# Battery acid deposits on battery terminal

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battery-acid-deposits-on-battery-terminal/642790>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 2, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battery-acid-deposits-on-battery-terminal/642790 "2012-12-02T21:18:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Thinktank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Thinktank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thinktank)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battery-acid-deposits-on-battery-terminal/642790/1 "2012-12-02T21:18:48Z")

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Hi all,  
popped my wife’s hood the other day and was greeted by a HUGE caked-up chalky deposit on 1 terminal - googled the issue and found that I needed to clean this up (duh) -it further went on to say if it keeps happening it could be the charging system causing it…

So before I Googled, I suspected maybe there wasn’t enough water in the battery, to my surprise there was plenty, but what I DID notice looking down at the plates inside the battery was that the deposits were in between the plates as well.

So my question is does this mean even after I clean the battery that there is more of “this” to come? Can anything else be done about this?

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**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battery-acid-deposits-on-battery-terminal/642790/2 "2012-12-02T23:24:22Z")

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How old is the battery? It sounds like you need a new battery if it is also inside the battery, which is due to [sulfation](http://www.batterystuff.com/kb/articles/battery-articles/battery-basics.html#8) and is generally irreversible, degrading its performance (80% of battery failures are due to sulfation according to the link, which also says that only 30% of batteries last for 48 months). There was also a [recent thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=673578) with similar conclusions.

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**Author:** ![Thinktank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Thinktank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thinktank)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battery-acid-deposits-on-battery-terminal/642790/3 "2012-12-03T03:32:49Z")

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thanks Michael for the reply and info. After questioning her she thinks it’s about 2 years old. She doesn’t really give me much time with the vehicle and then expects me to keep all together like it was mine. I’m just going to go for a new battery I think. I’ve over-done it on crunching information today.