lxus2001

So, my car has a habit of getting into episodes where every shift is very rough and my navigation screen will turn off and restart while driving. Lights also flicker wildly when this occurs. Only happens about once every two months, and I regularly clean the battery as there is usually corrosion where the cable meets the terminal. Is this the sign of a bad battery? A bad cable? Alternator replaced about half a year ago

OilMemes

Here's a little (hopeful relevant!) story for you..
About a couple months back, I switched to AGM for my battery on my 01 Rx (Non NAV), and this new battery was about an inch shorter in height than the regular, liquid flooded battery.
Because of this height difference, the retaining bracket at first would not hold the battery completely down. Sometimes, while driving around, I would suddenly notice similar symptoms as what you describe: e.g. hard shifting, lights on instrument panel and dash flickering, Climate control display blink off for ~0.50 s and then suddenly come back on.

The reason? The unsecured battery bouncing around under the hood while driving, disconnected the negative cable, and so everything electronic was running exclusively from alternator, without the capacitor function the battery provided. Pulling over and slipping the clamp back on to the post would solve immediately this problem. (I eventually bought the spacer from Amazon which allowed the battery to raise by ~1.5 " and so I could properly secure the retaining bracked to hold the battery in place correctly. Since then, no cable has come off even with spirited driving and thankfully this issues never reoccurred.)

I suggest you verify all cabled that the battery connect to, as something may got separated while the vehicle is in motion to produce such symptoms.

lxus2001

I did what you suggested and slipped the clamp back on and this did solve most of the flickering, however the gears will still occasionally shift rough in first and second (I can usually see when this is about to happen, as the gear indicator in the cluster starts to flicker) could I have a bad cable/bad battery? There is also a lot of corrosion occurring at the terminal. I try to regularly clean it but lately it has been hard to keep up with.

carguy07

If your cable "slips" off start with the cable.

salimshah

If you can twist the cable clamp on the battery post or slide it up or down then the post is not tight enough.

Examine your clamp and the thickness of the post. Since the post of the terminal is conical, one has to loosen eh clamp and push it down on the post and notice a spread in the clamp. Then when you tighten eh clamp the gap is reduced till the clamp becomes firmly connected to the battery.

Salim

lxus2001

The clamp is very tight on the terminal, I wasn’t able to twist or move it in any way.

lxus2001

Could the corrosion be related in any way to this? There’s a lot of it forming at the terminal, I have to clean it out weekly

salimshah

Clean throughly with a soft wire brush [copper/brass wires].

Check if terminal is still thick [you have not lost a lot of metal]. Apply a thin layer of grease on all exposed surface of the clamp but do not apply on the area that will contact the battery post.

Also have the charing system checked.

Salim

lxus2001

Done all of the above previously except having the charging system checked. My gut tells me that it could be the cable, but maybe the battery is failing?