Yes, my 2001 s-10 did the same thing last year. Went to go grocery shopping came out no start , no click nuttin. Popped the hood looked at the battery touched each terminal connector. When I touched the POS connector it just fell off and all the electrolyte in that cell started draining out and down through the frame. I ended up having to walk several blocks to a WalMart of all things and buy a battery. After looking at my recently new OEM battery it appears that the connector bolt bottoms out in the threads so badly that it pulls the lead female threads out of the battery. Really pissed me off. There was a GM bulletin years ago regarding this and replacing the cable bolts or removing a thread or two from the bolt. That bulletin was back when the side terminal bat came out. I guess GM forgot, huh?
Sorry fo rthe misspelling! I guess there has been problems with the Delco batteries.
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"Dan Calhoun" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com...
People's lack of knowledge about automotive batteries never ceases to amaze me. First and foremost, be it Motorcraft, Delco, or what ever it is these days Chrysler is using, the batteries are manufactured by a third party, and have been for over 40 years. Of which there are only two large ones left in the USA, Johnson Controls, and Excide. 90% of car batteries sold in this country are manufactured by these two companies. Supposedly the manufacturer is building them to the customer's spec, again be it FoMoCo, GM, Chrysler, AutoZone, Sears, who ever. To often one of them doesn't follow the specs. Like how deep the threaded area is supposed to be in a side terminal battery. When that happens the bolt punches a hole through to the cell behind it and they leak. And the threads are not lead, there is a steel nut embedded in the lead part of the terminal. Another cause of leaking is the seal between the outside of the "terminal" and the battery case fails. This is the most common leakage. Sometimes its a defective battery, stress from a cable being routed wrong, over tightening the connection, vibration from no or an improper hold down. I've seen top mount hold downs installed and the j-bolts tightened so much it deformed the battery case. Other causes of problems: Even though it says maintenance free, the terminals still have to pulled apart and cleaned once in a while. Every battery has a vent. In the so called sealed batteries they use a design similar to a pig tail in a steam line that is supposed to allow the gas being vented to condensate and drip back into the cell. It does a pretty good job but some still makes it out. Left alone the terminals corrode and the like anything that corrodes expands and causes problems not to mention not conducting electricity very well. The manufacturer figures out pretty darn close how much they will loose over the course of its life and design to allow enough room above the plates to hold this "excess" needed. Plus the plates flake and the debris settles to the bottom raising the electrolyte level. When the debris builds up enough it will short out the plates in the cell above it. Excessive high charge rates accelerate this process. Second problem is improper tools used to remove the bolts. A six point
5/16th inch or 8mm wrench is the proper tool. Not a pair of slip joint pliers, adjustable wrench, or vice grips. The wrong tool strips the wrench surface. The wrong tool allows way to much torque to be applied when installing the terminals, which can damage the seal between the terminal and the battery case. Third problem cutting away the "rubberized plastic" cover over the terminals. Its designed to resemble an o-ring, and sits in a receiving groove on the battery terminal to help seal moisture out. Coupled with cutting them away is slipping other wires/connectors between the battery and the cable. The electrical connection is the surface of the terminal on the battery, and the adjacent surface of the cable end. Not the bolt, which is why installing wires or connectors between them is a bad idea. If the terminal on the cable end is severely corroded, using a small pocket style flat tip you can walk the plastic cover off the terminal and fold it back for a more thorough cleaning and then using the same tool walk it back on, like taking a tire on or off a bicycle rim.The debate about maintenance free batteries has raged since they came out. In the beginning they really were junk. But they have gotten much better, to the point that I prefer them. The down side is on batteries that the water has to be checked, the battery got looked at and terminals cleaned more often. Then again many a battery has met an untimely death because of improper filling, ether not enough, to much, or bad water.
Whitelightning
The battery that suffered a damaged terminal was an OEM unit that was probably installed at the assembly plant. I was merely stating a fact that either the bolt securing the cable end is too long or the thread depth of the battery was on the short side. This is a "first" for me to lose a perfectly good battery in this way. I'm an autoshop teacher at a local high school. One of the responses to these queries had a URL to a consumer website regarding all the damage that has been done by Delco's leaking. I was fortunate as I caught it ad was able to neutralize all the potential damage from electrolyte.
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