Re: [T3] Duralast batteries anyone? (and Optima)

[Michael Cecil <macecil@comcast.net>]

<x-flowed>At 09:52 AM 6/19/2005, Jim Adney said:
>On 18 Jun 2005 at 20:14, Keith Park wrote:
>
>> Actually, I dont really agree with this part.  When I changed out my last
>> battery I had some corrosion not because the battery had leaked but because
>> I have this large themal mass sitting on the metal.  When temperatures
>> suddenly warm, the battery condenses and gets wet and drips 
water, plain old
>> water, onto the tray.
>
>This is a problem I've never actually thought about before. I 
wonder if there
>might be a way to solve it by making some kind of tray that fit under the
>battery. Something absorbent would probably end up being
>counterproductive, but
>an alum or plastic tray might carry some advantage.
>
>I always intend to spray some LPS-3 on the pan under the battery, any
>time that
>I have the battery out, but I'm afraid I seldom remember to do this. Even
>engine oil would be better than nothing.

What I did when I first got my VW and noticed a bit of rust under the 
battery was clean the rust as much as I could with a wire brush, then 
I used some phosphoric acid to convert the rust to iron 
phosphate.  (I guess I'd use POR-15 now).  Then I rinsed with some 
banking soda and painted the area with a few coats of epoxy black 
enamel.  Then I bent a tray out of some galvanized steel figuring if 
batteries did leak it would be easier to replace a removable tray 
than the pan.  I lined the bottom of the tray with a couple sheets of 
regular cardboard that I had soaked in baking soda and let 
dry.  Since then I haven't had any leaky batteries though, so I don't 
know how well my idea worked.

--
Michael Cecil
macecil@comcast.net
http://home.comcast.net/~macecil/

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