2001 Camry V6 - can't find a decent ground

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I've been talking about a car that I've been maintaining the battery while the owners are on vacation. In the past I've helped jump it.

However, I'm just wondering if there's something wrong when I'm using a jump starter or a charger/maintainer. I rarely can find a metal part that's well grounded and just take my chances by connecting to the negative post. I understand the biggest worry is maybe that a depleted battery is gassing hydrogen and that a spark could set it off. I've tried bolts, the engine block, etc. The one time I did get what seemed to be a decent ground connection was clamped to a metal thingy hanging off the ATF dipstick tube.

Is there a ground cable somewhere that might need replacement or maybe loosening to scrape off corrosion? I remember I'd replace the ground cable in a couple of Integras and a lot of issues would go away. However, I could easily see it when the hood was open.

I also bought a few $5 coupon special battery float chargers/maintainers at Harbor Freight. Those ones seems to come with a lot of specific instructions - that it's only meant for maintaining a fully charged battery, that the battery should test to at least 12V before using, and that the clamps should be connected directly to the battery posts. They also have at least three models, and they seem to differ by the wall-wart and maybe the clamps have a slightly different design. They're all 13.2V supplies drawing 14 or 15 watts, so I'm not sure what's with the variety. One part number came in a box, while the others came in blister packs.
 
Battery maintainers are pretty limited on current (otherwise it'd be a charger), so a good ground shouldn't be so necessary. I'd go directly to the battery; the big issue is sparks near a charging battery, during connect/disconnect. A fully charged battery isn't making hydrogen.

Is this an older car with some rust under the hood? I can't quite tell from your description.
 
Originally Posted By: supton
Battery maintainers are pretty limited on current (otherwise it'd be a charger), so a good ground shouldn't be so necessary. I'd go directly to the battery; the big issue is sparks near a charging battery, during connect/disconnect. A fully charged battery isn't making hydrogen.

Is this an older car with some rust under the hood? I can't quite tell from your description.

It's also sort of a semantic issue to some degree. I think I'd have no problem hooking up a Schumacher 1.5A float charger for a few days to charge up a dead battery. With one of these cheapie Harbor Freight units that might put out a half amp tops, I'm not even sure one might not damage the battery or destroy itself.

I tried my new Schumacher unit today on this car - the latest SEM-1562A-CA. I could actually get it to start charging connected to the dipstick clip. This one doesn't even turn its lights on unless it senses a connection. My older unit would show a fully charged light if the clamps were unconnected. This one seems to switch off if unconnected. With the new one it wouldn't charge at all when I tried various spots for the ground, including various bolts on the front, the valve cover, etc. Only the ATF dipstick clip seemed to work.
 
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