Car Battery Corrosion
 

My car battery, there is corrosion on the black negative wire. Light blue bubbly stuff around the black negative attached to the battery.

Anyone encounter such a situation before? What to do about it?

I've schedule to take my car into service next Tuesday. Hopefully nothing bad will happen within the next 6 days.

Should be no biggy.

its just corrosion. if its just started clean it off, you'll notice the metal connectors are copper in color now. just put a protectant on like grease on it and it shouldn't happen again.

Take a picture if you can.

Clean with some water and baking soda.. it should neutralise any acid that might cause the problem in the first place.

Where is your battery located? Front or rear?

http://i.ehow.com/images/GlobalPhoto...-main_Full.jpg

Well that's not my car battery, just a picture off the net. It's like that, the blue stuff that surrounds the connector to the battery.

My battery is in the front of my car. Yeah I read online, one technique is to mix water and baking soda and then wash off with water.

Blue stuff is copper sulfate. Most likely you had battery acid on your cable. It could happen if the battery decide to vent gas.

What you can do:

1. take the battery out and give it a good rinse. Check level and perhaps take it to a Canadian Tire or any battery place to evaluate the strength of the battery (ie check for dead cell).
2. inspect the battery tray area, if there is acid damage, remove the whole thing and rinse (away from the car). Clean, prime and paint.
3. use a small knife/ blade cut away the bubbly part of the wire and inspect the wire, if the wire is too far gone. You will need to cut it and reapply the battery terminal.
4. I would get some heatshrink and apply it to the end of the wire where the terminal meet to protect it.
5. Once you have torqued everything down, I would apply a thin layer of dielectric grease on the terminals.

i've just seen my mechanic use hot water and directly pour it on and comes right off

Yes copper sulfate is soluble. but you also want to inspect any damage to the tray and the wire. In mechanic's case, it is better to do it quick, since time is money.. besides you will be back for his service soon enough.

Thanks for the help, I'm gonna take some time on the weekend and work on this and hopefully, this stuff won't re-appear again.

if you do plan on using baking soda, just remember not to use too much of it, if it somehow gets inside the battery, it could neutralize the acid.

Try not to splatter any of the copper sulfate onto the paint work. One time a mechanic splattered some onto my paint while cleaning the battery and the stuff burned some holes into it. Luckily the dealer covered the cost of the repaint.

Copper Sulphate is a solid. It is probably caused by the residual acid. That's why you use copious amount of water. I would use cold water, because hot water just speeds up the reaction.