water on my battery - Page 2 - Camaro5 Chevy Camaro Forum / Camaro ZL1, SS and V6 Forums

Scalded Dog · 01-28-2015, 08:24 AM

Most likely just condensation... a cold item, in a warmer environment (as the day warms up, or as heat from the cabin seeps into the trunk) can cause this. The item is not "sweating," it is attracting moisture from the air which collects on the cold item. It is just like a glass of ice water sitting on the table, which will soon develop droplets of water on the exterior of the glass; the water is not leaking out of the glass (and the glass is not "sweating"), the exterior moisture simply became the "condensation" that you see. A car battery is filled with all kinds of things that will stay cold longer than the ambient temp (metals and liquids), so if the battery spends a few hours being really cold (rumor has it that PA has been chilly lately), it will produce condensation on the exterior of the case later, when ambient temps increase.

However, heed the advice of not letting the moisture touch anything that you like, such as eyes, pants, car seats, or Big Macs... batteries CAN have all kinds of acid leaks and residue on them that can really jack stuff up (I once carried a heavy battery in front of me, sort of resting against my front as I walked. The next time that pair of denim pants came out of the wash, there was a very perfectly rectangular section of denim that had simply vanished from the front... not tattered, not ragged, but gone, gone, gone).

Also, as Shibbs mentioned, you most likely heard gasoline sloshing around. That's the only amount of liquid back there sizable enough to hear when coming to a stop. Even if your battery were sitting in three inches of water, the gasoline sloshing around would be far louder.

01-28-2015, 08:24 AM	#15
Scalded Dog Drives: 2011 1LT Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Crestline, CA Posts: 3,029	Most likely just condensation... a cold item, in a warmer environment (as the day warms up, or as heat from the cabin seeps into the trunk) can cause this. The item is not "sweating," it is attracting moisture from the air which collects on the cold item. It is just like a glass of ice water sitting on the table, which will soon develop droplets of water on the exterior of the glass; the water is not leaking out of the glass (and the glass is not "sweating"), the exterior moisture simply became the "condensation" that you see. A car battery is filled with all kinds of things that will stay cold longer than the ambient temp (metals and liquids), so if the battery spends a few hours being really cold (rumor has it that PA has been chilly lately), it will produce condensation on the exterior of the case later, when ambient temps increase. However, heed the advice of not letting the moisture touch anything that you like, such as eyes, pants, car seats, or Big Macs... batteries CAN have all kinds of acid leaks and residue on them that can really jack stuff up (I once carried a heavy battery in front of me, sort of resting against my front as I walked. The next time that pair of denim pants came out of the wash, there was a very perfectly rectangular section of denim that had simply vanished from the front... not tattered, not ragged, but gone, gone, gone). Also, as Shibbs mentioned, you most likely heard gasoline sloshing around. That's the only amount of liquid back there sizable enough to hear when coming to a stop. Even if your battery were sitting in three inches of water, the gasoline sloshing around would be far louder.