Ooh dear. White powder around battery

[redwards]

You can tell from the subject I'm a bit nervous, and rightly so. I have the white powder building up around my battery in my NA8. It's collecting on the nut that holds the vertical rod/strap on to the top part of the battery holder.

Now: does this mean dead battery or bad earth? If it's the latter, any suggestions on finding the bad earth?

(Also, does anyone have a replacement battery holder or vertical rod/strut?)

[AJ]

clean everything up & coat it all with vaseline, it'll be fine, just normal oxidisation

[Benny]

What AJ said.
It's best to remove the battery, then use some hot water to wash away the powder, along with some elbow grease.
Wipe the battery down afterwards, put some vaseline on the terminals and re-install.

Nothing to worry about. It happens with all car batteries eventually.

[JBT]

Warm water with some bicarb of soda to clean the terminals and lead ends.

[GP]

White buildup is usually leaking acid.

[redwards]

White buildup is usually leaking acid.

Yep, that's my concern. I'll try the vaseline options first, and if it comes back quickly, then it's new battery time.

One the vaseline front, is the suggestion to grease the contacts? Stuff covered with white powder? Both?

[Benny]

White buildup is usually leaking acid.

Yep, that's my concern. I'll try the vaseline options first, and if it comes back quickly, then it's new battery time.

One the vaseline front, is the suggestion to grease the contacts? Stuff covered with white powder? Both?

You have to clean off all the white powdery substance that you can and try and get the contacts and the connectors nice and clean, then put the vaseline on the contacts and put the connectors back on.
The vaseline won't affect the electrical continuity too much, unless you put a lot of vaseline on the contacts, to the extent that the connectors can't make contact with the battery poles.
Better to have too much, than not enough vaseline.