Club 80-90 Forums

Any tips on how to clean up?

Just found a small pool of liquid in the battery tray had a vinegar smell.
I have cleaned the liquid out and put a solution of water and bicarb in, have undone the edge of the carpet panel that is attached to the back of where the battery goes, can feel a bit of moisture there.
Should I douse the area in bicarb and try and rinse out?
Not much access as have a camping interior in the way and some of the carpet is well glued down.

Where is the leak on the battery?
If its the vent then the tube needs attaching to the outside.
Has it boiled (overcharging)?

Keep on with the bicarb until there is no more fizzing - it is then neutralized. Then mop/dry up as best you can. This is where a wet vacuum comes into its own as you can put the bicarb in the water and then clean it up.

kevtherev wrote:Where is the leak on the battery?
If its the vent then the tube needs attaching to the outside.
Has it boiled (overcharging)?

the vent tube had popped off

Oldiebut goodie wrote:Keep on with the bicarb until there is no more fizzing - it is then neutralized. Then mop/dry up as best you can. This is where a wet vacuum comes into its own as you can put the bicarb in the water and then clean it p.

I do have a vax ill will get that on it next

Under normal circumstances battery acid should not come out of the vent tube, just gasses. I would strongly be looking into why this has happened.

ghost123uk wrote:Under normal circumstances battery acid should not come out of the vent tube, just gasses. I would strongly be looking into why this has happened.

Quite right.
Overcharging from the alternator is a usual suspect.

That and overfilling on ones that can be topped up.
So..is it a sealed one?

Oldiebut goodie wrote:That and overfilling on ones that can be topped up.
So..is it a sealed one?

not sure its a unipart samson gba4063

I did take some readings with multi meter a few before when looking at an issue with the leisure battery 12.69 then when engine was on it was 14.12 and 13.6 with lights etc on

organicmatter wrote:[I did take some readings with multi meter a few before when looking at an issue with the leisure battery 12.69 then when engine was on it was 14.12 and 13.6 with lights etc on

Those are perfectly respectable readings

Refillable then - but as you didn't know I don't suppose that you have topped it up then!

Oldiebut goodie wrote:Refillable then - but as you didn't know I don't suppose that you have topped it up then!

I've not topped it up, not sure if i should get a replacement don't really want this happening again

organicmatter wrote: not sure if i should get a replacement don't really want this happening again

I know what you mean. Sulphuric acid is very bad for your metal bits, you can't have too much Bi-Carb, but watch out for when rinsing. If you have not fully neutralised the acid, putting water on it can flush it into places you cannot get to. This is the big problem with anything more than a drip or 3, if it's a puddle you don't know if it's run down into seams / welds etc in the battery tray. It happened to me years ago when I had a car battery fall over in the passenger foot-well of a car I was driving. Took a hell of a lot of cleaning up that did, but I still wonder what the edges of the floor to sill joins were like a year or two later


If you are confident that it is never getting overcharged, i.e. more than 14.5 Volts (max) for long periods, then personally I would buy a modern maintenance free one. Maintenance free and worry free

ghost123uk wrote: If you are confident that it is never getting overcharged, i.e. more than 14.5 Volts (max) for long periods, then personally I would buy a modern maintenance free one. Maintenance free and worry free

is this the sort of thing i should be looking at http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Type-110-Car- ... 3641.l6368" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

probably worth adding a something like this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/35136863 ... ue&ff13=80" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; to make sure wasn't because of over supply

in the mean time my plan is to keep feeding bicarb solution to the area it leaked into, to try and neutralize any acid effects

Got a smaller Bosh battery from Europarts (very near my house) on discount and found another on line 12%