How do I do "Battery Maintenance"
 

I have sort of an old battery but it works like new so I don't want to buy a new one, but it DOES have a little buildup on it. What is the best way to clean it/maintain it?

Coca-cola. You can pour it onto the terminals and it will eat all of that shit off

Diconnect it ofcourse. After you have it nice and clean. Go to your auto parts store and look by the barreties. You will see these felt terminal mounts.

These things go onto your posts red+ green- .
These will keep you from having to clean them all of the time.
They cost about 1 dollar.

Either permatec or crc make a batt. terminal spray that you can hose it down with after you reassmble it. You won't need that with the red and green felt.

Also check and fill your batteries fluid levels.

Awesome! I just went to the store and bought some generic "battery cleaner" for corrosion and stuff. I'll check my battery levels tommorow when I actually have time to look at it and the weather is nice. I can just refill it with distilled water correct?

distilled water is the best for it.

***Check with the manufacturer before you go adding water to the electrolyte. You'll also need a meter to ensure you get the proper mixture. Further more, make sure your battery is a maintenence type... most newer batteries have what look like maintenence terminals but it's nothing more than outgassing ventilation. Removing the caps in this case can cause premature death of an otherwise good battery.

Clean the terminals with some warm water with baking soda and a rag. Coke will do the trick, but you don't need the mess. You don't need to pour the mixture all over the battery, just soak the rag and wipe everything clean.

If you want to extend the life of your battery further, you might look into a *good* charger. Trickle charge the battery over night often (especially after a lot of city driving or multiple starts, like when you're out running errands) or give it a good conditioning charge once a week. You'd be surprised how low you battery may actually be most of the time.

Does it even have electrolite caps? If its a sealed battery, aka, "No maintnance", then dont worry about that part.