6 Steps To Safely Clean Up Car Battery Acid
Cleaning of car battery acid plays a critical role in enhancing the health of your car. How do you clean up car battery acid? How should you clean up your car battery acid? Which are the most effective products to do this task? What is the process of cleaning up your car battery acid? We are going to give you a comprehensive guide on this.
Table of Contents
- How do you clean up spilled car battery acid?
- Overview
- What You Need For the Clean-Up
- Steps for Cleaning Car Battery Acid
- Wrapping Up
How do you clean up spilled car battery acid?
In order to clean up car battery acid, you need a wrench, baking soda, battery terminal cleaner brush, cool water, and a dry cloth. The process involves turning off the car, removing the cables, rinsing the battery and the cables, and drying the battery.
If you want your car to have a long life, then you must be keen on ensuring the car battery acid is clean. But this process will require that you be familiar with the products and the process for cleaning the car battery acid. We will provide you with actionable tips on how to go about this process.
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Overview
Cleaning up car battery acid is very important. If you fail to do so, you may end up affecting the performance of your car. Imagine if you’re overlanding and your 4×4 develops battery problems. Certainly, you won’t have an enjoyable experience. So, the imperative thing to do is to clean as soon as possible to avoid battery corrosion. If corrosion occurs, it may lead to serious issues that affect the functional ability of your car.
There are things you should have with you and steps you should follow to have a successful clean-up of car battery acid.
What You Need For the Clean-Up
These are the things you should have for the cleaning process:
- A Wrench-You’ll need a wrench for the disconnection and connection of cables. Check the terminal configuration of your battery to know the wrench you should use.
- Baking soda-You’ll need baking soda to neutralize the acid and hot water for the clean-up of the acid on your battery. This is a good combination you can rely on to clean car battery acid. A good alternative to baking soda is battery cleaner. It is worth noting that a battery cleaner can be a better option since it’s ready for usage and applying is easier compared to baking soda. If you’re a newbie in doing this task, you can consider using a battery cleaner.
- A battery terminal cleaner brush-You’ll need this item to scrub any corrosion with ease.
- Cool water-You will need cool water to rinse the battery.
- A dry cloth-You’ll need a dry cloth or towel to dry the battery. After the rinsing process, the battery should dry completely and this is the item you need for that.
- Gloves – keep your hands safe from these toxic chemicals
Steps for Cleaning Car Battery Acid
Cleaning car battery acid is good for your car. For example, if you own a Toyota 4Runner, you’ll need to take care of your car battery for it to function at its optimum best. These are the steps you should follow to clean car battery acid:
Step 1: The first step is ensuring that your car is turned off
Before you start cleaning the car battery, you have to turn the car off. Since you’ll be touching the battery during the cleaning process, safety is a priority and that’s why you should ensure that you turn the car off.
Step 2: The second step is removing the cables
In order to clean the acid well, you should remove the cables. This is where you need the wrench. In this step, it is important to identify the positive and negative terminals. Normally, you should remove the negative cables first to avoid any case of electrocution. Remember, your safety is a priority.
When identifying the negative cable, check for the one with a negative sign (-ve), or the abbreviation “NEG”. For the positive cable, check for the one with the positive sign (+ve) sign or the abbreviation “POS”.
Once you have identified where the positive and negative cables are, remove them using a wrench, starting with the negative one. Of great importance still, as you remove the negative cable, make sure the wrench doesn’t touch the positive cable since it may get you shocked.
Step 3: The cleaning
This is the step where you should start the cleaning process. You can either use baking soda or battery cleaner.
If you’re using baking soda, you’ll need to have hot water. This is the solution that will help you to do the clean-up. There are three ways you can apply the baking soda and hot water solution for the cleaning:
- You can have a tablespoon of baking soda and 1 cup of hot water for the cleaning solution. Mix the two, then dip the brush inside. Use the brush to scrub the acid from the battery
- Another way of using the solution is pouring a small amount on the area you need to clean and then scrub it with the brush.
- The other way of applying the cleaning solution is by pouring baking soda into the area you want to clean. Afterward, pour hot water on the area and then scrub off to remove the acid and corrosion on it.
If you’re using a battery cleaner, you need to apply the battery cleaner to the area where the acid is and allow it to soak for a few minutes. Afterward, take the brush and scrub the area until it’s clean.
Step 4: Rinse the car battery as well as the cables
After you’re through with the cleaning using either baking soda or the battery cleaning agent, you should rinse the car battery. You need cool water for this task. As you rinse, take a keen interest in the cleaning solution and corrosion to make sure that they are fully washed away.
Step 5: Make sure the battery is dry
Since water should not mix with electric components, you should make sure it doesn’t happen. You’ll succeed in this by making sure that the battery is dry. Before reconnecting the cables, the battery should be dry. For this step, you need a dry cloth or a towel. If you can find an air compressor, it will come in handy to speed up the process.
Step 6: Reconnecting the cables
After cleaning the battery and ensuring that it’s dry, you can reconnect the cables. Take note that the reconnection process is different from the disconnecting. For the reconnection process, you start with the positive cable. This will help to prevent you from incurring injuries in the process. After reconnecting the positive cable, you can now go ahead to reconnect the negative one. Use the wrench to ensure that the cables are tight.
Wrapping Up
Taking care of your car is a responsibility you cannot ignore. One of the things you should do to take good care of your car is to ensure that the battery is at its best. If there is a car battery spill you should clean it up immediately to avoid problems in the future. If you clean it properly, you’ll enable it to remain at its best for a longer time.
