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you wait. If you do not have that tool once again the steel brush, sandpaper or knife or screwdriver will work fine.

Now, get the 2 small containers, open your can of Coke pour 1/3 in one container and 1/3 in the other container. Submerge the terminal wires in the separate containers for about 30 minutes to an hour. You can drink the other 1/3 can of Coke while you wait if you want to. Put the positive terminal wire in one, and negative terminal wire in the other. It may sound weird but Coke is a perfect liquid solution to remove any acidic particles off your terminals and wires that your cleaning tool may have missed. Remember that next time you are drinking a glass. I used to own a Car Audio shop and we ordered cases of it and kept it in the garage but all of us drank Pepsi. The Coke was strictly used for battery terminals. How odd is that.

After the coke has eaten away at the terminals and your stomach, if you finished the can, now get your towel and clean the terminal wires off completely. I highly recommend you do not drink that coke or dump that down your sink in the kitchen. Remember there is battery acid in there. The battery terminal wires should be a nice shiny silver again. Also be sure to use the towel to wipe off the terminals on the battery as well. I always wait to use it after I have wiped the coke off the wires in hopes some of the coke residue will also get on the terminals themselves, helping to remove any acidic residue on them.

Now, Slide the terminal wires back onto the terminals and tighten your nuts down. Place the positive terminal wire on first. Again, watch the terminal wires, and just to be safe, avoid hitting any metal surface on the car. It is always better to be safe than sorry. Tighten the nuts down on the positive terminal wire, and then proceed to replace the negative or ground terminal wire, and tighten the nut down on that terminal wire.

Make sure all your tools are not in the engine area and close your Hood. Then you can restore your tools in the proper place. Job done. Another fine do it yourself project that saved you a little cash.

Learn more about this author, Leroy Fodor.
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