After I drove somewhere this morning, I'm walking out to my car and hear a hissing sound, like air coming out of a bicycle tire, so I look around and determine it's coming from my car. I immediately pop the hood and try to locate where the sound is coming from. I notice there's this white sludge all over what looks like a coolant hose. I get it home and find what appears to be battery acid on the red battery terminal and it has started to corrode both battery lines and dripped on what I think is a coolant hose that goes from the radiator and curves around and going back into the AC condenser. It has also dripped on my sway bar.

Has this happened to anyone?

The only two mechs. I trust are booked solid today and can't take me. One said that AC Delco 5 yr. batteries are prone to leak acid and should be replaced with an Interstate battery.

How involved is changing out a battery and all of the hoses? I don't want to go pulling lines and hoses out without know what I'm doing, because I think the AC compressor/condensor is under about 300 lbs. of pressure.

Should I attempt this myself or wait until next week and have a professional handle it?

 

Unfortunately the AC Delco's ARE prone to leaking from the positive terminal. Get a new battery before it leaves you stranded somewhere, along with a bunch of baking soda so you can clean everything up - it drips everywhere when they leak.

 

Yup, my wife's GA delrap battery bloated and was leaking, mine got a dead cell. Both in the same week. Replace w/a battery of your choice.

The coolant hose is simple, but the AC line will require a mechanic unless you know what you're doing. Even then it'll need a recharge. I'd personally just drive it w/the AC line like that unless it seriously ate some nice holes into it.

 

Well, it's all done.

I bought an Interstate this afternoon and just went at it.

I got the negative terminal off of the Delco, but the positive DID NOT want to budge. I'm trying to turn this thing and using different techniques to get the positive battery cable off and I turned it one more time and part of the battery AND the terminal both came off, leaking acid everywhere, so I was like F***. Long story short, I had to have it towed to my mech. because I couldn't do anything with it.

Thanks GM, for making such an awesome "5 Year" battery.

 

yea.. My orignal battery didn't seem to leak anywhere while it was in the car.. didn't find any indications of any leakage.. but when I took it out, a week two later, I found it was slowly leaking and eating away on my garage floor.. well, at least its not in the car.


I remember reading a bunch of posts about warnings of tweaking the terminals when taking the terms off.. and overtightinging it when you put them back on..

 

Ah crap. You could've fixed it. All those side terminal 75 series batteries leak out of the terminals eventually. Every single one of them, even the Interstate, they just take longer, especially in this Florida humidity. The trick is to take the terminal ends off every couple months, couple times a year and clean it and put some sort of sealer on them to keep the humidity from corroding all the terminals and the battery and the wires. That battery acid stuff will just wash off with water. Lots of water. And wear some gloves and wipe it off. Dude at the shop I used to work those batteries rarely last more than 2 or 3 years, and we were an Interstate dealer. Have the mechanic pop the date sticker off the top of the battery for a couple years from now, so the warranty will go from being 75 months or whatever it is to you know like 10 years or something. I bought my Interstate about 7 months ago and the warranty will start in about another year and half. So as long as it doesn't go bad before then, it should be warrantied for another decade.

PM or post and tell me if the battery acid damaged anything. Hope it's just a battery and some cleaning. Make sure that **** doesn't sit on anything that's painted for too long.

Abe

 

Anything that got acid on it, you need to neutralize (like with baking soda & water) and clean completely off. Any bare metal needs paint. If you don't, it will continue to rust at a rapid rate.

 

personally, I avoid telling someone else to commit fraud



ps, if you edit this, I will too

 

[QUOTE=Dave89IROC]personally, I avoid telling someone else to commit fraud

Dave, I agree with you. That was the first thing that popped into my mind reading the "How to commit fraud" post. I hope the writer isn't in the biz like you are . . .

 

Mine puked out of the side vent holes and it's eating my paint... So much for a spotless enging compartment...

I'd say do the hose when It's cool and you have to drain the sys and re-bleed it after the fix. If you have to un-bolt anything to get the hose off... it's not the right one. The A/C hoses are bolted or crimped together. I don't think you can accidentallly remove one.

There should be a spring clamp on the hose or a regular threaded hose clamp. To get the batt out you'll need to loosten the 15mm bolt and hold down on the rear of the batt...

 

Hehehehe, no, I won't edit my previous comments. I used to be in the business, but I got out of it cause it was too sleazy for me.

 

There are electrical wires that can get acid on them too. Remember to clean them off real well also. My headlights went out, and it turns out the battery was slowly dripping on the wires and finally ate through some.