Wet Battery

[Kaliv]

I pulled my car into the garage today to do some work on it, and the first thing I do is disconnect the battery. Note, it had been raining some today. Anyway, I notice some little blue specs around the terminals...so I start thinking, hmm, that might be bad. So instead of just disconnecting the battery, I pull the whole thing out...and lo and behold the whole side of the battery looks like it has condensation all over it.

Is this something I should be worried about? I replaced the battery...oh...September time frame I believe. It's a Die Hard International. Before then, I had some kind of red topped Optima in it which came with the car.

[911s55]

Are you sure it's water, is it a mintenance free battery, is your charging system working properly?

David

[Kaliv]

Yes, it's maintainence free.

I'm not 100% sure it's water, but it has no smell and I wasn't severely burned when I touched it with my hand.

Not sure if it matters, but because it's an international battery, there is a small vent on it which came with a rubber nozzle. I didn't know what to do with it, so I did nothing.

[911pcars]

Condensation or battery acid? Did it burn? Apply a solution of baking soda and water to the battery case and surrounding sheet metal, then see if it reacts.

It's not normal for condensation to form on the battery case unless there's a large temperature differential (e.g. ice water in glass). Again, not normal.

Sherwood

[Kaliv]

Thanks for the little experiment. Upon first application, nothing happened...so then I started to clean up the little blue specs around the terminal and that didn't do anything either. Then I applied a lot of mixture to the base and got a little reaction...so this seems a little bad. But after that, nothing happened, and it only happened on one side of the battery base.

So what does this mean to me? Do I need to replace my practically new battery?

Also, the temperature is unusually warm today. Normal temps have been around 20s or so and today was mid 50s, thus the reason I thought I might work on my car today.

[snbush67]

It could be that your windshield washer pump or line has a leak.