Comments on: How to Clean Car Battery Terminals

By: Don

Don — Sat, 12 May 2012 15:04:15 +0000

The cables are copper and attach to the lead clamps, therefore putting a copper penny in to stop corrosion is pointless since there’s already copper there. Coke has carbonic acid, so it does not neutralize the sulfuric acid in the corrosion, and has been proven to be bad to use.

By: dana

dana — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 18:40:53 +0000

My car wouldn’t start yesterday so I cleaned the terminals with what I had (a screwdriver). Today I stopped at the store for baking soda and again my car wouldn’t start. I banged on it with a wrench and more corrosion had already built back up. It started and I made it home. I used the baking soda but haven’t had to leave yet. I hope it works.

By: Lola

Lola — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 21:28:18 +0000

ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS wear those safety goggles when working on the battery. I worked at the Eye Doctor’s for awhile and will never forget the handsome young daddy who came to the office for a recheck after having one eye destroyed because his battery exploded when he tried to clean it–he was just cringing when I looked at him because he was so self-concious of how he looked–and all I could imagine was how he now had to go through life with vision in only one eye, which would affect his whole future.

By: Mike I

Mike I — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 12:46:32 +0000

If you do use coke or something else like that to clean your battery terminals, FLUSH EVERYTHING with lots of clean water when you are done!

I’ve seen several cars where the metal around and under the battery casing has been badly rusted from this trick. Both coke and battery corrosion are acidic, together they’re just nasty as all get out!

By: Raza

Raza — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 12:23:50 +0000

I sent a comment but it seems I may have to send it again since its not here so far.

By: HenCho

HenCho — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:48:39 +0000

I used:

Baking soda + water = thick paste + toothbrush = brushed the posts and the clamps + 5 min + water = cleaned up the mess + dry paper towels = clean and dry posts/clamps + thin coat of Vaseline on posts/clamps + $3 posts cover from Advance Auto Parts = WIN!

This was two days ago, and so far so good.

**Remember: negative off first and on last.

By: Usman

Usman — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:59:36 +0000

Disconnect negative terminal first.

I want to correct Raj’s comment. While he is right about using baking soda solution for cleaning, he is wrong about disconnecting the positive terminal first.

Disconnecting the positive terminal first will risk creating a spark if the wrench accidentally hits the metal part of the car.

You should always disconnect negative terminal first in order to break the battery’s electrical path, then you can safely disconnect the positive terminal.

Then you can re connect the cables in the reverse order.

By: George.

George. — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:47:16 +0000

Odyssey batteries are better than optima. They are the same battery that the US army uses in the abrams tank. Sealed gel and a ton of cranking amps. More than the 750 cranking you are used too.

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 04:40:04 +0000

Scrub with a toothbrush and baking soda on dirty terminals, and clean the top of battery too. Remove negative and then positive terminals, and clean them with a wire brush terminal/post cleaning tool. I think that soaking a couple of inches of cable in a cup of baking soda solution is a great idea. Clean and dry all with water and a rag. Put anti-corrosion felt washers on your posts and then put the terminals back on, positive first and then negative. Tighten them up until they don’t wiggle, and then coat them with whatever grease you have. Whenever you look under your hood, wipe the top of the battery off with a rag or paper towel.

Now as to the chemistry teacher, why bother, would he listen?

Cheers, all.

By: GC

GC — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 16:39:45 +0000

Scotty is right.

Whether anyone believes he is annoying or not is irrelevant. What he was complaining about was that not only do so many people not know what they’re talking about, they’re spreading their misinformation as if it were Gospel.

I just had a battery terminal corrode enough to keep my car from starting. I had put *nothing* on the terminals when I put the battery in. It took three years for it to corrode that much. The moral is that if you try some trick to keep the corrosion away, you have to wait long enough for it to actually inhibit the corrosion before you can tell whether it worked or not. Six months or a year isn’t going to do it in most cases.