black battery cable terminal and battery post...why?

TheUser

Active Member
Jul 25, 2003
1,859
1
36
Springfield, MO
A few days ago, I noticed my positive battery cable terminal was black and it appears that the positive post is the same way. The battery went dead, and I charged it. The car had a hard time starting, but since it started and I wanted to drive the car to work...off I went. Of course, this morning leaving work (3rd shift), the car wouldn't start. Had a guy try to jump start it and still nothing. Pulled the battery and put it on the charger at work and the voltage showed good, put it back in the car and now the voltmeter won't even move and the car won't even attempt to do anything.

I bet if I put a different battery and positive cable on it, everything will be fine, but my question is what caused this. Could it be a dead cell in my battery? Think it's just a freak occurance? I think the problem is more so a bad connection because of the black(burnt) positive battery cable terminal, but I just want to know what caused it to become black(burnt) in the first place.

Any ideas?

Thanks
 
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hmm...I asked my bro if he knew what the problem was and he said he's never seen or heard of it before and neither have I. He said I probably should take the battery to get it tested and ask the people at autozone what causes that before I put a different ($120 optima from the GT) in there and ruin it. Sounds like the best course of action to me because I really don't want to ruin the optima.
 
That happens on my battery too for some reason, if you start the car in the pitch dark you will see an arc that goes form the cable to the terminal. Mine doesnt do it all the time, but after a while it does turn the post black in color.
 
Shakerhood said:
I put new cables on the car just recently and cleaned up the terminals really good on the battery as it is 8 years old now.
i was told that they put some type of oil on the post from the factory and when it gets hot it turns black...i had the same problem on my truck when i put new cables on it.
 
Shakerhood said:
I put new cables on the car just recently and cleaned up the terminals really good on the battery as it is 8 years old now.

Wow 8 years ,thats a pretty long time. I would say start saving for a new battery as this might be on its last leg depending on the type of battery it is. And ive never heard of the posts or terminal turning black before hmm idk
 
8 years so far for some generic Autozone battery too, not bad. When I replaced my battery cables, I cleaned up the battery and terminals, and even the battery box up real good.
 
I had my battery tested and it came out that it was bad...not holding a charge apparently. The cool part was that it has a warrenty until 2010...bought it Nov 2002 and so they just swapped it out for another Duralast gold...i thought they'd pro rate it, but they didn't... :D

He said the reason it was bad was probably because of my "system," which really isn't a system....I have two 12" kickers. He said the black battery cable terminal was because of overheating/overload.