It looks a little like soot and is easily wiped away.
I've heard it can suggest the battery is failing. Is there any substance to
this or is it just an anecdotal red herring?
Cheers
D.
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It could be lead oxide - googling had found nothing but I just looked at
lead oxides and found this:
"The so-called black lead oxide, which is a mixture of PbO and fine-powdered
metal Pb and used in the production of lead acid batteries."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_oxide
We've got a few vehicles and most of them seem to have it to some degree -
even on a couple of batteries that are only 6 months old.
I nearly used the common trade term of "black shit", "krud" is more
professional.
It could be from the casing but I wouldn't think so as it's to be deposited
on the bottoms of the vent plugs as if carried there by the electrolyte
"bubbles" during charging.
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No. It is from a failed or failing cell.
Pretty much, you are "really full of it".
Didn't come up in the original post :-)