aemeijers writes:
Mikepier wrote:
On Mar 21, 10:54 pm, blueman wrote:
Perhaps not technically home repair but my car is like an extension of
my home...

Anyway, I noticed that there is a lot of "crud" (grainy white/green
stuff - looks like dried toothpaste) on the positive (red) terminal of
my car battery.

Car otherwise works & looks fine.

Question:
- Is it important to clean the crud off?
- What is the best & also easiest/fastest way to do it?

Thanks

Its a good idea to prevent future problems. Just remove from the
battery terminal, clean with a wire brush, then put some grease, or
some battery terminal coating on it and your good to go.
If crud is growing, you definitely wanna clean it. It can make the
battery last longer (due to less current leakage), and more
importantly, it can save you from being stranded in cold weather or if
you leave the lights on for a couple of hours.

Could this explain why my battery died on a cold day after keeping the
radio on for about 30 minutes even though the car had just been driven
for about 45 minutes and even though the battery tested good under a
tester with a 100A load?

And just yesterday (which was in the high 40's) my other car ran down
the battery while cleaning it for about an hour with just the radio and
door lights on?

Cars (and battery) are about 3-4 years old and never had such problems
in previous years.