another reason for Optima/Exide
another reason for Optima/Exide
Battery light was occasionally coming on in my wife's '94 SC4. I checked it out the first time it happened and the terminals has a small bit of corrosion on them (which I cleaned) and the battery was a bit low on water (topped off with distilled). Two weeks later she says it dis it again, so off I went to get an Optima as a replacement. Once I got the old battery out, I noticed a lot of corrosion around the edge of the battery tray. All this had been covered up by the factory battery shield. I cleaned it up enough to get the new red top in and figured I'd give it a good cleaning once I got home.
I get home, remove the battery again and decide that I can only do it right by removing the battery tray and cleaning under it with baking soda. My first clue to a problem shoudl have been that the bolts holding the tray down were different size sockets. I later realized that the battery acid had etched away part of the hex head, making it a 9mm vs the 10 it used to be
). I finally get the battery tray out and find TWO HOLES in the metal shelf under the battery!!!. At some point (assuming before I got the car), someone dropped a battery into the tray, cracking it and ruining the elegant design of overspill/runoff management that Lexus designed. By opening a crack in the battery tray, when the battery had puked acid, it ended up under the tray, destroying the paint, and exposing the metal to corrosion by water/battery acid. No idea how long it had been like this, but it was long enough to open a nickle sized hole and another about the size of two quarters layed side by side.
I rinsed everything out and applied liberal coats of baking soda to neutralize any remaining acid. Dried everything out, hit the shelf with two coats of primer followed by two coats of Rustoleum satin black top coat. We're planning on having the car painted this fall/winter, so I'll have the shop weld a new panel when they're doing the other prep work.
Reason enough for me to consider replacing my other vehicles batteries with gel cells. Even a moderate amount of spilled/puked battery acid left unchecked can do serious damage. On the SC, it's harder to notice if you've got a problem, so if you've never pulled your battery and tray, it might be worth a few minutes of checking and preventative maintenance so you dont' end up like I did.
-twylie
I get home, remove the battery again and decide that I can only do it right by removing the battery tray and cleaning under it with baking soda. My first clue to a problem shoudl have been that the bolts holding the tray down were different size sockets. I later realized that the battery acid had etched away part of the hex head, making it a 9mm vs the 10 it used to be
). I finally get the battery tray out and find TWO HOLES in the metal shelf under the battery!!!. At some point (assuming before I got the car), someone dropped a battery into the tray, cracking it and ruining the elegant design of overspill/runoff management that Lexus designed. By opening a crack in the battery tray, when the battery had puked acid, it ended up under the tray, destroying the paint, and exposing the metal to corrosion by water/battery acid. No idea how long it had been like this, but it was long enough to open a nickle sized hole and another about the size of two quarters layed side by side.I rinsed everything out and applied liberal coats of baking soda to neutralize any remaining acid. Dried everything out, hit the shelf with two coats of primer followed by two coats of Rustoleum satin black top coat. We're planning on having the car painted this fall/winter, so I'll have the shop weld a new panel when they're doing the other prep work.
Reason enough for me to consider replacing my other vehicles batteries with gel cells. Even a moderate amount of spilled/puked battery acid left unchecked can do serious damage. On the SC, it's harder to notice if you've got a problem, so if you've never pulled your battery and tray, it might be worth a few minutes of checking and preventative maintenance so you dont' end up like I did.
-twylie
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