Every vehicle (GM) that I have owned has had severe corrosion on the terminals of Delco batteries. A 2002 Buick LeSabre we use in our business had a rotten positive terminal on a Delco last year. I will probably replace the battery in my wife's HHR before it gets three years old. Are Advance Auto Parts batteries made by the same people that make Diehards for Sears? Are side terminals more prone to corrosion?

 

They say the broken side terminals is due to overtightening more than anything else.

I think if you don't overtighten and coat the battery terminals with petroleum jelly, white lithium grease or some other type of corrosion inhibitor, you won't experience this problem.

At least, I have not.

 

Sears Diehard............nothing better on the market.

 

Right on the money!!! I cranked an engine for 20 minutes (not continuously of course) at -53F. Eventually the car got started and that batery still had lots of juice. No block heater, no battery blanket just straight up electrons!

 

Go to Wal Mart or Sams and get their best battery with a three year free replacement. Take it back at 2 years and get a new one. Problem solved.

 

Wonder how ours differs.

I plan to drive up to the Chicago area in a few weeks and may spend the winter helping my niece finish her rec room, etc. so I decided to pull the 500 CC amp battery and put in one with higher cold cranking amps.

Bought a 720 CCA at AutoZone and only had pulled the gill cover to access the hold down and cables. Two 12 mm and four torx head bolts are all it took.

I sat on a five gallon paint bucket while I worked. Really simple too and I didn't have any problem accessing the postive post.

So there must be something different between the LT1 and LT4 setups.

Jake

 

Jake.
I changed out my battery several weeks ago and also sat on a five gallon jug. BTW I am visiting my daughter in Arlington, Tx. and I found out that we're only about 40 minutes from you.

 

I agree with the overtightening part. Best to use an anticorrosion product designed for this though, rather than anything oil based. If an oil based product seeps into the contact area, it it not a good conductor.
More than 15 years ago I was in the battery business for a couple of years. I saw and learned a lot in that time. On whole, the best batteries I saw were OEM Delcos, Motorcrafts and batteries of various names that came in the Japanese imports. Yes, there will always be some early failures in any brand but it was not unusual for me to replace these batteries that had given 6 or 7 years of good service. That being said, a lot may have changed since then, different sources, etc. I don't know anymore than anyone else now, it's a crap shoot. The best aftermarket batteries I saw then were the Sears, but I know for a fact they've changed their source since then so I'm less confident in them than I once was. The worst big name battery I saw back then was the Interstate. I was constanly changing out their top grade batteries after premature failures. I love Paul Harvey but he doesn't know anymore about batteries than I know about astrophysics!