This morning the Samurai wouldn't start, after being washed last night. Obviously something inside the wheeled cheese grater got wet. Once I took a good look at the positive battery terminal (which is well-covered by a rubber cap, BTW) I saw some whitish residue. When I took off the connector the terminal had a thick coating of this residue. I cleaned it off and it fired right up.
What's the best thing I can do to prevent this from happening again? This is an especially big problem on an offroading vehicle.
I've looked around and seen suggestions of coating the terminal and connector with dielectric grease and then hooking it up, which should displace the grease to give contact and keep moisture out. Something about coating the things with an insulating grease doesn't feel good to me though. I've also seen suggestions of hooking up the terminal first and then coating it with grease, but that doesn't sound much better.
I've also heard of using conducting greases, which seems to make more sense at first, but then I hear about problems with these greases hardening, oozing out and bridging the terminals, and generally not working.
Any suggestions?
You should neutralize the acid in the corrosion by scrubbing the terminals and the battery with an old toothbrush and a solution of baking soda and water. Once they're clean, I've used a bit of regular old grease, Vaseline, or a smear of antisieze and they all seem to work equally well to slow down the return of the corrosion. Another idea - most auto parts stores sell little washer-shaped felt rings you put under the battery clamps that are impregnated with something that helps keep the corrosion away, and they seem to work pretty good too.
What a terrible waste of beer!
