Grettings fellow AZers...

My buddy mentioned that he thinks I have a bad ground somewhere. He thinks this because I had cleaned my battery terminals about 4k miles ago, but there's already a little new corrosion forming around the positive terminal. I even put those anti-corrosion washers around both terminals.

Has anyone ever dealt with this before?

 

i'm not sure how he conflated those two things.. I clean the terminals every time I pop the hood and I also spray on some battery terminal protector

If you had a bad ground, you'd also be experiencing some other electrical issues but the corrosion is not a symptom of that but in fact a cause for it as well.

 

^
That battery terminal spray is the .

 

There are a number of things that can cause terminal corrosion, some outside your control. Over/undercharging, age of the battery, loose connections, high humidity/temperature, etc. I had to replace my positive battery cable on my first gen shortly after I bought it due to excessive corrosion that I didn't catch in time. After that I just brushed it clean after every oil change, and *really* cleaned them with a cleaning solution every time the battery itself needed to be replaced.

 

You can get that spray terminal protector for less $$$ at Advance (and probably Autozone). It is also new formulation with an “acid indicator”. The liquid changes color should an acid leak be detected. That of course could be the root of the OP’s issue.

 

^
Perhaps, though the Battery Terminal Protector has more 'chemical' solvent bang for the extra buck.


Battery Cleaner with Acid Inhibitor:

 

I live in the always hot southwest and battery terminal corrosion for me is usually from:
- battery over heating (sometimes overcharging too much with a battery charger can have the same corrosion effect)
- leaking battery fluid (sometimes because of an extra hot engine bay)
- battery age

We don't use a lot salt in winter (volcanic cinder with everyone with windshield cracks). Rain/snow yearly range is 6-8 inches per years (snow in morning and gone by next day 90% of the time). I ended up switching to AGM batteries when available when it is time to replace for my vehicles to reduce the temperature swings and battery fluid corrosion issues.

 

Thanks for all the replies.

Firstly, I live in New England where they put wayyyyy too much salt on the roads. I do my best to wash my car once a week during this season. We also have significant temperature & humidity fluctuations (my house has both AC and two different furnaces because of how hot and cold it gets).

Currently my battery is about 3 years old. I usually get a new one at AZ or OReillly ever 3-4 years. Current batt is a diehard silver which I think is Oreilly's house brand.

I have the battery terminal cleaner with acid indicator - recently started using it for my batt terminal cleanings. If the other stuff really works better, I agree it's worth the $8 investment.

I guess if it's normal I won't worry about it, but I'm trying to keep up with preventative maintenance so the car lasts as long as possible. I'm all ears to any suggestions beyond just cleaning the terminals when I change my oil.

This on my to-do list for my lady's 2019 HRV - she had been bringing her car to the dealership for service until recently and they never made her replace the battery. When I finally replaced her battery, it took a half hour just to clean off all the corrosion and get the positive terminal unhooked. It was that bad.

 

Interesting point by @zeta. My bad, these are two different products, one is a Battery Terminal Protector and one is the Battery Terminal Cleaner.

 

Years ago we used to glue pennies to the battery - https://www.cartalk.com/content/art-dreaming-or-were-copper-pennies-once-used-save-batteries
It's possible you have a crack in your battery casing somewhere. You might need a sacrificial anode.