sounds silly of course. Wonder if he would have said that to a man ?

Might want to consider that the  acid does get on the top of
batteries........just from fumes from charging I suspect........
mainly on non-sealed batteries,  (  which I prefer - you want access to the
cells for checking them with a hydrometer to check for one cell weaker than
the rest, or to add water.........)
but that acid can allow very slight discharge.
the 'good' kind of battery care and cleaning spay turns red when it comes in
contact with battery acid,
and you'll find there is a thing film of battery acid on the top of
batteries often......which has a slight discharge factor.

'usually' it's either a weak , cheap, or old battery..........
or excessive key-off current drain.
Always need to make sure charging voltage is up where it belongs too.

one can load test a battery, and check charging voltage, check for current
drain with the key off, and hydrometer test each cell - those are the basic
and simple battry and charging system tests that are easy to do, that come
to my mind right now anyway.
scott

----- Original Message -----
From: "Allan Streib" <streib@CS.INDIANA.EDU>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Friday, August 08, 2008 8:06 AM
Subject: Re: Can a battery terminal clamp cause a battery to discharge?

> mordo <helmut.blong@GMAIL.COM> writes:
>
>> I sent my wife to AA to have a suspect battery tested and likely
>> replaced.  The gentleman helping her told her very seriously that
>> because terminal clamps had been tightened so that the tabs were
>> closed together between the bolt, that it was causing a "short
>> circuit" that was draining the battery.
>
> Nonsense.
>
> Allan
> --
> 1991 Vanagon GL