But the 2 piece cable is the original.

As best that I can tell, the corrosion is contained to the terminals. It does not appear as if the corrosion has started entering the cable itself.

Since the car is approaching a 100k, which is the point that I sell my vehicles, I may never find the cause.

Finding out what'* going on would be nice, but if not, I'll just make the next owner aware of the situation.

Mechanically the car has been trouble free for the most part, other than the battery corrosion.
But it did have a major problem with the paint falling off. I was washing it at the local power car wash when a huge patch of paint blasted off. I was really ticked off about this. At the time, the dealer said too bad, and they had never heard of, or seen this before. Hmmm. I suspected BS.

Since I was on the hook for a repaint, I went back to the car wash with $30.00 worth of quarters, and proceeded to blast just about all of the paint off of the car. Once it got started, the freaking paint just flew off. When I was done, there was a nice shinny OD green undercoat of who knows what left.

I'm talking doors, fenders, quarter panels, hood, deck lid, the roof were all color coat free.

I'm sure the car wash guy wasn't very happy when he found that mess. The paint was everywhere.
So, a quick scuff of the green crap, a few quarts of paint, and it had a new paint job.

I meant OEM cable vs aftermarket. That was either a serious car wash or a pretty bad paint job. Was it the original?

there was a recall for some of the late 80'* early 90'* regrarding the paint not sticking. the technical test they performed was funny too, stick some masking tape down and if it pulled up the paint they repainted it.

Yup, the paint was original, and I've seen several others Oldsmobile'* with the same problem. If the primer coat had been black, and the cars were all parked together, they'd look like a herd of Holstein'*
From what information I can find on the subject, which is little, white was the only color that had the pealing issue, and it was cause by a "chemical reaction" between the seal and color coats. Apparently there weren't enough cases to warrant a recall.

I was informed that the first white Miata'* had the same problem.

I should have taken pictures, but I didn't.
The pressure washer wasn't anything great. I just needed to get the spray between the color coat and the primer / sealer, and off the paint went. Actually, it was a lot of fun watching the paint fly off.

The wife wasn't very pleased with my days worth of fun, seeing as it was her DD.

Wow! Is this for real? How could I have missed this?
When the paint first started to fall off, I masked up a section and used a rattle can in an effort to keep the car one color. I gave up after pulling the paint off the adjoining panel with the masking tape.

Where can I find the information on the recall? I'm sure its past the time frame, but I'd like reading about it.

i just know because i had three cars out of four from this time period that were painted at least once before i got them, different colors and models. i also know people who had gm paint there vehicles, again different colors and models. my uncle had a silver s10 that the did the test with 1 to 2in masking tape and 5 to6 in chunks of paint came off all over the place.

Bubba would be an offender of this recall.poor guy never got taken in tho.thats ok hes getting painted as i type.hehe..Ya know if you do away with the burrs or w/e you will have no connection unless you cut the red coating back or completly off

i forgot about my 89 pickup now that you say that so 3 out of 5 painted before i got them and the GP and 89 c1500 i had painted myself.

It took me a couple of seconds for the processing of why removing the barbs would make things worse, but yes, I see what you mean.

I just find it strange that with all the GM vehicles that I've owned, some having the exact same wiring, this is the only one that has given me so much grief with the battery terminals corroding. What'* even stranger is there'* no sign of corrosion anywhere else in the electrical system, or the car as far as that goes.

Tomorrows task is double checking the voltage output.

I couldnt tell ya i have never had an issue like this with any of my vehicles and after recently counting ive had well over 30 lol...Have you replaced the battery sense youve owned the car?