DIY repair
Dead Car Battery? Stop Battery Acid Damage BEFORE It’s Too Late!
Rainman Ray's Repairs · 1 October 2026
Leaking AGM batteries can cause serious truck damage.
2007 LBZ Duramax dual-alternator, dual-battery repair: acid-leaking batteries, severe corrosion, and Optima Yellow Top replacements.
This 2007 Chevy LBZ Duramax came in with both batteries dead and leaking acid. The truck runs a dual-alternator, dual-battery setup, so when the batteries failed they dumped sulfuric acid across the tray, cables, and nearby body metal. That left heavy corrosion, pitted terminals, and rust eating into the sheet metal. In this video we pull the failed batteries, neutralize the acid, cut out and repair the rusted metal, and put the battery area back together so it will not keep rotting from the inside out.
The replacements are Optima Yellow Top spiral-cell AGM batteries. We compare the Yellow Top to the Optima Red Top and break down the real difference between a cranking battery and a deep-cycle battery. The Red Top is a high-CCA starting battery built for short, high-amp bursts and quick recharge from the alternator. The Yellow Top is a dual-purpose spiral AGM: it still cranks a diesel, but the plate design handles deeper discharge and repeated cycling without the damage a pure cranking battery takes. That matters on an LBZ with dual alternators, accessory loads, and a bed-mounted backup generator sitting in the toolbox. We also get a quick look at that onboard generator and how the dual-battery system feeds it.
If you are fighting dead batteries, acid corrosion, or weak cranking on a vehicle, this is the full repair from teardown to Optima Yellow Tops.
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0:00 A Long-Awaited Engine Startup
3:16 Uncovering a Hidden Corrosion Issue