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Acid leaking from battery

8K views 21 replies 6 participants last post by  Mo Cruze 
#1 ·
I had a bad battery. Battery was dead could not start car when I opened Hood there was lots of powdery acid corrosion around the terminal. I jumped the car and went and got a new battery two weeks later there's a bunch of powdery acid on this new
battery could the battery be bad or does this mean that my alternator is overcharging? Any help would be much appreciated thank you
 
#3 ·
Before installing the new battery did you clean the area around the battery, including all the terminal connections? If not you are probably looking at leftover from the old battery.
 
#5 ·
Update I just went to Advanced Auto and had them test the battery and charging system (said it was charging a little high)and he told me the battery was okay that it's the regulator or a sensor or something. Can anybody help me figure this out here are the pictures from the test.
 
#7 ·
Define high on the charging system. 15v is normal for charging a 12v battery.
 
#15 ·
At 106*F your no load charging voltage should be no greater than 14.2V, 15.17V is way too high, you are overcharging, sounds like your field transistor is partially shorted.

All I can say as about nine years ago, no longer made in the USA, made in China someplace.

They no longer replace the voltage regulator, just replace the entire alternator.

Looks like you have two problems, the alternator and the battery, like Robby said, should not be leaking at that terminal, does have vents. If you had caps, would learn the electrolyte is low.

China does not have to put up with the EPA, OSHA. ERA. the IRS, high property tax bills, and chipping in with high health insurance cost, so can outbid us buy a penny a unit. Also a 40 hour week with vacation and holiday days off. So another nice factory gathering dust. Consumer pays the price.
 
#11 ·
Just because it tested OK has nothing to do with this concern.

Each battery post is (supposed to be) sealed were it exits the case......otherwise, acid and hydrogen gas wick up the post and destroy the cables (and anything else it gets on).

If the battery is actually being overcharged it will outgas from those 2 little vent ports sticking out the side of the case (unless the installer forgot to pull the shipping plugs).

Rob
 
#12 · (Edited)
so are you saying you think it's the battery itself? It's weird cause my last battery that was doing the same thing died went bad and now this new ones doing it too made me think it wasn't the battery but Chevy said it was the battery was leaking and advance Auto hearts said it wasn't the battery. SMH I actually bought it at AutoZone and is under warranty but I didn't want to bring it and say the battery was bad and then it wasn't the battery and they might void my warranty if it was my charging system messing it up.
 
#13 · (Edited)
I am saying the battery case seals at the terminal exit points are not sealing as designed. A construction defect.

It sounds like you had a post seal failure in conjunction with a internal battery (electrical) with your previous battery.

Post seal failures are uncommon but I see several a year........you are the lucky one that got two in a row.

The battery is leaking at the posts.....return it for one that doesn't.

Rob


Edit and addition: Last year I replaced the battery on one of my motorcycles......never had terminal corrosion till this replacement.
Yep, leaking at the positive post......vendor replaced it without whining.

Just a fyi.

Rob (again)
 
#21 ·
Only time I would see greater than 15 volts is when the ambient temperature was like -30*F, perfectly normal regulator is temperature compensated at -13.5 millivolts per degree Celsius. When the temperature goes down, that voltage goes up.

But may not be the alternator at all, it must be able to sense the battery terminal voltage. With mine, could not do this, both the positive and negative battery terminals were crimped on bare copper wire, copper oxide, ever here of a copper oxide rectifier? Was use for over 60 years before solid state came out.

I soldered those connections on mine, solved a bunch of problems just using a DVM checking for voltage drops when under load. Even the alternator mounting can be a problem, aluminum oxide, also a good insulator, wire brush cures this, and even some silicon grease to help retard corrosion.

Computers are a problem, require a good power on reset, program counter has to be set to zero to start reading code from the beginning or get all kinds of strange codes.

Ha, SAE Engineering had a series of articles on this subject, all common sense, should look into the food industry, can toss an aluminum pop can in a ditch, looks like new ten years later. Over 500 different alloys of aluminum, some are good, others are not so good.

First rule in getting good electrical connections is to never use dissimilar metals, causes electrolysis, ha, this rule is broken a zillion times.
 
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