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A battery is vital for each automobile, and battery terminal corrosion is a serious issue that many car owners usually suffer from. Unfortunately, many people end up replacing their batteries earlier than they should because of corrosion. A whitish or greenish powder on your battery’s terminals is a sign of battery corrosion. Here are three ways to protect your battery from this problem.
Monitor Your Driving Behavior
To increase the lifetime of your battery, it’s recommended not to totally discharge or overcharge it. For example, if you are going for a long vacation or aren’t going to use your car often, you should disconnect your battery’s terminals to prevent it from discharging. It’s also important not to use many electric consumers in your car when the engine isn’t running so you won’t discharge your battery, and it’s better to take your car for a long ride every now and then so the generator can get enough time to charge your battery.
Regularly Check Your Battery
If your battery is always overcharged, it may be a result of the wrong functioning of your generator. Corrosion on the positive terminal of your battery means that it’s overcharged, while corrosion on the negative terminal means that it’s discharged. That’s why it’s important to regularly check your battery’s terminals to make sure that it’s neither overcharged not discharged. If your battery always gets discharged after charging it or after long rides, there might be a problem with your battery or with an electric component in your car that constantly discharges it.
While checking your battery, make sure its terminals are always clean. If you even see slight traces of corrosion on your battery, you need to remove the terminals and clean them. Also, it’s always important to check if the terminals are properly tightened and not loose by trying to move them.
Clean Your Battery’s Terminals
Before you remove the terminals, follow a few safety procedures. Positive battery cables are red, while negative ones are black. Positive terminals may also have the abbreviation “POS” or the positive sign (+) on them, and negative terminals may have the abbreviation “NEG” or the negative sign (-) on them. Put on rubber gloves and start by removing the negative battery terminal first. After loosening it from your battery, try to detach it fast in order to prevent any electric sparks from happening. Next, remove your positive battery terminal.
After removing the terminals, you can apply anti-corrosion washers or a small amount of dielectric grease on your battery’s posts. Another great anti-corrosion chemical is the AMSOIL heavy-duty metal protector, which can also be used to prevent rust. After you are done with the cleaning, connect the black battery cable with the negative post and the red cable with the positive post.
With all the above-mentioned steps, you won’t have to suffer from battery terminal corrosion again. Make sure that your battery is always charged and clean, and try not to take your car only for short rides. Also, keep jumper cables in your car in case you may need them.
Image by sylvar is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.0
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