Using Coke to clean battery terminals

Now that winter is here, you might want to check the condition of your battery and its connections. 

Many customers have told me they pour Coke on the battery terminals to clean them if the engine will not crank.  I will agree that this works most of the time, but if you continue to do it, a film of sugar builds up between the battery terminal and the cable connection and then nothing will work. 

If you are having trouble with battery connections, take the cables off, clean everything with a wire brush, soak the cable terminals in a mixture of baking soda and water until all the corrosion is cleaned off, then wire brush everything again, reattach the cables, and put Vaseline on the connections so that battery acid cannot contact the metal again. 

As legend has it, Cadillac first put out a technical service bulletin in the 1960's that putting Vaseline on the battery connections was the best for keeping battery connections free from corrosion.