I’ve been travelling quite a bit lately, so my car has been idle in the driveway over the past three months. I’ve driven it approximately 6 times in that period. For the second time in that period I was sitting waiting for someone with the car off and the radio running, and the car failed to start. It seemed to have plenty of juice (the dome light, radio, etc worked fine), but there was either the click-click-click sound, or just nothing when I turned the switch.
A jump start fixed it both times. After the first incident I looked when I got home and made an effort to clean the corrosion off the battery posts and figured that was the end of it. Looking again this time, there is quite a bit of corrosion built up again.
I stopped and got a wire brush to clean the posts and clamp as well as a can of battery terminal protector which will hopefully put the matter to rest.
So I’m wondering why the corrosion builds up. Is this an indicator that the battery is going dead, or a more involved problem than just the battery? Should I be taking more drastic steps, especially given that winter is on the way in? I’m hoping to keep expenses low through the holiday, but I’m not much of a mechanic and I’d prefer not to be stranded. It’s never convenient.
I’ve found that if it builds up a lot it can keep a car from starting…but I usually use the felt washers under the terminals and clean them once in a (great) while and haven’t had that problem in a long time. I don’t usually grease mine, but you certainly can.
Thank you, Ryan. I did notice that the clamp that holds the battery in place is also showing corrosion underneath it. Your quote makes me wonder if the battery case itself is cracked.
Get a battery charger. Preferably, one of those 1 or 2 amp chargers that have a maintainer circuit built-in. You can get them for $20 or less at most Walmart-type stores.
Likely, your battery is dying. How old is it? If it is over 3 or 4 years old, it probably is. One thing that can make that certain is to let it sit in an undercharged state for weeks at a time. Most of these chargers even have an adapter that will plug into the cigar lighter socket, so all you have to do is run a weather-proof extension cord from your garage to inside your locked car and leave it plugged in. This way, you will have a fully charged battery when you need it. If the battery gives you problems after staying fully charged, it is a good bet that the battery is the problem.
The corrosion on the exterior of the battery connectors is not good and will lead to corrosion between the clamp and the post. The only way to clean that mess up is to remove the clamp and clean both contact surfaces. A tool like thismakes the job easy.
Stop in at a local Carquest parts store or another like it and they will do a quick check on the battery’s health and your charging system. Of course you could take it in to a service garage but all the testing you would get for free at (Most) parts stores will be on the time slip.
I only work 5-6 days a month at a parts store but check battery’s most every day.
But you will need to have clean terminals before the test will be valid.
Newer cars have much that is using power & will go dead faster than you would think, even when turned off.
When I leave a car for weeks, I unhook the negative terminal but on really new cars that can cause you trouble in other ways.
Test as said above and use the trickle charger if you really need to depend on the car.
