I'm afraid that I may have over-tightened the battery cable terminals to the battery posts on my daughters car. It works, starts and all that. Would there be any good in loosening the terminal now and re-tightening to a normal torque? Or is the "damage" done and it's best to just leave it alone?

If it's working leave it be.

if it ain't broke, break it and fix it is my motto.


leave it alone, if nothing broke you are good till the battery goes bad.

I would leave it alone unless you have replacement parts ready or nearby.

I would grease the terminals and sleep well at night.

Won't hurt a thing until you try to take it off. There is a chance taking it off will break the post. The good news in this whole story is that you never really have to take it off until the battery goes bad. And I can assure you that your battery will go bad about 3 weeks after your warranty period expires.

Good advice. Keep them greased to prevent acid corrosion.

I did that, a little slather of the Vaseline-like stuff from auto zone right?

Yes, the dielectric grease would be proper protocol, but I remember my dad using actual Vaseline and just generic all purpose grease several times (and he was a chemical engineer)

Glad to hear I'm not the only one!


Do you also find out in the fixing stage that you picked the absolute worst possible time to do this type of thing - like when there are zero places open to get what's needed to fix it?

Leave it