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The other day my neighbor wanted me to jump her car, and it wouldn't turn over at all. She knew a bit about what to do since her Dad at one time owned the old fashioned gas stations. She showed me the dusty stuff that looked like ashes from her battery. She tried to get the piece off of the battery and was cleaning all the corrosion off so we could jump it again, without success. My questions are: with cleaning the corrosion off, will the car accept the jump~? What else can she do besides this~? Thanks.
Remove the cables from the terminals and thoroughly clean both the terminals and the cable ends. They sell battery cleaning tools at any parts store for just a couple bucks, its essentially a specially shaped wire brush. Reinstall and then try to jump. If all the connections are good (including the jumper cables) and it still does not respond, then the problem is elsewhere.
Corroded connections can lead to a bad connection which would prevent the car from starting. You can try cleaning the connections, but depending on how bad it is, you might need to replace the terminals. These can be had at autozone for under $10 and take 15 mins to replace with basic hand tools.
Good clean tight terminals are necessary for proper operation. When terminals begin to corrode, you can start having issues like dead batteries, or poor charging
You can wash the terminals with plain old water. For a more thorough job, removed the battery cables and clean both the terminal and cable connectors with a wire brush to allow a better electrical connection between the two.
Also check those cables to see if the oxidation isn't crawling down the cables.
Also, be careful liquids as it will stain your white concrete driveway.
at the risk to many cars today of frying the electronics when you disconnect the jumper battery cables on the now running car "without the battery".
Best to clean the battery terminals and cables in the car that needs to be jumped. While plain water trickled over the connections will give results in time, the better way is to use a mild baking soda solution and then rinse the battery clean. Taking the connections apart afterwards and cleaning them may result in the battery having enough charge to now start the car ... or maybe not, and it will still need to be jumped to get it going, but mechanically cleaning the battery connections is not optional for a "more thorough job". It's part of the job to begin with and many times those connections are in poor condition long before there's a lot of exterior corrosion that needs to be cleaned off. You won't know until completing the clean-up process and securing the clean battery connections.
I have used ammonia to clean up this sort of corrosion, just be sure not to get it into the battery itself, or it will partially neutralize the acid (and may cause some foaming). You do need to rinse well with clean water afterwards.
There are specific spray products like from CRC to protect the terminals from corrosion. A good "home remedy" is ordinary petroleum jelly, spread on the terminals.
You can also get felt washers to put under the terminals, at any chain auto parts store.
To expand on Sunsprit's post, IIRC any car with an alternator is subject to damage if you run the car disconnected or poorly connected to the battery. So we are not just talking late models here, but all the way back to the mid-60's. On older rigs the damage may be limited to the diodes in the alternator, but, still, most people will have to buy a rebuilt alternator at least to recover from the situation. Or you might only impair one or a couple of diodes such that the alternator charges but is weak.
at the risk to many cars today of frying the electronics when you disconnect the jumper battery cables on the now running car "without the battery".
Best to clean the battery terminals and cables in the car that needs to be jumped. While plain water trickled over the connections will give results in time, the better way is to use a mild baking soda solution and then rinse the battery clean. Taking the connections apart afterwards and cleaning them may result in the battery having enough charge to now start the car ... or maybe not, and it will still need to be jumped to get it going, but mechanically cleaning the battery connections is not optional for a "more thorough job". It's part of the job to begin with and many times those connections are in poor condition long before there's a lot of exterior corrosion that needs to be cleaned off. You won't know until completing the clean-up process and securing the clean battery connections.
I was just pointing out that if she clamped the jumper cables on the terminal clamps and it still didnt turn then there is something else that is wrong. Sometimes you have to wiggle the cable clamps a bit for it to bite into metal
Pour vinegar on the posts and tighten the terminals. IF you want to do a really good job, remove the terminals and soak both terminals and posts with vinegar. You can rinse them off too if you want. I never bother. Conceptually, you could short out between the posts through liquid. Never had it happen, but still may as well be careful not to connect the posts with liquid. Come to think of it I have had batteries completely underwater and they still work so maybe it is not a risk.
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