rubberman Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 Picked up my LGT used in Dec 07 at a dealership (non-Subaru dealer) with 36k miles. OEM battery was completely dead when I was there to test drive / purchase the car so they swapped in a brand new Interstate battery. Fast forward to now, after washing my car last Sunday evening I was checking the fluids, etc and noticed some brown looking discoloration coming from the bottom edge of the battery tray behind the positive battery terminal. Turns out the battery casing had started to leak on the back side / bottom and acid was steadily seeping out and running out of the battery tray onto the sheet metal beneath. The pictures show it all, didn't take long at all to virtually strip the paint off the metal. I picked up a new battery immediately and put baking soda all over the acid to neutralize it. Got out there this evening and scrubbed everything clean with baking soda / water again and then spray painted the affected area with RustOleum primer until I can fully paint the area. Talk about a mess, this crap even got all over the two auto transmission fluid hard lines that go past the battery. Pics below of the damage and paint respray so far... Everything seems cleaned up (spent about an hour scrubbing with baking soda and brushes on all affected surfaces), but I will keep an eye on it after final paint to check for further corrosion. If someone has other suggestions on how to be sure the acid is fully neutralized I am open to anything. I've never had a battery leak like this and needless to say I will never have another POS Interstate battery again (2 year old battery leaked out of the side, not the top). Be sure to check every now and then under your battery (i.e. pull the battery out) because you don't want this mess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bdubs Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 Yikes! Nice fix though. That's funny, I had an Interstate battery that leaked as well. Albeit, it was dead and sitting in my trunk on a blanket, but it seeped out over the course of a week, ate right through the damn blanket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theflystyle Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 nice job with the cleaning though. think about sealed batteries like the yellow tops? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubberman Posted November 17, 2009 Author Share Posted November 17, 2009 nice job with the cleaning though. think about sealed batteries like the yellow tops? I considered an Optima battery, but ultimately found too many reports of failures here and on nasioc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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