I've found a couple posts regarding this already, so I'm not asking a direct question. What I have is my 96 Bonnie SSEi, 36K original miles with not enough juice to start. The positive cable terminal is corroded, but the battery itself has begun to leak.. and it'* less than 2yrs old. The batt post nut is stripped and turns freely, but will not come out. The batt has also decided to leak. The other half of the cable post (between the battery and the post nut) also turns freely now. Vise grips, wrench, etc... all do nothing. It will get power after I tinker with it, but not start. I have that "Vaccum noise" as someone mentioned in their post.

Tomorrow I'm having it towed to my girlfriend'* uncle'* shop to have a new battery cable installed. According to the research here, that should take care of it. It might be a 96, but it was garage kept for years and has jusr over 36K original miles. I dont see why it'd be needing a new starter but could be wrong.

There wasnt any corrosion on the battery before now, again, the battery itself is leaking. The Kragen I got it from said it wasnt a warranty issue cuz of the corrosion. I disagree cuz i dont think I caused THEIR battery to leak. But again... I could be wrong.

Just an FYI, but any comments or ideas, i'd gretly appreciate any input. Thanx for reading.

Brian, Sacramento, CA

*** Moved from Performance ~Kevin ***

Changing the cable and battery should correct the problem. No idea why it woudl have leaked, unless it sat for a long time without being started.

No, I drive it everyday. Battery was less than 2yrs old. Did get the battery cable fixed though. The shop called up their Kragen people and explained the battery problem. "They" said their battery shouldnt have leaked and didnt wanna do a warranty exchange. However... The kicker was that this was the 2nd battery I've had with them for this car... and that'* been just over 2yrs. But the funny part... and why they did exchange it, was that my particular battery was discontinued. Coincedence?? I doubt it...

So anyways. It'* fixed. They fixed the battery cable post and installed a new nut also. The f'ed up part though is having to have it towed to their shop 15 miles away, and with 5 miles free (through AAA), cost me $144. I paid a tad more than half that just on the repair. Stupid economy, gas prices, etc. The last time I had a tow of that distance, barely cost me 50 bucks. Its just dumb but whatever.

Glad to here you got it fixed, shame about the tow though.

At some point in this repair did you have someone check the alternator output? A friend of mine had a battery fail because his alternator was putting out too high a voltage. A rare case, but unless your battery was defective to start with I keep trying to think why it would fail in two years. Especially in California where it is not subject to freezing.