How to Clean Car Battery Corrosion

Sometimes, especially with vehicles that aren’t used frequently, the battery terminals may oxidize. This means your car isn’t making a good connection to the battery, so you may have trouble starting your car, and the battery may also not be fully charging when you are driving.

Corrosion on a car battery doesn’t just look bad. It can limit the effectiveness of your battery, create issues when you’re starting the engine, or cause one of your dashboard warning lights to come on. Most Sydney drivers won’t notice car battery corrosion until they start to experience problems while driving. Before you start to remove corrosion from your car battery, make sure that you have exactly what you’ll need on hand. Make sure that you have the proper safety gear, including a mask.

What Causes the Battery to Corrode? 

Your battery heats up and cools down naturally as you drive, and releases hydrogen gas as part of the ventilation process. When this hydrogen comes into contact with surrounding materials near the terminals, corrosion is bound to occur. All car batteries need to be replaced eventually, but cleaning and managing corrosion can help to extend your battery’s life.

How to Clean Car Battery Corrosion 

The very first step is to wear your safety gloves and start disconnecting the battery cables. You will need to use a spanner or socket to get the cables loose. Check the cables carefully for any signs of excess wear of peeling insulation. If the cables are damaged, you may need to replace them.

Apply a paste of baking soda and hot water, or use a battery cleaning spray to neutralise the corrosion and start removing it. If there’s a lot of corrosion, you may need to use a brush to scrub it off the terminals.

Use a microfiber cloth to dry the battery, terminals, and cables once you’ve removed the corrosion.

Once the battery is dry, reconnect the cables. Be careful not to overtight them.

How to Prevent Battery Corrosion? 

Performing maintenance work consistently, using a commercial spray treatment on the battery, making sure the battery is properly charged, and coating the terminals with petroleum jelly or battery grease can help you prevent corrosion.

It’s important to keep the car battery free of corrosion to keep the vehicle in good working condition. Thankfully, the procedure on how to clean car battery corrosion is very easy to do. It only requires a few simple steps and some caution.