Get the funk out!!!
 

Here is something that just bugs the crap out of me. One of my cars has brass battery connectors and every few months I get this funky blue/green crap that grows on them that gives me a bad connection if not cleaned off. A year go with my new car I didn’t want to deal with the growth and just bought led battery connectors, needless to say this year when I fired up my system after it sat all winter as soon as I cranked up the volume the system would just shut down (engine off). I just thought the battery was weak from sitting all winter so I charged it up and the load tested it and it tested fine. Cranked up my system and wham it shutdown again. As it turned out, I have used a brass ring connector to attach my power wire to the led battery connector and it was coved with this funky blue/green crap.

Is there anyway to void this stuff from growing on brass connectors?

are you sure they are brass? sounds more like copper corosion than brass..

Mark

The power wire hook might be, its one of the crappy-tire 4 gauge ones that they sell for battery conntions. The battery connectors are stingers.

(GrizZz here, wife's PC)

Battery connections corrode, that's normal. Oxygen from the air combines with gases from the battery and causes corrosion. Some cars are worse than others. Some will never corrode at all. Ford's are the worst for battery corrosion... You can find a Ford new on the lot that was just built a month ago, and it'll have battery corrorsion already. The most popular battery sold in Canada, Exide's (aka Mopar, Canadian Tire, etc.), are the worst for causing corrsion Douglas batteries (Wal-Mart) are a close second. Delco's and Yuasa's have the least corrosion. Sealed batteries like Optima have little to no corrosion at all.

Pop the hood and hose it off. Cold is fine, but hot water always works better. Carefull not to knock any of the chunkys onto your skin, eyes, clothing, or where you don't want it ot go in the engine bay. Hosing it off gets rid of the chunkys and also cleans the case, which is also important (the slime that is on car batteries is electrolyte that has gassed and reformed on the outside of the battery. Electrolyte conducts electricity of course, so a shmooey battery can drain itself across the connection made on the outside of the battery. You can even get voltage readings using a multimeter on the case of a battery. A very shmooey battery can drain itself in a matter of a few days). Disconnect and clean each terminal. If it's a GM side post battery, make sure the rubber cover over the ring terminal and the cable itself don't look "pregnant". If it does, it's full of corrosion and needs to be replaced.

K, now you got it pretty clean. The best stuff is a product called "Fluid Film". We sell it for $16 a can at my shop. A WD40 alternative that never evaporates. Very pricey, but incredible stuff. It was originally invented for rust proofing submarines. You spray it on, and you can actually watch it consume rust & corrosion. I spray it on the rusty parts of my van to slow down decay, and it works mindblowingly well. You easterners that deal with nasty salt air and salt roads all the time, spray it on all your exposed engine bay bolts, like the top of the struts, rad mounts, etc. Watch it bubble and boil, is cool, yes? ;) It will then stay there, never evaporating, and not letting the nasties corrode all the bolts, saving you money in the long run. For added protection, add a terminal washer to the terminal and then soak it in Fluid Film. It may attract dirt after a month or two, but that's fine. It'll protect your terminals for a year or so, then next time, just hose off and respray.

There are also many alternative easy ways of protecting the terminals, all you're trying to do is lock out air from the connection. Coating the terminals in grease, vaseline, or even spray paint is very common and works well, but does not consume (or "attack?") existing corrosion like Fluid Film does.

Brass connectors will corrode less than lead. Lead is the worst type of battery connector for corrosion.

All of my connectors are a year old, the lead connector was totally clean as were the battery posts, the only thing that was corroded was the brass or copper hook at the end of my power cable. Your post got me thinking, What I am going to try is to coat the brass/copper connector with solder and then cover it with grease and see if that helps.

As mentioned above, dielectric grease works well, also.

Car batteries and their connections are not zero maintenance items. Although more often is better, one should be under there at least every 3months for an oil change anyway so that is a good time to give things the once over.

I spray mine with WD40 - it works and it's handy cuz I have it in the garage :thumbsup:

I like Rust Check thick and gooey undercoat. It stays there for a long time, but is very dirty and stinky.