Car Battery Corrosion

pudzey101

so my car battery is full of white residue/powder ( corrosion) whats a good way to get rid of it as i had my battery tested today and its 100% , the auto-electrician guy told me mix baking-soda with water and scrub it , then smear the terminals with Vaseline ?

is this a good idea ?

visual

pudzey101 wrote: »

so my car battery is full of white residue/powder ( corrosion) whats a good way to get rid of it as i had my battery tested today and its 100% , the auto-electrician guy told me mix baking-soda with water and scrub it , then smear the terminals with Vaseline ?

is this a good idea ?

Yes its a very good idea
make sure the terminals are very clean even go over them with fine sand paper or use a battery brush.

Normally its the first sign of old battery thats starting to release gases and discharging when the connection fur up with corrosion.

Cleaning the battery poles and battery connectors is a must to avoid problems

pudzey101

must go at it during the week so theres also alot of corrosion on the bottom end edges of the battery just youtubed a few vids there looks simple enough

Toyotafanboi

Just pour a kettle of water over it. Always works for me

woody33

About the Vaseline, put it on before or after connecting the lead to the terminal? I always wondered that...

Gosub

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

Just pour a kettle of water over it. Always works for me

Just to clarify... boiling the water is necessary. :P But, this works well.

biko

Just in case someone think boiling water is a joke

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RueBcolnJFE

mgbgt1978

Limerick's Biggest Auto-Electrician uses the 'boiling water' method.....when nobody is looking, and then charges for a "Battery Refurb"

jmrc

vaseline after the leads are connected, otherwise you wouldn't get a good connection...

woody33

Re Vaseline, thanks for the reply.

pudzey101

thanks lads , what about the orangy rust/spots it has left behind on wires/cables by the drivshaft after cleaning ? whats good at removing this

Esel

jmrc wrote: »

vaseline after the leads are connected, otherwise you wouldn't get a good connection...

Not true. Remove the +/- connections. After the baking soda+boiling water, clean the battery posts and the inside of the terminals with fine sandpaper. Apply a bit of vaseline to both; tighten the connections.

If you feel like it, apply a bit more vaseline afterwards.

If vaseline caused bad contact, it would have been outed long ago...

Esel

pudzey101 wrote: »

thanks lads , what about the orangy rust/spots it has left behind on wires/cables by the drivshaft after cleaning ? whats good at removing this

No need to worry about that. If you really want to do something, spray a bit of WD-40 over the general area.

An Ri rua

Hi all,

I'm about to do this on my 407 Coupe but it has a number of connections on the positive terminal. I assume its still perfectly safe to pour boiling water on each terminal separately?