Badly corroded battery terminals and other weird issues

[TheEdgeofSanity]

So, last week I had one of my headlights burn out. Not a huge issue because I found a replacement in my garage but prior to that, I have noticed some strange electrical things happening.

For starters, my lights dim really low sometimes when I come to a stop after driving for awhile. Sometimes its at a traffic light and the engine sounds like its going to quit.

Secondly, I've had a random "service vehicle soon" light come on intermittently. One day it came on when I shifted from park into drive and my DRL's did not come on. I manually turned my headlights on and the light went off and when I turned the light switch off, the DRL's came on like they were supposed to.

Now, after looking around google, I read that corroded battery cables could be my problem. I looked at my cables and the positive terminal is covered in a thick white crust.

What should I use to clean this? do I need to disconnect the battery to clean it?

Also, I connected my battery to my charger and it's pulling a steady 3 amps of charge. I'm wondering if the corrosion is blocking the alternator from charging my battery?

If you can help with any of this, it would be greatly appreciated before I get stranded somewhere!

[a.graham52]

best thing to do is remove terminals and clean tem with a wire brush or a battery terminal kit you can get at your local parts store, they also make "battery terminal cleaner" that you spray on and it "eats" the corrosion.

[MMGT1]

Baking soda will neutralize it so you can safely clean it up. Now, cheater way...lol, pour water over the terminal, it will disappear, then remove, sand and clean up, reinstall