Originally Posted By: Built_Well
Originally Posted By: Tones
3 Toyotas starting in 2001 and every one of the OEM batteries leaked. They seem to leak around the terminals and corrode the clamps.
You might want to add a little bit of vaseline / petroleum jelly to the metalic clamps, nuts, and post at the battery termninal. The treated felt pads seemed to stop some corrosion where the pads are located, but just millimeters away from the pads, corrosion returned after just a couple days--lots of pillowy blue corrosion. So I cleaned the corrosion off again, and applied vaseline.
I think it's been about 9 days now since applying vaseline, and I've seen no corrosion at all return. So the vaseline seems to work better than the pads. I guess the battery's leaking hydrogen gas interacts with the metal, but the vaseline stops the invisible gas from reaching the metal. My battery terminal looks very clean now.
I was worried the vaseline would melt and make a mess all over the battery once temperatures rose under the hood after driving the car for a while, but the vaseline has stayed where I applied it, making no mess at all and preventing corrosion. The stuff works great.
My battery started leaking after 9 years, so I'm very happy with the OEM Panasonic battery. Hopefully I can keep it for years to come. I've never had to add distilled water to it. Not sure I even can add water since the battery is labeled as "Maintenance Free," but perhaps if I pull away the rectangular "Maintenance Free" sticker, there may be a port under the sticker to add water--not sure. But I don't want to pull away the sticker unless I have to.
The Panasonic battery's sides are translucent so I can see the fluid inside slosh around if I rock the car a bit, and the fluid (with sulphuric acid as the electrolyte probably) is still well above the low mark.
I learned the vaseline trick in Chilton's Camry manual.
I use the felt pads, add extra white lithium grease to them & also on top of the clamps, & hit the battery top & metal retainers once a year or so with battery protectant spray-usually never have to take clamps off to clean them!