So I've had my RedTop battery (34-980) powering my coupe for some years now. It's been trouble free.

During offseason I would normally hook it up to a regular battery charger that provided trickle feed. This past winter I needed to make some room and bought an off-brand trickle charger, much smaller box. Hooked it up, things looked good.

At some point in time I found the battery's negative post to be heavily oxidized, "oh-oh, no good" I thought.

Cleaned it all up, and discovered that the post was physically pushed out from the battery case. I suspect the POS trickle charger kept on powering up the battery and perhaps either caused an overheat condition, or damaged the battery in some other way.

Anyways, the strange thing is that the battery still appears to run great. Charges quite fine, spins the motor easily, in other words, by all accounts I do NOT have a problem.

...but...that post protruding out like this isn't to my liking.

I did give it a few light taps, but it did not move. So I did not try to get more persuasive...

What do you guys make of it?

Shine up as much as possible both contact surfaces, tighten well, grease well, keep dry, don't look back.

Yup, don't turn a situation into a problem.

Weird. I had a red top that was overcharged and it swelled the case .

i have had excellent luck just occasionally spraying the posts and terminals with wd-40.
nothing corrodes, and when it comes time to remove a terminal, you don't have a greasy mess to clean off first.

Alright, appreciate the feedback, thanks you guys!

What I was worried about is having the darn post literlaly pop-off/out of the battery casing and leaving me stranded out on the road somewhere.

We have the Ontario MoparFest show coming up in another week, for me it's a good 2 hrs. drive up, and so given the fact that I just got my stroker motor up and running and am still very much in the process of sorting out the start-up stuff (you know how it goes, regardless how well you plan and how meticulous you try to be ), so I'm literally trying to just rule out one other potential problem spot.

There is a product just for battery terminals...
linky

Sooo....one more follow-up, b/c that post protruding out like that just didn't seem "right"...LOL

As it happened I just drained the initial break-in oil from the motor, re-filled with new stuff and was going to fire that up. I gave the post a little tap with a hammer, I swear it was NOT oen of these "I'm gonna make you pay for this" type of an efforts either, damned thing popped right out!!! What da....???

Yeah, so it looks like the post somehow corroded internally, or at least part way through the body??? I have never seen this before...having said that, I found my original purchase receipt for this battery: 2012, so yeah, it's been a while, perhaps that's a realistic lifetime?

Anyways, FYI for everone else.

wonder iff you could re-tap and put a new lug on it. like a side post adapter.

Boy, is my face red. I'd never in a hundred years believed that could happen. But it did. Good thing you found it when you were in the garage rather than in Wherethehellarewe AZ.

At least it didn`t happen while on your trip. Looks like one of those sacrificial zinc anodes. LOL

Listen...no worries, it is the 1st time I've ever seen something like this as well. Your feedback was appreciated such as it was, that's what counts.

You know, that thought crossed my mind, but these Optima batteries being the round/wound cells I am simply not sure just how much "meat" there is to tap into???

The little collar of led that's left in there seems very thin and I'd be worried to damage the actual cell material itself if I was to go deeper.

Regardless, I had alread bought a NEW battery to get the car running as there is a little bit of that Woodward thing coming up and the big Ontario MoparFest show...so now this is just a battery core, still worthwhile checking it out so I'll tinker with it a bit.

I have seen video of them being cut clean off and somehow formed back ??? just saying I think it can be fixed (as a spare maybe?)

Had this happen to my red tops last year. Tapped the negative post back in gently. It kept happening, so this year I replaced both.
Never got to the post popping out.
I was using a name brand trickle charger. So I evidently like everything else in life warning signs show that they were coming to there end of life.

The miracle Optima…… that’s after I’ve been home for two hours. I literally COOK this thing from May until October. I have no explanation. The pair in our diesel truck were seven years old when I sold it last year. I took the blue top out of our boat before we sold it last fall. It was manufactured 2-10. Still use it in the race car trailer.

What does that make my face?

But you did warn him to not make it a 'problem', I think the hammer smack falls under that category.

I do wonder what caused that corrosion in the OP's battery.

LOL, well, that little tap (honestly, it wasn't a "smack") was more of a preventatitive maintenance type of an item...and boy am I happy I did take that approach. The Moperfest trip did go off smoothly (yesterday), and in total that required us to haul butt nearly 3 hrs. away from home each way...so yeah, staying on the main highway meant I was pushing about 3600-3700 on my stroker for most of that time. If the battery failed anytime throught the day it would have been a "game over" type of an event.

Anyways, your point is not lost on me, but in cases when things seem off, even a little, I prefer to pre-empt the problem as opposed to it getting me down.

EDIT
====
Oh, I did reach out to Optima with the photos and description, but received NO response!

You are right, most issues give some warning, and the bulging of the base of pictured stud was it, that I incorrectly dismissed, and I learned once again, from my mistakes. So far only my credibility has suffered, and you aren't on the side of the road reviewing, with colorful profane adjectives in reference to my online advice.

Do you know how old it is? Sometimes as batteries age the posts can get corrosion under them and push up like that, once it left the plastic that was a majority of the support. I believe the posts are mounted into the top and then bonded to the terminal in the battery when assembled. That situation is not unique to optima. Standard batteries usually tear the plastic up around the post when this happens, The optima case is so strong it managed to get the post out of the plastic. I have tried to open an optima before, it is not easy, we finally got a lid off of one by popping it off with a forklift. We were able to deform the case by throwing it in the air and letting it hit the concrete but it to the forklift to see the inside.

There should be a barcode on the battery. IIRC on the barcode the first 4 digits are the date. Like 8365 would be the last day of 2008, its been awhile but I believe that is how they are read. It might also have a standard battery code on top but I couldn't fine it by zooming in. It would be a 4 digit code and you would need the first two. A=January etc. So A8 would be January 2008, L8 would be december 2008 etc.

Oh, and get a proper AGM rated charger or maintainer.