Blue-white powder on negative battery terminal...

[_G_]

and foam to boot... is this dangerous?

can I just clean it with baking soda and water OR do I need to use my battery charger to desulph the battery?

Strange! never had this before!

Thanks

G-Man

 

[Ste_Nova]

hot water to clean it up, how old is the battery?

 

[jojo]

hot water to clean it up, how old is the battery?

This, boil a kettle of water and pour over. I would say the battery is probably due for replacement soon.

 

[_G_]

It's about a year old now. Read up around this and it happens commonly with lead-acid batteries when they have been subjected to excess heat or under-charged. Could possibly say it was under-charged and struggled feeding the hungry onboard accessories because it is only a 72Ah and I know that the official recommended is 74Ah but doubt this...

Apparently it can be desulphated as the sulphur is not too bad on this battery... the common misconception is that it is dead or going to die soon but I am going to try this first: CTEK MXS 5.0 battery charger review | Auto Express

Wish me luck... I don't fancy forking out £80+ for a new battery... and this time I will cover the terminals with vaseline or something. Cheers.

 

[_G_]

Update... the CTEK did nowt. I thought powder sulfation could be reversed. The more I am reading up around this apparently sulfation is irreversible once it has set in. This is very poor for a top of the range Exide battery. Unlucky! It is not holding charge but will get me through to the weekend and I will lobb in a Bosch HSB010.. the mother of all batteries.

 

[jojo]

Update... the CTEK did nowt. I thought powder sulfation could be reversed. The more I am reading up around this apparently sulfation is irreversible once it has set in. This is very poor for a top of the range Exide battery. Unlucky! It is not holding charge but will get me through to the weekend and I will lobb in a Bosch HSB010.. the mother of all batteries.

I'm using an Exide battery, guess I better check it regularly.

 

[_G_]

It's a common thing for lead-acid batteries... they need maintaining and I did not know this coming from 10+ years of using calcium batteries and always being an advocate for calc. They just need to be kept fully charged and conditioned about once a year. In hindsight (I hate that word) I probably did kill it quicker... because I always have the aircon on/climate control on. Sometimes I make a short journey in the day 1 mile to a different location and I guess because it is a short journey it must be killing it... I do this about once a day... then my other theory is... sitting in the car for about 30 minutes in the mornings and the hazard light switch takes 30 minutes to time out... x 5 a week and that must be a drain?!

 

[CHEZ]

just remember to copper grease the terminals after fitting! sorted! wont happen again! :icon_thumright: