So I'm driving down the road and my car throws a CEL. This doesn't surprise me, its been going on and off for over a month now. I had it checked twice before and its an emmisions leak. My car runs 100% so I checked all my vaccum lines the previous times and everything was good. It went off on its own both times. Well it comes on for a 3rd time so I pull my car up when I get home and disconnect the battery to reset it. While I'm waiting for it to fully drain I pop the lids on my battery to check the water level. Its a little low so I grab some napkins and purified water from the house. I top off the fluid and grab a napkin to wipe off the excess water when PLOP. I knock the nut that held the negative battery lead in place into one of the battery cells and it sinks to...wherever. I grabbed a screw driver and tried to pull it out, but I didn't even feel anything in there. My battery is still disconnected and I haven't tried to start the car. I'm hoping everything will be ok but something tells me that REALLY isn't the case...

 

Oh god that sounds horrible.
No telescopic magnet? Those are a life-saver if you ever work on your own car. Hahaha

 

oh crap, you dropped it INTO the battery?
do you have one of those magnetic things to find bolts that fall down?

I don't know if this would work or if it's even a good idea but what if you took the battery all the way out, and poured out the water? Maybe it'll fall out with the water?
Isn't it just filled with distilled water? I would think you could just fill it again.

 

I thought about that but I'm worried some of the acid will come out too and my battery will be useless. The only thing magnetic that I have is some socket holders. Won't be able to get it out like that.

 

oh man, EVERY toolbox should have a telescopic magnet.

 

GOT IT

Thing was sizzling like hell, but I managed to get it out. Still looks usable too

 

how'd you get it out?
glad you were able to remove it. Quick trip to Home depot would be a good idea for a replacement.
Make sure you thoroughly wash your hands if you weren't wearing gloves

 

You don't wanna know lol I'll give it a good inspection, it was only in there for about 10 minutes. If not I have a ton of potential replacements down stairs. I need to wash my hands and face now actually PHEW

 

defiantly wash your hands, anywhere the battery water touched, it's full of alkaline. If it got on any of your clothes wash them right away if you don't want holes in your stuff.

 

Mk all done. On second glance the nut got a little more burnt than I thought. The washer split on one side and the inside of the nut looks as though it was stripped. Replaced, reconnected the battery, and popped everything back on. Haven't started it yet but so long as the nut is out of there I'm sure it'll be fine. There can't be that much dirt on it to pollute the battery.

Hopefully the CEL is gone (its bogus), fluids are topped off again, and fresh spark plugs should be here tomorrow. Will pick up and install after work good times

 

Wow, now that is just pure randomness. Good thing you got it out! Who knows what would've happened?

 

I'm kinda curious actually lol car fired up just fine. No CEL's or warning lights to report. Just waiting on those spark plugs I love working on my car. When people ask why I'm not a mechanic I tell them I HATE working on other people's cars. Took some automotive courses in college and pulling lower control arms off a 1993 Honda Civic is the last place I wanted to be at 8 AM on a December morning.

 

Well at least it'll be nice and clean....

Thread title changed from '@#%*'

 

Yeah I saw the changed title and thought 'Wait! That just happened to me today!' Then I realized I was just dumb

 

lol, you just pwned yourself.

 

You may have shorted out a cell in the battery, but other than that it is probably fine.

If you shorted a cell, then when the key is off, when you take your digital multi-meter, the voltage will only read 10.5 volts. The car will still start all the way down to around 8 volts.

And Jedi, I hope you were being sarcastic when you said dump it all out that it is just distilled water...Its (at 12.6 volts) 35% Sulfuric Acid with 65% water. Alkaline is the exact opposite of Acid, so if you spilled some, you can use alkaline agents to neutralize the acid. Pepsi and Coke are also great for cleaning and neutralizing the acid if you don't have a neutralizing agent like baking soda.