replace (+) battery cable?

[smtippin]

Hey all,
My car wasn't starting the other day. I'd turn the key and nothing would happen. The car never even tried to turn over. ARgh. So I start digging around and after I pulled the cover off of the battery (why is it even there?) I say the positive cable (not the part that affixes to the battery terminal) was corroded. I grabbed a can of coke and poured it over the cable to eat the corrosion away, which it did and the car drove fine. Thing is though that the red sheath and some of the positive cable itself is burned/melted. So, my questions are:

Can I get a replacement positive cable and replace it easily?
What would have caused this?

I'd better give you some more history before you answer the bottom question. You see, a little while ago the car would just cut out and all electric would go down for 3-5 seconds while driving on the road (freeway even). Totally scary, but what I found was a lose + battery cable that would come off of the terminal. Now I'm not sure how much damage that would have caused the cable itself, but if there was arching and now the corrosion, surely ther'd be more friction and heat.

Thoughts. I'm parked until I can get this figured out.
Thanks for the help,
s

[90base]

You can actually buy a replacement battery cable at wal-mart, I dont know if you can buy one at your wal-mart but you can here. They arent really that hard to change.

[dwak]

I'm actually experiencing a very simular problem right now also.
Regarding battery cables at wal-mart, those are just kind-of universal terminals with a length of cable and perhaps an auxillary lead. A set of cables that include battery, alternator and starter cables made for the car are gonna cost you about 100 bucks from the dealership or most any other place. walmart cables essentially only replace the terminal and a little bit of visible cable. any problem with corrosion in the cables will be elsewhere also. thats actually what i plan to inspect first once i get my car home because right now its stranded in the school parking lot.
anything you find out please share because my dealership was unable to diagnose the problem.

[GapBoyPCS]

May I ask what year your car is?

The reason I ask is that there was a recall on the battery cable on certain 2000 and 2001 model year Foci.

[SVTRSST]

the set of OEM cables is like $50 just got that quoted by tousley

[slokoop]

they are integrated positive and negative. little involved to change, but not too bad. DONT use a cable from walmart! take the time and do it correctly.