Should I clean car battery terminals? and if so how?
 

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.

Should I clean car battery terminals? and if so how?
 

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.

Should I clean car battery terminals? and if so how?
 

On 2010-03-22, blueman wrote:

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?

Yes. A soon-to-die battery with, say, one bad cell will take a charge
and run ok fer a days or even weeks. If you drive it daily and don't
start it too often, it will seem to be ok ....for awhile. As the cell
gets worse, so does the battery. The only true way to test a battery
is with a battery electrolyte tester, testing each cell's electrolyte.
That's why I will not buy a truly sealed battery. Many look like
they're sealed --no caps to remove to check electolyte or add
distilled water-- but the caps are usually under a strip of plastic
that can be removed with a little effort. If even one cell starts to
degrade, it's time to start looking for a new battery.

There are expensive electrolyte testers and there are inexpensive
one's. The cheap ones are usually small and have 4 plastic balls in
them. These are more than adequate. I've used them for years, even
when I was a professional mechanic. If all 4 balls float, yer good.
If even one ball sinks in one cell, that battery is not long for this
car-starting world. ;)


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

Almost all car batteries in the USA are made by Exide. The more you
pay, the longer they last. Also, keeping one in good condition
--terminals clean, tight, charging system working, etc-- will also
increase the battery's longevity.

nb

Should I clean car battery terminals? and if so how?
 

On Mon, 22 Mar 2010 08:59:21 -0400, blueman wrote:



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.

Maybe the battery is good but the charging voltage is low. Have you
measured it. Should be about 14.5 iirc. If too low, it won't put
enough into the battery, even a good one.

Maybe the charging voltage is low because the fan belt is loose that
powers the alternator. Or maybe their is tension thing for a
serpentine belt and the spring is getting weak.

How do these ideas sound to you guys? Because I'm having the same
problem described above, and I have to try to fix it soon.

Should I clean car battery terminals? and if so how?
 

mm wrote:
On Mon, 22 Mar 2010 08:59:21 -0400, blueman wrote:


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.

Maybe the battery is good but the charging voltage is low. Have you
measured it. Should be about 14.5 iirc. If too low, it won't put
enough into the battery, even a good one.

Maybe the charging voltage is low because the fan belt is loose that
powers the alternator. Or maybe their is tension thing for a
serpentine belt and the spring is getting weak.

How do these ideas sound to you guys? Because I'm having the same
problem described above, and I have to try to fix it soon.

Stop by pretty much any local auto parts store, and take advantage of
their free charging system check. Try to go when it is slow, not on
Saturday morning when the lot is packed solid, so the tech is willing to
spend more than five minutes on it.

--
aem sends...

Should I clean car battery terminals? and if so how?
 

On Mon, 22 Mar 2010 21:55:10 -0400, aemeijers
wrote:

mm wrote:
On Mon, 22 Mar 2010 08:59:21 -0400, blueman wrote:


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.

Maybe the battery is good but the charging voltage is low. Have you
measured it. Should be about 14.5 iirc. If too low, it won't put
enough into the battery, even a good one.

Maybe the charging voltage is low because the fan belt is loose that
powers the alternator. Or maybe their is tension thing for a
serpentine belt and the spring is getting weak.

How do these ideas sound to you guys? Because I'm having the same
problem described above, and I have to try to fix it soon.

Stop by pretty much any local auto parts store, and take advantage of
their free charging system check. Try to go when it is slow, not on
Saturday morning when the lot is packed solid, so the tech is willing to
spend more than five minutes on it.

A good idea, but it will be difficult for me to do that when I'm going
to fix it myself. I'll feel like I'm taking unfair advantage of them,
even if they say there's no commitment.

Should I clean car battery terminals? and if so how?
 

mm writes:

On Mon, 22 Mar 2010 08:59:21 -0400, blueman wrote:



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.

Maybe the battery is good but the charging voltage is low. Have you
measured it. Should be about 14.5 iirc. If too low, it won't put
enough into the battery, even a good one.

Well my tester also measures charging voltage and it seemed ok...


Maybe the charging voltage is low because the fan belt is loose that
powers the alternator. Or maybe their is tension thing for a
serpentine belt and the spring is getting weak.

How do these ideas sound to you guys? Because I'm having the same
problem described above, and I have to try to fix it soon.

Interestingly, I took one of the cars into Advanced Auto Parts today and
they had some "fancy" (proprietary they claimed) computerized battery
tester that supposedly does all types of things that a standard 100A
load doesn't test. And that battery tested just fine - it measured a
voltage of 12.79v and a CCA of 574 (vs. rated 582). I was surprised
because I was almost sure that they would have "rigged" the test to sell
more batteries so that just about any 4 year old battery would test
bad. But the guy was nice, helpful, and surprisingly honest....

While the screen and printout were pretty cool, not sure I believe it
does all that more. Also, not clear to me how you can measure CCA at all
accurately when the ambient temperature is not 0F but I assume it does
some type of temperature adjustment since the screen and printout had a
temperature measurement on it (though since it said 73F, it seemed like
maybe it was the room temperature of 73F where the machine was stored
and not the outside temperature which was in the low 40s - though maybe
there was a temperature probe in the battery connection and that was the
under the hood temperature).

But in any case, if the store selling batteries tells me my battery is
good, it seems like it probably is.

Should I clean car battery terminals? and if so how?
 

I'v eheard 13.8 volts. That sounds high.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"mm" wrote in message
...

Maybe the battery is good but the charging voltage is low.
Have you
measured it. Should be about 14.5 iirc. If too low, it
won't put
enough into the battery, even a good one.

Maybe the charging voltage is low because the fan belt is
loose that
powers the alternator. Or maybe their is tension thing for
a
serpentine belt and the spring is getting weak.

How do these ideas sound to you guys? Because I'm having
the same
problem described above, and I have to try to fix it soon.

Should I clean car battery terminals? and if so how?
 

On Mon, 22 Mar 2010 23:38:54 -0400, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:

I'v eheard 13.8 volts. That sounds high.

I used to say that too, but too many people told me it should be
higher. So I'm not sure anymore.

Here I only center posted because you topposted.
--
Christopher A. Young

"mm" wrote in message
Maybe the battery is good but the charging voltage is low.
Have you
measured it. Should be about 14.5 iirc. If too low, it
won't put
enough into the battery, even a good one.

Should I clean car battery terminals? and if so how?
 

On 03/23/2010 12:34 AM, mm wrote:
On Mon, 22 Mar 2010 23:38:54 -0400, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:

I'v eheard 13.8 volts. That sounds high.

I used to say that too, but too many people told me it should be
higher. So I'm not sure anymore.

13.8 is a minimum for a running "12V" car

nate

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel

Should I clean car battery terminals? and if so how?
 

"notbob" wrote in message
...
On 2010-03-22, blueman wrote:

Almost all car batteries in the USA are made by Exide. The more you
pay, the longer they last. Also, keeping one in good condition
--terminals clean, tight, charging system working, etc-- will also
increase the battery's longevity.


After working at the auto department of a Montgomery Wards store that sold
Exide batteries, I have never purchased Exide since.

Johnson Controls makes batteries also, and those are a good choice but the
best battery on the market IMHO is the Optima, those suckers are really
tough and tent to last far longer than their warrantee.


--

Roger Shoaf

About the time I had mastered getting the toothpaste back in the tube, then
they come up with this striped stuff.

Should I clean car battery terminals? and if so how?
 

On Mon, 22 Mar 2010 19:28:21 -0400, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:

The car batteries I've used were acid. It's very possible
that Coca cola helps clean the terminals, though.


The "crud" is actually a salt which can be washed off with water. If
left on the battery terminals it will begine to attack the teminal
clamps/terminals.

Should I clean car battery terminals? and if so how?
 

On 2010-03-25, Roger Shoaf wrote:

After working at the auto department of a Montgomery Wards store that sold
Exide batteries, I have never purchased Exide since.

Johnson Controls makes batteries also, and those are a good choice but the
best battery on the market IMHO is the Optima, those suckers are really
tough and tent to last far longer than their warrantee.

Do you know who makes Delco batteries? Those were always pretty good.


nb

Should I clean car battery terminals? and if so how?
 

On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 14:23:15 GMT, notbob wrote:

On 2010-03-25, Roger Shoaf wrote:

After working at the auto department of a Montgomery Wards store that sold
Exide batteries, I have never purchased Exide since.

Johnson Controls makes batteries also, and those are a good choice but the
best battery on the market IMHO is the Optima, those suckers are really
tough and tent to last far longer than their warrantee.

Do you know who makes Delco batteries? Those were always pretty good.

Interstate does a much better job than anyone else of keeping their inventory
charged and rotated. You do pay a bit for a better battery, though.

Should I clean car battery terminals? and if so how?
 

notbob wrote:
....

Do you know who makes Delco batteries? Those were always pretty good.
....

As far as I know, ACDelco still manufactures...

www.acdelco.com

may have more poop...

--