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BATTERY TERMINALS PROTECTION 12 years 2 months ago #34821

What do you use on your battery terminals to stop the white furry growth :-?

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Last edit: Post by Leigh Ping. Reason: Selected as a WOW! guide (words of wisdom - view them at the bottom of the how to guides section). Thanks Bryan :)

Re: BATTERY TERMINALS PROTECTION 12 years 2 months ago #34823

Vaseline is very good, I used it on all of my classics :)
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Re: BATTERY TERMINALS PROTECTION 12 years 2 months ago #34824

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Battery terminal grease. :yesnod:

For those of us that don't have Vaseline. :unsure:

Wurth Battery Terminal Grease
Completed
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Re: BATTERY TERMINALS PROTECTION 12 years 2 months ago #34968

I use dielectric grease on battery terminals and every lucar connector on older British cars.
Mark
95 MGF
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Last edit: Post by Leigh Ping. Reason: Selected as a POW! (Pearl of wisdom - view them at the bottom of the how to guides section). Thanks Mark :)

Re: BATTERY TERMINALS PROTECTION 12 years 2 months ago #35037

Vaseline, or petroleum jelly is always recomended in the text books, however some garden variety lithium grease will work fine. I think the difference is that you can smear the terminal with the correct gloop before fitting and tightening the clamp, while this may give a high resistance with lithium grease.. So i go over my terminals after assembly I always put a thin film around the terminal on the plastic of the battery case for a few mm just to stop water laying there. I also put a smear over the earth point of the battery -ve strap, just in case it is close enough to get some chemicals on it.
This works fine for years, it seems to be keeping water away thats the key.
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Re: BATTERY TERMINALS PROTECTION 12 years 2 months ago #35065

Water and air are the culprits.
I also use dielectric grease having owned cars with the dreaded Lucar connectors in the past.
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Re: BATTERY TERMINALS PROTECTION 12 years 2 months ago #35147

THANK YOU FOR ALL OF THE ANSWERS so far :thumbsup:

The reason i started the thread was because an "EXPERT" (we all know what an expert is!!) has written a letter to the MGOC and is published in the January 2012 issue (page 43) titled Dangers of Vaseline and stating "" in particular to the danger of adding a dollop of Vaseline to battery terminals. VASELINE is a petroleum jelly and burns furiously if ignited, for example by a spark!!!!!!!

Vaseline has been the choice of thousands of mechanics for umteen years for battery terminals and i am not aware of any underbonnet fire occouring. It will burn, when the jelly is heated so much that it gives off a vapour which can then be ignited as it is the vapour that burns.

i am going to do a little experiment to see if i can ignite a dollop of the stuff on a battery terminal, and will post the results ~ if you hear a large bang call the fire brigade :evil:
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Re: BATTERY TERMINALS PROTECTION 12 years 2 months ago #35148

If your battery terminals are tightened properly there is no danger of a spark. Electricity would have to jump a gap in order to create a spark. The only other cause would be something metal shorting out on the positive terminal in which case a little vaseline would be the least of your problems. And I say "A little" as you only need a thin coating to protect the terminal. All you are doing is trying to keep air out. A dollop is unnecessary and would only create the ideal "S**t on a Blanket" scenario.
Having worked in an MG garage in my distant past I can say globs of grease on battery terminals is worse than a fur coat of corrosion. All it takes to remove the corrosion is a kettle full of boiling water followed by a proper terminal clean with a wire brush or some sandpaper. A smear of grease/Vaseline just tales a wipe with a rag, but too much grease is a messy waste of time to clean off..
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Re: BATTERY TERMINALS PROTECTION 12 years 2 months ago #35167

12v wont jump much of a gap so we can ignore sparks.Of course when you stop cranking 100A to zero in few milliseconds will generate a few volts, this is how an ignition coil works. But to get a good cranking current you need solid connections at the battery posts so no gap, no sparks.A high impedance in the starter circuit will generate a few watts and i have seen smoke coming off of battery posts with poor contacts. With some guess numbers, if we had 1/2 ohm at a post and short circuit elesewhere this would result in 24A max (internal losses in the battery would see terminal voltage go down to about 9v. ). Power is I x I/r I make this 1 Kw. So there is the sort of heat you need to generate to simulate what i think would be the worst case.
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Re: BATTERY TERMINALS PROTECTION 12 years 2 months ago #35171

That would be an uncommon occurence but regardless, as long as you just used a thin film of grease it would tend to fry off rather than catch fire, and if it did burn it wouldn't have enough fuel to burn for more than a few seconds.
Your odds of frying some wiring due to a short is much greater.
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Re: BATTERY TERMINALS PROTECTION 12 years 2 months ago #35325

:evil: :evil: I have now done a "burn" test on some Vaseline and i had a real problem in getting it to light!!!!!!! :rant: I put about half a tea spoonful (a very large dollop) on the bottom of an upturned baked bean can , first of all i tried lighting it with the spark generator on the blow torch and nothing, then tried lighting it with a match, again nothing, then i tried lighting it with the blow torch flame, still nothing at all. it would not light at all :rant: :rant: I then heated the liquid Vaseline with the blowtorch flame and it would still not catch alight, even though it was generating a lot of smoke. it did catch alight in the end with a very poor small flame, which was as easy to blow out as the candles on a birthday cake.

I am satisfied that Vaseline is NOT HIGHLY INFLAMMABLE and as far as i am concerned will continue to ues it for battery terminals and of course all of the other uses it was intended for :omg:

Thank all of you for your help and advice and i shall be writing to the "numpty" who had his letter in Enjoying MG. :whistle:
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Re: BATTERY TERMINALS PROTECTION 12 years 2 months ago #35330

I'll look forward to seeing your rebuttal complete with the scientific test, pictures and a link to the video! :thumbsup:
That'll teach Mr. Numpty to try to pull the wool over The T-Bar Tech Experts!
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