TR-S2K

My battery was under the minimum line, so I added distilled water last week and I added too much. The area around the battery are now show some signs of acid. How do I clean those area effected by acid ? Thanks

xviper

Sprinkle baking soda over it and scrub it lightly with a wet brush, hose it down.

wanabe

xviper always has good answers...

i would only add to be cautious with the rinse- very light water flow... you dont want that stuff on the paint.
and i would dry off the interior with rags that i dont care about (probably would trash them after). and my final step would be to drive the car until it warms up (the heat will evaporate any moisture that you dont get with the towels).

TR-S2K

Thanks

I will remove the battery and sprinkle baking soda around the bettery area and surrounding, then follow those steps above.

xviper

You don't have to remove the battery if you don't want to.

TR-S2K

You must know something that I don't.
I thought that some acid may be under the battery, removing it will let me clean that area.

xviper

The acid solution got under the battery by flowing there. When you have finished doing the baking soda thing, you run water all over the battery (as per "wanabe" post). The clean flow of water will take the baking soda solution with it and flow to the same areas that the spilled fluid is "hiding". Continue to flow water and you will rinse out the spilled material (which won't be that concentrated anyway since it was mostly distilled water you spilled originally). The shear dilution factor of the flowing water will sufficiently flush it all out and onto the ground.
Unless you dumped a good deal of the battery's contents, it shouldn't be necessary to do that much cleaning.