Scotty Posted July 15, 2004 Report Share Posted July 15, 2004 I will go out and look for codes but the last few days I have been getting a quick no battery on start. I want to think its the battery connections which was very badly corroded two weeks ago and which I cleaned. It has been raining here for a few days so its damp. I also want to say, that because I am gearing up to do my AC compressor, I have my splash shields off the pass side wheel well. In the old days this problem was caused by a bad connection at the battery. When this happens all of the items that reset on battery disconnect reset, clock, in DIC stuff like avg miles per gallon, etc. Just now I noticed that the CHARGE rate stayed down at 11.3 or so then jumped to 13.3. I am going out after lunch to clean the battery connections to see if that matters, but I think I will get some baking power first so that I can clean it good. Any Ideas? Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfoo Posted July 15, 2004 Report Share Posted July 15, 2004 Sounds like a simple problem. Loose wire, or short. extremely simple to fix, might be extremely difficult to FIND Good luck tracing wires if the battery connections aren't loose. Does it only happen when you click the starter? Maybe the starter is shorting on something? (most likely it's a loose wire though <bad connection>) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotty Posted July 15, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 15, 2004 Sounds like a simple problem. Loose wire, or short. extremely simple to fix, might be extremely difficult to FIND Good luck tracing wires if the battery connections aren't loose. Does it only happen when you click the starter? Maybe the starter is shorting on something? (most likely it's a loose wire though <bad connection>) I just went out and even though I cleaned the battery connections very good two weeks ago they were corroded again and it looks pretty nasty like I did not do it two weeks ago. I am going out with a baking soda mix to get the acid off. Any ideas as to why this acidy corrosion would come back so fast, maybe it was not tight enough (hard to believe)? Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfoo Posted July 15, 2004 Report Share Posted July 15, 2004 If it comes back THAT fast I would think the battery is leaking somewhere. It should not corrode that fast unless there is something wrong. Is it a maintenance free battery? Spray some spray lubricant or 'deep creep' on it. I use deep creep , made by the sea foam guys.. it is like wd-40 but better penetration and lubrication qualities (and it smells realllllllll nice lol </sarcasm>). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotty Posted July 15, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 15, 2004 If it comes back THAT fast I would think the battery is leaking somewhere. It should not corrode that fast unless there is something wrong. Is it a maintenance free battery? Spray some spray lubricant or 'deep creep' on it. I use deep creep , made by the sea foam guys.. it is like wd-40 but better penetration and lubrication qualities (and it smells realllllllll nice lol </sarcasm>). I have a feeling that I may have put the cables on improperly there are two cables on the positive terminal that piggy back each other plus there is a washer. If anyone has access to a scanner, if they could scan the proper cable arrangement at the positive battery terminal I would appreciate it. I just cleaned it up with baking soda and a wire brush, and looked it over really good. Two weeks ago I did not use the baking soda just a wire brush, and its possible that the remaining acid which I did not remove attacked the clean contacts. It has been really damp. I will go to Sears and get those terminal anti-acid thingys.... and install them. Thanks, I will keep an eye on the battery for leaking, its only a one year old AC DELCO. Thanks, Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfoo Posted July 15, 2004 Report Share Posted July 15, 2004 It doesn't matter where the wire goes as long as it's tight and doesn't move and of course it's on the right terminal you could just gob dielectric grease over everything but they do make some special stuff to put on it that works a little better but it's basically the same thing. Clean the whole battery and then you can tell where it's coming from if it's leaking bad.. if fumes are just coming out somewhere then it's very hard to tell and it will corrode all sorts of things near and around the battery which sucks. I've had it happen before. Luckily the battery in my sts is under the back seat so it doesn't get hit with the engine heat or as much water and weather as the ones under the hood do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adallak Posted July 15, 2004 Report Share Posted July 15, 2004 Mike, did you try some dielectric (bulb) grease? It might help if you have had some leakage. The saddest thing in life is wasted talent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotty Posted July 15, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 15, 2004 I cleaned it up good, and all seems fine again. I have a feeling that my cables were not making good connection, even though the bolt was tight. The cables created 4 deep dimples on the battery side, when I put the cables back I think that I put the cable back in the same dimples and it was not making good connection. Just stopped at Sears and picked up those anti-corrosion disks will install them this weekend. For now all looks good. It was just very odd that i had a problem with the terminals just having them off two weeks ago and wire brushing them. When I put my AC compressor in Ill take the battery out clean it and look it over closely. I dont have my splash shields on and I think driving in the rain I got the area wet, that probably lead to accelerated corrosion given that I had a lot of acid in the area. Thanks guys, Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgr7 Posted July 15, 2004 Report Share Posted July 15, 2004 You really do have to get that acid neutralized or it will keep comming back. I had a pretty ugly mess with the white corrosion on my batt holder brackets and I used one of those spray products on it and it hasn't come back yet. One good thing with that stuff is you can tell where the acid is, when you spray it on it really will foam up every place acid is. Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotty Posted July 15, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 15, 2004 You really do have to get that acid neutralized or it will keep comming back. I had a pretty ugly mess with the white corrosion on my batt holder brackets and I used one of those spray products on it and it hasn't come back yet. One good thing with that stuff is you can tell where the acid is, when you spray it on it really will foam up every place acid is. Jeff Jeff you are correct, I had heavy white acid everywhere two weeks ago, and it DID come back. I took the rubber covers off and soaked the lugs heavily with baking soda, and the connections look new. Thanks for your experience on this, Mike PS, its amazing how well the baking soda works it turns the acid blue and I sprayed it off with a hose... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAC Posted July 15, 2004 Report Share Posted July 15, 2004 I have the same problem ever since I installed an aftermarket alternator. When I start up in the morning I get a "Battery No Charge" fault. The volts read 11.3-11.8. However, today it took a turn for the worse as volts read about 9.8-10.0, which caused my traction control to disable. I started to worry and began to look for a place to pull over when all of a sudden the volts surged to 13.5 and remained in the safe zone all the way home. This has been the pattern. Diagnostics show that "Terminal L" in the alternator is not functioning. This weekend it looks like I’m finally going to have to go back to PepBoys and hope for a working alternator. This is the third aftermarket alternator. I'm going to see if they will order a new ACDelco. I'm willing to pay more money if it will solve the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotty Posted July 16, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2004 I have the same problem ever since I installed an aftermarket alternator. When I start up in the morning I get a "Battery No Charge" fault. The volts read 11.3-11.8. However, today it took a turn for the worse as volts read about 9.8-10.0, which caused my traction control to disable. I started to worry and began to look for a place to pull over when all of a sudden the volts surged to 13.5 and remained in the safe zone all the way home. This has been the pattern. Diagnostics show that "Terminal L" in the alternator is not functioning. This weekend it looks like I’m finally going to have to go back to PepBoys and hope for a working alternator. This is the third aftermarket alternator. I'm going to see if they will order a new ACDelco. I'm willing to pay more money if it will solve the problem. Oh, boy I hope this is not related to the alternator, but I don't think so... I do believe that my positive terminal was corroded... Will advice as to how this turns out. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
98Concours Posted July 16, 2004 Report Share Posted July 16, 2004 There's battery acid cleaner that comes in a spray can from the auto parts store. It works alot better than baking soda. Jeff Jeff 98 Concours 90 Seville 04 Corvette Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotty Posted July 16, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2004 There's battery acid cleaner that comes in a spray can from the auto parts store. It works alot better than baking soda. Jeff Jeff, yes you mentioned that above, I plan to look into it, Thanks, Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
98Concours Posted July 16, 2004 Report Share Posted July 16, 2004 Oh, I didn't see the other Jeff mentioned it. sorry Jeff Jeff 98 Concours 90 Seville 04 Corvette Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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