Corrosion/gunk on battery charger clamp?

[454cid]

Today, is a sunny warmer day (45F), so I decided to look at each my vehicles after getting through the ice storm of last week. While checking out my Buick Lesabre, I noticed that the positive battery charger clamp had some corrosion/build-up on it. The battery terminal/cable/post all looks fine.... it's a top post, so no hidden corrosion side post drama.

Any idea what's going on here? It's a low amp smart charger/maintainer so there should be no overcharging going on. I used a wire brush on the clamp, and I don't see metal having been eaten away. This didn't happen last winter.

 

[454cid]

No one???

 

[GoToGuy]

So your charger clamp reacted to corrosive charging vent gas? Clean and treat it.

 

[Onizukachan]

Dielectric grease it


also you can have dissimilar metals that touch create galvanic corrosion.

 

[454cid]

Dielectric grease it


also you can have dissimilar metals that touch create galvanic corrosion.

I'm not spreading grease on my battery charger. It would get all over the place.

 

[454cid]

So your charger clamp reacted to corrosive charging vent gas? Clean and treat it.

You seem to address this as typical. I have never seen this happen before. Why would the clamps and not the battery terminals corrode? Aren't the vents usually on the side?

 

[RichLo]

Is it like a battery tender where you can leave it clamped on while driving it then route the plug through the grill so you can plug it back in quick when parked?

I'm just wondering if it wore down the nickel coating enough where salt water could have gotten up there and hit the base metal if its still clamped when driving. If this is the case, you can get a permanent bolt-in plug that does the same thing without the clamps.

 

[454cid]

Is it like a battery tender where you can leave it clamped on while driving it then route the plug through the grill so you can plug it back in quick when parked?

I'm just wondering if it wore down the nickel coating enough where salt water could have gotten up there and hit the base metal if its still clamped when driving. If this is the case, you can get a permanent bolt-in plug that does the same thing without the clamps.

I think that's what I originally looked for, but what I bought is a NOCO Genius 1, and it gets disconnected/removed before driving. The clamps appear to be copper, or copper plated. I've got two of them, and move them around between 3 vehicles, a spare battery in the garage and my lawn tractor. This truck is the only vehicle that has a permanent harness for charging on it, as the clamps in question can be unplugged.

The battery, in the LeSabre, where the corrosion happened is getting up there in years (It's a 2015) although it hasn't seen much use... maybe it's suddenly off gasing more? Still weird that the clamp corroded and not the cables and battery terminals.

 

[GoToGuy]

Either something got onto the clamp causing the reaction or the batteries vapor was confined to a smaller less vented area and attacked the weakest material.