Cracked battery?

[supton]

Took advantage of the warm weather and did some work on the Camry. Found this. I thought I had squirted FF on there last year, maybe not. Never seen this much crud before. Battery is only four years old, never touched, never given grief.

Should I be shopping, or should I just hose it off and motor on?

 

[dishdude]

I'd start shopping for a battery. 4 years old and it's leaking = time for a new one.

 

[bullwinkle]

Clean it off, put a paste of baking soda & water on it, rinse it off. Use oil-impregnated felt washers & hose it down liberally with battery protectant. Every Johnson Controls battery I have has done it to some extent (usually not that bad)-I've even put white lithium grease around the clamps on a few of mine, gets messy, though.

 

[zzyzzx]

Just clean it and keep using it.

 

[JHZR2]

Someone overtightened the clamp and busted the terminal seal.

Plus, IME, toyota cars are very prone to this. Euro and domestics don't seem to do this so badly.

I don't think FF is the right product for those applications. Good dielectric grease or the liquid brush-on Noco are the right products.

 

[Bluestream]

You have a wet post. (often caused by tugging or reefing on the post) Nothing you can do will fix it or mitigate it over time

 

[cat843]

Its a JCI batter but is now a leaker. Either replace it or clean it off a couple of times a year with baking soda/water paste.

My guess is someone tried to get the stuck connector off the terminal post by twisting rather than a terminal puller.

 

[Tones]

All Toyota batteries have done this to me. I took my Avalon in during the warranty period for this reason and they comped the battery. The new one only lasted 2.5 years and also leaked. Just replaced my Corolla battery and it had similar corrosion. Their batteries are junk. New battery AA Gold BTW. Good deal with coupons.

 

[Tdbo]

Seal on the terminal is bad or someone over cranked the cable on the terminal and cracked it.
It won't stop leaking so you can 1) clean it and use it as long as the battery tests well or 2) replace to avoid the constant gunk buildup.

 

[SrDriver]

Wal-Mart here has a battery for your vehicle for $48,88 and tax.

 

[kb27]

The corrosion salt is common.

I use battery terminal cleaner to clean the salt.

Then recently I tried using a Solo pressurized hand sprayer filled with plain water as a water jet. Surprisingly, it clean off the terminal very well.

 

[The_Eric]

Originally Posted By: bullwinkle
Clean it off, put a paste of baking soda & water on it, rinse it off. Use oil-impregnated felt washers & hose it down liberally with battery protectant. Every Johnson Controls battery I have has done it to some extent (usually not that bad)-I've even put white lithium grease around the clamps on a few of mine, gets messy, though.


I agree to all of it. There is a reason I won't install JCI made batteries.

 

[Kira]

Hello,
Collect baking soda, battery brush, felt washers, dielectric grease, small brush, spray can of terminal protectant, piece of paper.
Remove battery and clean it. Clean the battery's environs. It looks like you live on a dirt road.
Use the battery brush to clean the clamp. Do not overlook the underside of the clamp.
Make a mask out of the paper and spray the terminals, add the felt washers, clamp it up and spray the clamps once in place.

See what develops. Kira

 

[HerrStig]

Originally Posted By: The_Eric
Originally Posted By: bullwinkle
Clean it off, put a paste of baking soda & water on it, rinse it off. Use oil-impregnated felt washers & hose it down liberally with battery protectant. Every Johnson Controls battery I have has done it to some extent (usually not that bad)-I've even put white lithium grease around the clamps on a few of mine, gets messy, though.


I agree to all of it. There is a reason I won't install JCI made batteries.
I've got 4 Camrys, three came with Panasonic batteries which have been very long lasting. I use the red and green acid neutralizing washers from Wallyworkd. Very cheap insurance. Don't gorilla the battery clamp bolts.
On Toyotas you can replace the post termninal, the cable has it's own terminal and bolts to the battery terminal.

 

[supton]

I hav some of those felt washers. I will clean and see about testing at some point. I should see about getting a battery tester.

Wfe does drive aome on dirt roads, but not that much. I don't hose off the engine, maybe in springtime but certainly not often.

 

[bullwinkle]

Originally Posted By: Tdbo
Seal on the terminal is bad or someone over cranked the cable on the terminal and cracked it.
It won't stop leaking so you can 1) clean it and use it as long as the battery tests well or 2) replace to avoid the constant gunk buildup.
Shoot, I have a dual terminal AZ Gold (made by JC) on my GMC, using the side terminal cables, & the top post on one side is corroded-& it's NEVER HAD A CLAMP ON IT, ever! This is Johnson Controls' one flaw-bad or non-existent terminal seals-fortunately (for me) they outlast all the others if you take care of them. The secondary one on my GMC is an Interstate Megatron Plus-it's now over 10 years old & still tests OK.

 

[artificialist]

Originally Posted By: Tones
All Toyota batteries have done this to me. I took my Avalon in during the warranty period for this reason and they comped the battery. The new one only lasted 2.5 years and also leaked. Just replaced my Corolla battery and it had similar corrosion. Their batteries are junk. New battery AA Gold BTW. Good deal with coupons.

I don't see this happen when the Toyota factory battery is a Panasonic. However, usually only Japanese cars that were made over there had a Panasonic battery.

Anyway, get a high quality replacement battery, and get a brass marine battery terminal to bolt to the existing battery cable.

This is one of those tricks I learned from working with a variety of different people in the auto repair business.

 

[Tdbo]

Originally Posted By: bullwinkle
Originally Posted By: Tdbo
Seal on the terminal is bad or someone over cranked the cable on the terminal and cracked it.
It won't stop leaking so you can 1) clean it and use it as long as the battery tests well or 2) replace to avoid the constant gunk buildup.
Shoot, I have a dual terminal AZ Gold (made by JC) on my GMC, using the side terminal cables, & the top post on one side is corroded-& it's NEVER HAD A CLAMP ON IT, ever! This is Johnson Controls' one flaw-bad or non-existent terminal seals-fortunately (for me) they outlast all the others if you take care of them. The secondary one on my GMC is an Interstate Megatron Plus-it's now over 10 years old & still tests OK.


I had the original battery (JC) on the Odyssey in my signature that looked exactly like the OP's picture. It had never had the cables off of it until year 2, when I took them off to clean up the mess.
I put the felt washers on it and still 2x's a year had to clean the terminals.
Finally got sick of it and when AA had a strong discount code, put a Gold in it. I haven't had to clean anything since.

 

[totegoat]

New batteries should get the washers and grease treatment, plus regular checkups.

 

[SHOZ]

I use sudsy ammonia to neutralize the acid and wash off the corrosion. Works great and not near as messy as baking soda.