Should I replace corroded battery cables or just the terminals?
Extensive corrosion can cause odd electrical issues and damage battery posts, but finding an easy parts swap for the whole cable setup is difficult. People are left trying to figure out if they can salvage the battery and just replace the terminals themselves when money is tight.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Replacing just the terminal clamps instead of the entire cable
- 2Cleaning the exposed wire ends with water and baking soda
- 3Applying Vaseline after cleaning to improve connection and reduce future corrosion
- 4Cleaning corrosion using household products like Coca-Cola
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
r/MechanicAdvice1 person · October 2026
“I'm concerned if the terminal itself is needing replacing? And as for the battery, is this thing salvageable? Not the most well off at the moment, but there's a chunk taken out of what I believe is the battery post?”source ↗
kiwihaqi2 · r/MechanicAdvice · 2 upvotes
r/AskMechanics1 person · September 2026
Where this came up
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