This sounds like another case of the "garage gremlin syndrome".
Thr "garage gremlins" have been known to play all kinds of games just to have fun at our expense. They move away from that safe spot where you put it, they cause brand new items to fail and they love to grab things from your garage floor and hide them.
In my experience the gremlins that thrive on electrical shenanigans are the worst.
It took me 3 years to get rid of the one that messed with my 2+2 charging system.

It was more common to get leakage from the old style batterries with 6 or whatever number of screw on caps. Basically if a battery is overcharging the acid boils and wants to escape  somewhere, that's why Cruise Night lawyer said your system is screwed because acid outside of the  battery could mean an overcharge condition, could also mean battery has a leak.

When batteries sit and are not used reguarly, kind of like a classic car use, they start to sulphate which means discharge, a build up occurs when the sulfur molecules in the battery acid becomes so deeply discharged that they begin to coat the battery's lead plates. Before long the plates become so coated that the battery dies. When the car is started the alternator tends to overcharge the battery to try and compensate for the low voltage condition that sets in with minimal use. The  most common reason for sulphating is batteries that sit too long between charges. As little as 24 hours in hot weather and several days in cooler weather.

Put a voltmeter on the battery when the car is running and see what it reads. Overcharge can be a sign that Alternator needs repair or replaced or regulator does, not sure what you are running in that Strato.

Well it's probably the battery getting sulphated, New Alternator wants to overcharge it to compensate. The way we use our cars two years out of a battery should be considered normal life. If your's was new in 2006 you are on borrowed time.  Come to think of it mine is two years old now too!

Guess what? We had a guy roll in today with a 2004 Prius all upset saying the main battery had leaked all over the back (the battery is in the rear of the car). At first glance it looked like it sulphated all over the place. Funny thing is it was behind the back seat as well. The guy was screaming warranty etc etc. We got it into the shop and tore out the battery - it was clean. Turns out it was laundry detergent someone spilled all over the place! Oh yeah, he was a laywer!

All $400 of it.. It took most of the day for our cleanup guy to get it all out! It was a huge mess and that stuff is corrosive...



-- Edited by 69Laurentian on Tuesday 14th of July 2009 08:52:14 PM