battery
Burning Brakes
Joined: May 2017
Posts: 802
Likes: 248
From: Vero Beach Florida
Check Engine Light
Last week, my check engine light came on. Car continued to start and operate perfectly and is a garage queen on a maintainer. However, because the battery was over 6 years old, and I have heard that corvettes exhibit lots of strange things when the battery goes, I decided to pull up the carpet and just have a look. What I saw was a very corroded negative terminal.
I write this to tell others who get a check engine light to suspect a bad battery. Replacing the battery, which was a bitch, solved the problem.
I replaced it with the Optima yellow top because even though its an AGM, it has the same setup for the venting as the AC Delco.
Decent batteries sure have gotten expensive these days! After replacing the negative cable and the battery myself, it cost over $300.
I write this to tell others who get a check engine light to suspect a bad battery. Replacing the battery, which was a bitch, solved the problem.
I replaced it with the Optima yellow top because even though its an AGM, it has the same setup for the venting as the AC Delco.
Decent batteries sure have gotten expensive these days! After replacing the negative cable and the battery myself, it cost over $300.
Race Director
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 11,139
Likes: 1,912
From: Missouri City, TX
That's really surprising to me as I have never seen corrosion on the negative side. When there is corrosion, I have seen it at the positive terminal. Ground connections can certainly corrode at other various points on cars. Just never seen the negative terminal at the battery be an issue with corrosion.
Burning Brakes
Joined: May 2017
Posts: 802
Likes: 248
From: Vero Beach Florida
Negative Ground cable
I saw that the the negative ground cable had a copper clamp and thought dissimilar metals in the presence of gas from a slightly leaking battery terminal. I then ordered a new negative ground cable because the new OEM cable had an aluminum clamp instead of the copper. Same exact part number as on the original so the factory made a decision to change from a copper clamp to aluminum.
