posted by ice745

Today I noticed around the positive terminal of the batter there was white and baby blue crud forming. I then looked at the water level, and it was really low in all 6 cells. I have to fill it almost every month (I think it may be because of my sound system). Is this abnormal, and is the battery going to be completely dead soon? The voltage is 12.51 with the engine off, and 14.49 when the alternator is running.

You Sir, need to get yourself a new battery. Most all batteries should read 13.6 - 14.2 volts, about 14.4 volts is what your alternator should put out, so you have a great alternator, but get yourself a new batter, shouldn't be more than 50 bucks.

[eckoman_pdx]

The white/blue curd you speak of is corrosion. It's pretty normal on a wet cell battery. Wouldn't hurt to clean it though. Get some gloves on and make sure the caps are on tight and pour baking soda on the corrosion. This should neutralize the acid. After the corrison is cleaned off, it wouldn't hurt to use a battery temrial cleaner.

Now as for the voltage. Right off a charger, most batteries read full at around 13.2 volts. On a car though, they usually don't read that high. More like 12.5-13 volts is what you see, hopefully closer to 13 than 12.5 (though 12.5 is still more than enough to crank a car). The alternator output to the battery should be 14.4 volts, so with the car running that alterntor should read 14.4 volts, so 14.49 volts is normal. The alternator is a battery mantainer. Once the cars running, the alternator mantiains the battery voltage and the car runs off the alternators power.

As for the battery, I'd go have it load tested. The voltage could have been down around 12.51 due to the low water level. Also, if you let the car sit for awhile, that could due it to. Load testing the battery will tell you if it can hold a charge. If you think it's really dead, or if load testing tells you so, $50-60 should get you a battery that'll work.