Your electrical system is only as strong as the weakest link, so keep those terminals clean! They’re the most likely part of the electrical system to corrode, so pick up a terminal cleaner and hit them monthly (at least). Even if you don’t see anything wrong, corrosion is building up.
A good fix to ward off corrosion temporarily is to smear the terminals with petroleum jelly (vasaline). it will slow the corrosion process down and still maintain a good connection so your car will start consistently.
Don't forget that if your car is 96' or newer it's OBD-ll, and disconnecting your battery results in resetting the ECU. This isn't necessarily a problem unless you live in a state like California and you're about to take a smog test, where they hook up the smog machine to the diagnostics port of your car.
The ECU has several running diagnostic systems that get activated once certain driving conditions are met. The state of California requires 80% of them to be running, which means if you've disconnected your battery in the last month, you might fail your smog check even though it passed the sniffer test. So be careful about your timing when you perform even the most basic maintenance such as battery terminal cleaning.
Don't forget that if your car is 96' or newer it's OBD-ll, and disconnecting your battery results in resetting the ECU. This isn't necessarily a problem unless you live in a state like California and you're about to take a smog test, where they hook up the smog machine to the diagnostics port of your car.
The ECU has several running diagnostic systems that get activated once certain driving conditions are met. The state of California requires 80% of them to be running, which means if you've disconnected your battery in the last month, you might fail your smog check even though it passed the sniffer test. So be careful about your timing when you perform even the most basic maintenance such as battery terminal cleaning.
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