Hey, do you want to know How to clean battery terminals? If yes. Then read this blog till the end.
Cleaning under your hood is just as important as polishing up the exterior of your car. If you learn how to clean battery terminals and are mindful to do so regularly, you can significantly extend the life of your battery. It doesn’t take a lot of time, plus, you can clean battery terminals corrosion with things you probably have at your home. It is very easy to spot a car battery corrosion. In most cases, particularly for older batteries, you might begin to notice a white, green-tinged coat layering around your car’s battery terminals. This build-up causes electrical resistance and leads to decreased performance and shorter life of the battery.
But like we said, once you learn how to clean battery terminal corrosion you don’t have to worry about your battery malfunctioning. Let us show you how to clean battery terminals on a car and keep battery corrosion at bay.
Things you need
- Baking Soda
- Old Brush
- Water
- Protective gloves
- Petroleum Jelly
- Rag
There’s no easier way to do it than the one we’ll discuss in this article. So if you want to know how to clean battery terminal corrosion, read on.
Steps to clean car Battery Terminals
Once you have collected all the things we mentioned above, here’s how you can start the cleaning process:
Step 1 – Disconnect the Battery
Firstly you need to disconnect the battery before beginning the cleaning procedure. In order to do it safely and prevent an electric shock start by disconnecting the negative battery cable and then follow with disconnecting the positive cable. It is very easy to identify between the two cables.
Check the marks on each cable. The negative is marked either by the sign (-) or the abbreviation ‘NEG’ or the color black. Whereas, the positive is marked by a (+) sign or the abbreviation ‘POS’ or the color red.
Step 2 – Use Baking Soda to Neutralise the Sulphuric Acid to Clean Battery Terminals
Once you have successfully disconnected the batteries, the rest of the procedure is as easy as it gets. Just take a glass of water and some baking soda and stir the two. After putting together the solution, take any used toothbrush and start scrubbing the corroded areas with the solution. Coat the battery terminals and areas affected by corrosion with the baking soda solution. You’ll see some bubbling as the two ingredients get working. This process neutralizes the corrosion which is very important for safe handling. You can also use this step on the ends of the battery cable
Step 3 – Rinse Off The Residue With Water and dry
After you are done with the above step, scrub off the corrosion with the toothbrush or any britled brush. This step needs to be performed very carefully because the solution or the corrosive elements can damage other car components. It is best to pull the whole battery out for this step. Also, if you use store supplies, make sure that the battery cleaning agent does not come in contact with your car’s painted surface. This is because some professional grade cleaning agents can leave a permanent stain on your car. After scrubbing off the corroded areas, rinse the residue off the cable ends and battery with clean water. Let it air dry or use a compressor to quicken the drying process.
Step 4 – Apply Petroleum Jelly
After everything has dried off, follow up by applying a thin coat of petroleum jelly over the battery terminals. This application boosts electricity conduciveness between the cable end and the terminals. It also shields the battery terminals against future corrosion.
Step 5 – Reconnect the Battery
Once you have scrubbed the corrosion off, let it all fully dry, and applied some petroleum jelly to the battery parts, you can reconnect your battery to the car. Perform this step in reverse i.e first connect the positive battery terminal before the negative one. Feel free to apply more corrosion preventive substances if you’d like to.
Voila! Now you know how to clean battery terminals on your own!
If you want you can also visit a Car Battery Expert to clean your car battery terminals.
So, that’s it from this blog. I hope you enjoyed this post. If you liked this article on
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