car battery cable whiteish corrosion

Certainly, and be sure to not reverse the felt washers by putting the green on the positive and the red on the negative. Doing so will certainly result in anti-depolarionization of accumulated non-ferrous lead isotopes.

So ask for the MSDS when you buy them. If there's no MSDS on them, they are likely pretty inert. If there is an MSDS, it will tell vaguely what they are impregnated with.

I haven't used the felt pads in years, though, just the spray. The spray seems to work very well.

--scott

Read the MSDS sheets provided by the mfg's. They are readily available. By US Federal code any substance that could possibly be a hazard to human health and or the environment must have a publicly available MSDS.

I thought you might have been talking about Marvel Mystery Oil, but that stuff didn't come about until 1923, 9 years after your 1914 reference.

Looked at three MSDS all say 'oils'.

NOX or VCI anti-oxide paper wrappers have sodium nitrite don't know if that's in the felt washers or not.

I used them once. No difference at all. I think I just washed the battery off with water, although I seem to remember someone saying that Coke would do a better job.

I once used a glass Coke bottle like a hammer to bash one of the cables on tighter, but I don't think that was what was meant.

Women getting wild with bottles scares me.

Thank you for looking that up for us.

I googled (almost 'till my fingers hurt) and could only find "special oils" which I've already stated is a euphemism for "nothing special about them."

This one just says it's "oil based" for example.

I also found a few just saying "chemically treated" such as this ad. Hell, this one does _everything_ that one could expect a magic spray to do! As for the 1914 reference, I saw it in one of the Amazon ads for the felt pads, which was their way of making their special oil even more special. If you zoom over the package you can see where it claims that their oil is so special it was "invented" more than a century ago, where those kinds of claims _must_ work on stupid people (because they put them there to do that).

But if people are that stupid, then we'll never get to the bottom of this. Unless we figure out how "special" it is, my claim that extra virgin cold press (first cold pressed, actually!), is my "special" oil of choice.

Same with my grease. Whatever I have on hand is my "special" grease for the outside of teh terminals.

BTW, I'd love to be found wrong as I love to learn, but we've been down this road before where you look and look and look and look and all you find are contradictory claims for what is, in the end, likely just "regular oil."

I think the only purpose of the oil is not to make the felt act like a sponge to water and/or acid (but you can prove me wrong if you can).

Likewise, I think the only purpose of the felt itself is to act as a physical barrier to the acids that can leak out of the battery (especially on side mounted terminals where the post is apparently below the level).

But I'm ok if I'm wrong if someone can find proof that it is special and that the felt does all those magical things it's claimed to do.

I googled until my fingers hurt on why coke (which is acidic, I believe) would work given baking soda is basic and that is known to work well.

Only one article made a claim as to how the soda worked, and they said the bubbles are a mechanical boost to cleaning the crud off of tight spaces.

Given the crud is a result of acid, I don't see that it would be removed with an acid so if it works at all, I would tend to guess that's how.

So I think it's mechanical more than chemical, if it works at all.

But if you find out something chemical related, let me know.

On Feb 05, 2022, Beeper wrote (in article<news:stlot4$15n$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me):

Actually, the anti-depolarization is only with black felt washers. It doesn't happen with the green ones. :) BTW, back to seriousness.

Why green and not black? I get it that green is ground while black is negative.

But the terminal is both so why don't we see black felt washers too? Is it because batteries are often black and green is a prettier offset?

Ron, the humblest guy in town.

Coca Cola definitely works and it works well.

I wouldn't be making this claim in media and fora throughout the country if it were not true.

Micky Pierpont Vice President, Marketing, The Coca Cola Company

As long as you behave nicely you probably have nothing to fear. Probably.

The group I went to bars with had a group of girls that used to throw bottles into the middle of fights. I got whacked in the head by a few of them.