Preventing Dead Car by Wet Terminals?

This morning the Samurai wouldn't start, after being washed last night. Obviously something inside the wheeled cheese grater got wet. Once I took a good look at the positive battery terminal (which is well-covered by a rubber cap, BTW) I saw some whitish residue. When I took off the connector the terminal had a thick coating of this residue. I cleaned it off and it fired right up.

What's the best thing I can do to prevent this from happening again? This is an especially big problem on an offroading vehicle.

I've looked around and seen suggestions of coating the terminal and connector with dielectric grease and then hooking it up, which should displace the grease to give contact and keep moisture out. Something about coating the things with an insulating grease doesn't feel good to me though. I've also seen suggestions of hooking up the terminal first and then coating it with grease, but that doesn't sound much better.

I've also heard of using conducting greases, which seems to make more sense at first, but then I hear about problems with these greases hardening, oozing out and bridging the terminals, and generally not working.

Any suggestions?

Coca Cola

GameboyRMH wrote: Any suggestions?

Yeah, clean the battery terminals more often. You should neutralize the acid in the corrosion by scrubbing the terminals and the battery with an old toothbrush and a solution of baking soda and water. Once they're clean, I've used a bit of regular old grease, Vaseline, or a smear of antisieze and they all seem to work equally well to slow down the return of the corrosion. Another idea - most auto parts stores sell little washer-shaped felt rings you put under the battery clamps that are impregnated with something that helps keep the corrosion away, and they seem to work pretty good too.

Beer works at least as well as Cola. In my experience it seemed to work better.

Everything runs better on beer.

Want an "old School" remedy? Place a sacrfical penny on top of each terminal.

It will corrode and grow! Looking gross and fuzzy.

But you Will NOT have corrosion inside the connection.

When the penny disapears, replace.

SoloSonett wrote: Want an "old School" remedy? Place a sacrfical penny on top of each terminal. It will corrode and grow! Looking gross and fuzzy. But you Will NOT have corrosion inside the connection. When the penny disapears, replace.

Not everyone has such a nice disposable income.

Why do you dislike di-electric grease? Thats what its made for. Greatest stuff ever for electronic connections. I only dislike how it attracts dust on open connections.

I had an old lady tell me she would pour a pot of boiling water over her battery terminals once a month to prevent corrosion...Not sure how well that works.

EastCoastMojo wrote: Beer works at least as well as Cola. In my experience it seemed to work better.

What a terrible waste of beer!

Unless it's cheap beer...

EastCoastMojo wrote: Everything runs better on beer.

Yes. Yes it does.

Used the coke & vaseline method, hopefully this should keep the terminals clean and dry. I'll try and get some felt rings as well.

Actually, stupid as they sound, those chemical-impregnated red and green felt washers that they have by the cash register at AutoPepZoneBoys really work very well to reduce corrosion.

I've always used a combination of the washers and a little smear of vaseline. Works for me.

CoryB wrote:

EastCoastMojo wrote: Beer works at least as well as Cola. In my experience it seemed to work better.

What a terrible waste of beer! Unless it's cheap beer...

EastCoastMojo wrote: Everything runs better on beer.

Yes. Yes it does.

"re-cycle " the beer first! Just be careful not to hit both posts at once!

SoloSonett wrote: "re-cycle " the beer first! Just be careful not to hit both posts at once!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1ahQrQmNDI

Ignore the Lion King visuals.

Why do you dislike di-electric grease? Thats what its made for. Greatest stuff ever for electronic connections.

Dielectric grease is fine on the outside, but wait until you get it burned inside that connection. It insulates superbly in the burned state, and is quite a bear to scrape off enough to re-establish electrical flow.

Not being content to learn that with the electrical contacts on things like window switches I did it on battery terminals as well.

Boy butter is cheap, handy and darn effective.