1st Gen PSA: Clean your battery terminals, you lazy sods

75k miles in the south. I dunno what happened the 1st 60k miles, but I've never seen excess corrosion on the cables. I had my suspicions though, and I noticed some PO down the line got rid of the OEM terminal, which is notorious for falling apart from corrosion.

Needless to say ... In prep for incoming audio upgrades, I wanted to rectify my janky (+) terminal situation today. At first glance, looks generally OK right? I haven't touched this thing in ages, but typically don't have to, what with the felt washers and dielectric grease on things.

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But then, when I disconnected the terminal from the alt, and the terminal to the fuse relay box, some fat ass chunks of corrosion popped out. After tapping the fuse/relay line for 20-30 seconds straight and watching a solid half teaspoon or more come sprinkling out, I checked to make sure I had heatshrink large enough to deal with this properly, then cut it open to take a peek.

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"Oh yeah, that's f'n awesome. I need to take a shot of this to share on the forum so all these 'my truck won't start, so I replaced the starter' fly-by-nighters have a reference point about corrosion inside-the-terminals and how that can impact starting."

Got the sheath off, the hits just kept on coming...

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It was friggin' caked, that stuff up there is just what fell out of the heatshrink upon removal. I had to flip things over and chip away at the back side to get down to straight brass/copper/whatev. Look at that cake!

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I didn't have heatshrink large enough to do the line coming from the alternator and didn't want to exposes things to oxygen if I couldn't throw dielectric grease on things and re-heatshrink it, and there wasn't much dusting out from that cable anyway, so I slapped on some dielectric and re-heatshrinked things up again after thoroughly wirebrushing both terminals.

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Final coat of dielectric, terminal all buttoned up now, and we're done for today. Truck fired right up as usual after.

I think I'm going to just go ahead and replace the line between the battery and fuse/relay box, I really have no clue how deep the corrosion managed to go, and I doubt it'll cost more than $20 to source the connectors or just buy the part new OEM. I may end up harassing @baraynavab about a new 'big 3' run for the truck also, for S&G.

Anyway, big PSA for anyone reading this: I'm the 3rd owner on my southern-only truck that's seemingly been well maintained and has under 80k on the clock. Piece of advice: Check your damn cables.

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Some of my vehicles just seem to breed that stuff. My son's mustang is an every 3-4months retreat for corrosion. My FGT is maybe once or twice a year. I use the Noico corrosion cleaner and follow it up with the red stuff to help seal the corrosion out.

 

Noico is what I've got too, the stuff that makes everything turn pink. Fat can. I typically use it at least once per year, it comes back generally clean. 4 years of that, and yet that's what I just found on mine. Nuts!

 

Mine isn't even close to being that bad.

Your car battery isn't bulging or get hot after a long drive, does it? That would indicate it might be overcharging and potentially lead to the corrosion.

 

I haven't noticed any corrosion on the terminals on my AGM at all.

 

What a heathen!!!

 

Yep, they don’t gas the nasty stuff the other batteries do, going on 7 years with the AGM in the runner and no crusties.
That’s why I’m glad i convinced my mom to do AGM in the camper!

 

Lookin good.


But suprised my trucks been driving fine, ground cable is loose.

thanks for looking out, shifty.

 

Nope, no bulge. Relatively new battery. That's not to say the battery in it when I bought it wasn't an issue. The alternator caught fire (internal) the first couple days/weeks I had the truck. I almost drove back to Auburn to return it, then I remembered they made me sign a 'as-is' contract with the vehicle as was their policy on anything more than 10yrs old.

 

Yeah, that’s sort of a bad sign. haha

It was probably killing the old battery which corroded the cable in the process.

Hopefully with the new battery and cleaned up cable it’s just a past problem.

 

I'm just gonna replace some stuff. I may end up dropping in the Sequia 150A alternator in the future after all. We'll see...

 

I don't have this issue either. I do have one of these I've used occasionally.

https://www.autozone.com/test-scan-...62orHhhrePQfbqaUogQaAkJEEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

Hit it with some coca cola, for science.

 

Thanks for looking out @shifty`
Mine was looking real good, until I made an inspection cut.
Found some crusty corrosion hiding, I'll have to do a thorough cleaning soon.

 

I cleaned mine up on both rigs about 2 years ago. Lubed everything heavily with anti-sieze.

Had no issues since.

 

Anyone know of a thread (or kit) detailing the lengths and sizes for the 'big 3' upgrade?

 

I measured off my original alternator-to-battery cable when I put in 2/0. Think it was @baraynavab that posted recently that they sell Big 3 kits?

Here's a thread with measurements though: https://www.tundras.com/threads/04-...tundra-the-3-big-upgrades.67222/#post-1747668

 

that was exactly the thread i was looking for.

 

Easiest way to find threads isn’t to use the search feature. Google your desired thread subject and add Tundras.com to the end. Taadaaaaa! All the threads about your subject from here displayed.

 

People complain about the search feature here but this is actually the easiest forum to search I've ever been on. The forum software they use here is legit.

 

Results for “2000 toyota tundra big 3 wire upgrade tundras.com”
First hit is the above quoted thread.

 

I don't mind it either for the most part. I'm pretty good at finding old discussions that I've read before like that Big 3 one.

 

i run AGMs to avoid this.. im too lazy to keep them clean between all the vehicles

 

Hey if anyone wanna do the big 3 upgrade on your 1st gen tundras...please hit me up. I make good quality bit 3 cables for the Land cruiser.. Wanna do it for the 1st Gen Tundra as well.. I would love to get this going to get good measurements and get the kit sized perfectly. Below is an example of the kit I make for the LC/LX.

Here's the link to the kit for the LC for your viewing pleasure...

 

The ih8mud link?

 

Sorry that link got fubar'ed... here's the link for the LC/LX cables..

https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/to...g-upgrade-kit-for-1998-2007-for-sale.1315432/

 

Too difficult to post in the BST here? Looks like quality kit.

 

Hmm.. Scratching head... Aah what's the BST? Lol

Also thanks. I try to ensure it's made well so it will last.

 

Buy Sell Trade - marketplace.

 

@shifty` bet it had a problem battery in it at some point. My wife’s old expedition had a cracked battery that was corroding her terminals. Did a bunch of work cleaning it up, and it just kept coming back. That’s with a new battery. Ended up replacing the terminal, but should have gone ahead and done the cable as well.