2013
44,000 Miles
After the Regal started sluggishly one morning, I figured maybe the battery has a little corrosion or maybe doesn't have the best connection anymore. Unfortunately, I had been a bit lazy and the hood hadn't been opened for a month or so - something that due to my horror story, won't happen again.What I saw when I opened up the hood was shocking, to say the least. My negative cable was completely corroded - It looked like it had been at the bottom of the ocean for 100 years - imagine the opening sequence to Titanic when Rose is watching the live footage of the wreckage. My negative battery cable would blend in.If the above paragraph made you squeamish, turn back now - it only gets worse.On the Regal, as you probably know, there is a box covering the fuse block and positive post connection. I regret to inform you that the entire box was filled to the brim with corrosion - filled so much that it spilled out when I opened it. So, after a few minutes looking at it in amazement, I carefully scooped the green, cake like stuff out and into a bucket of baking soda and water and removed all of the connections on the fuse box plate or whatever it is. - Side question, is the gas that's bubbling up from the chemical reaction between the corrosion and baking soda toxic? I'll report back if I get any weird lesions. Anyway, after scooping the mess out of the box, I poured some baking soda infused water onto the post to attempt to loosen the battery to fuse block connection. After some wiggling and brute force, the wire started to loosen - unfortunately for me, it was the entire post that came with the cable. When it rains it pours.With the cable finally disconnected, somewhat, I then loosened the battery and removed it. Luckily for me, the battery acid had also completely eaten the battery box as well - extra $ 50 for that one. Lesson's learned in this whole ordeal.1. Check your battery for corrosion often - Catch it early so you don't have to go through what I have been going through.2. Buy battery post protector. 3. The cable going from the fuse block plate thing to the battery is called the Battery to Fuse Box Cable. I called three local auto parts stores, all of which didn't stock it and had to special order it. I also called and went to a Buick stealership - He didn't even have any idea what it was and took his best guess - which wasn't right. Luckily with a little elbow grease and critical thinking, you can find anything online. 4. Your car's warranty probably doesn't cover this issue, because it often times doesn't include the battery.All in all, it's not going to be terribly expensive to fix everything, in the monetary sense, but the time spent meticulously cleaning battery acid, running from place to place talking to people who don't know what you need, to missing out on a nice day outside because of car issues, doesn't make this something that I hope to run into again.