Strange electrical issues related to disconnecting battery

zopperman

zopperman

Moderator
A while back I let my truck sit for a week while I was away. Came back to it and the battery was dead. Struggled to start after a jump, but whatever it worked. Backup cam died - replaced it and figured was just a cheap POS being cheap. Battery died again, new backup cam didn't display picture again. Saw the battery was leaking some and replaced it with a red top. New backup cam started mystically working again. negative terminal wiggled loose, tightened it up and the backup cam died again. Disconnected both terminals and the backup cam started working again. Then the radio wasn't working right - the tyto-01 wasn't engaging the stock amp and radio only played music through the sub. Disconnected negative battery terminal, no luck. Disconnected both and everything started working again. Everything is working again but I dont want to be disconnecting the terminals every time i have to disconnect something.

Any ideas?
 
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Could be that the camera has low variance threshold compared to other things (cheaper electronics will) and that you have some borderline battery terminals: as mentioned.

A battery will die early due to sulfation (not keeping a battery charged properly) and wonky terminal ends can do that. Sulfation can cause the "gunk" or liquid leak as well.

You might strongly want to re-do or check your entire battery terminal wiring to see if you have an issue.
 
DC runner said:
Could be that the camera has low variance threshold compared to other things (cheaper electronics will) and that you have some borderline battery terminals: as mentioned.

A battery will die early due to sulfation (not keeping a battery charged properly) and wonky terminal ends can do that. Sulfation can cause the "gunk" or liquid leak as well.

You might strongly want to re-do or check your entire battery terminal wiring to see if you have an issue.
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The OEM stuff looks fine? Anything specific I should be looking for? I cleaned it up when I did the new battery - could it be related to directly wiring a bunch of smaller G wires to the + terminal? I'm in the process of building a bussman relay box and distribution bar but as of now i have a few accessories wired directly to the battery post.
 
This is one of those things where, you know how annoying tracking down electrical issues can be.

Perhaps try to run down the lines from the battery a bit and pull the voltage off a multimeter. I know from experience that a cable connection can look but be weak. And yea, perhaps that many leads off one of the terminals has created a loose system.

I think the bus bar will go a long way to isolating the issue. And again, it may not be the problem, but am I correct in my read that the last battery died early?

Sulfation just kinda sounds like it fits the bill and that is def. caused by a bad/weak battery connection and the system not able to properly charge the battery.
 
DC runner said:
This is one of those things where, you know how annoying tracking down electrical issues can be.

Perhaps try to run down the lines from the battery a bit and pull the voltage off a multimeter. I know from experience that a cable connection can look but be weak. And yea, perhaps that many leads off one of the terminals has created a loose system.

I think the bus bar will go a long way to isolating the issue. And again, it may not be the problem, but am I correct in my read that the last battery died early?

Sulfation just kinda sounds like it fits the bill and that is def. caused by a bad/weak battery connection and the system not able to properly charge the battery.
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Battery died after a few years - terminals were really nasty and corroded and it definitely sounds like there was a bad connection
 
Yea. The nasty gunk around terminals is lead sulfate and is usually caused by battery sulfation.

Does sound like a connection issue.
 
zopperman said:
yeah, will polish up the terminals maybe, start there.
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Are these factory terminals? How bad was the corrosion? I would inspect the cables for corrosion and/or puffing up caused by corrosion seeping between the very small gaps in braided electrical cable. You may find that the cables are internally corroded, I've seen that once or twice before.
 
While living down in Florida, I experienced corrosion quite a bit on my battery cable terminals compared to living out in California. I used CRC brand battery cleaner and battery protector spray about every six months and it helped along with using some emery cloth to thoroughly clean all mating surfaces.

On one car I had, the corrosion actually started to creep down into the negative battery cable. I split the sheathing open and the corrosion consumed the entire length of the cable. There was no bright copper color visible, only a dull green.
 
BlackWorksInc said:
Are these factory terminals? How bad was the corrosion? I would inspect the cables for corrosion and/or puffing up caused by corrosion seeping between the very small gaps in braided electrical cable. You may find that the cables are internally corroded, I've seen that once or twice before.
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this is literally the last thing i feel like dealing with. The terminals had a bunch of blueish crap around them but it hasn't come back since replacing the battery. The terminals are OEM.
 
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