How to Test and Replace a Bad Car Battery
- Thread starter Paul Steinberg
- Start date
He has very nice blu gloves.
I presume the recommended helper is there to summon paramedics when he screws up more.
Baking soda paste on terminals BAD idea.. If you have terminal corrosion the seal between post & envelope has been broken and the terminal cell is outgassing acid. The fix is to clean the joint and apply silicone, preferably electric grade non outgassing. Trigger the silicone with water and have coffee.
Lead oxidises faster than I typed oxydizes, so have your terminal clean and ready to go with conductive grease in place so you can slip it onto the battery as soon as you remove the post cleaning tool.
The battery he cut open is a modern BuiltCheap grid plate cell structure with barely sufficient lead to work the day the battery was shipped. BuiltCheap and Johnson Control have both engineered pure junk batterys employing friction fit connectors to the plates and from cell to cell which self destruct at about the same rate as the drywall mud occupying the grid.
I can't strongly enough discourage his demonstration of a hot swapout. That technique can result in a "dead" battery exploding in your face.
If you must do a hot swap to protect electronics in the car, use the cigar lighter and a startpack or 12 volt gelcell as the protector.
NEVER EVER jump start a battery that is below 30° f unless you can be absolutely sure the dead battery isn't frozen. Frozen batterys are very loud when they blow up and they do throw acid ice and acid coated chunks great distance.
Engine driven StartAll machines can, do and will blow batterys apart, FAST.
I presume the recommended helper is there to summon paramedics when he screws up more.
Baking soda paste on terminals BAD idea.. If you have terminal corrosion the seal between post & envelope has been broken and the terminal cell is outgassing acid. The fix is to clean the joint and apply silicone, preferably electric grade non outgassing. Trigger the silicone with water and have coffee.
Lead oxidises faster than I typed oxydizes, so have your terminal clean and ready to go with conductive grease in place so you can slip it onto the battery as soon as you remove the post cleaning tool.
The battery he cut open is a modern BuiltCheap grid plate cell structure with barely sufficient lead to work the day the battery was shipped. BuiltCheap and Johnson Control have both engineered pure junk batterys employing friction fit connectors to the plates and from cell to cell which self destruct at about the same rate as the drywall mud occupying the grid.
I can't strongly enough discourage his demonstration of a hot swapout. That technique can result in a "dead" battery exploding in your face.
If you must do a hot swap to protect electronics in the car, use the cigar lighter and a startpack or 12 volt gelcell as the protector.
NEVER EVER jump start a battery that is below 30° f unless you can be absolutely sure the dead battery isn't frozen. Frozen batterys are very loud when they blow up and they do throw acid ice and acid coated chunks great distance.
Engine driven StartAll machines can, do and will blow batterys apart, FAST.
While I'm rolling; For those who wondered what's inside the plastic box, built in defects, and how it can be built into a battery.
Note that most of the battery is recycled in the process.
Also note the revision to the case to accommodate proper connection of the cell to cell connectors. Also note the connection is welded using a carbon rod to melt the lead. The rebuilt will probably have a longer life.
We had similar battery shops in the US into the 1970s when OSHA and EPA came along to declare the process dangerous. Before plastic case batterys the shell was hard rubber and the top was poured pitch with cell to cell connection on top of the battery which made finding a bad cell easy. Individual cells could be opened and replaced rather than scrapping the whole battery.
Also note the revision to the case to accommodate proper connection of the cell to cell connectors. Also note the connection is welded using a carbon rod to melt the lead. The rebuilt will probably have a longer life.
We had similar battery shops in the US into the 1970s when OSHA and EPA came along to declare the process dangerous. Before plastic case batterys the shell was hard rubber and the top was poured pitch with cell to cell connection on top of the battery which made finding a bad cell easy. Individual cells could be opened and replaced rather than scrapping the whole battery.