Leaked alkaline battery and wire replacement

[doodle43]

I have a controller for a toy drone that sat too long and the alkaline batteries leaked. I cleaned the battery compartment with vinegar. But I can see what I presume to be the same battery acid corrosion on the black wire and terminal on the PCB. It looks like the battery acid went through the black wire. I assume this will need to be completely replaced, but I’ve only ever soldered once and never done a wire.

Do I need to clean the remaining battery acids with vinegar and then desolder and solder on a new wire? Should I replace both wires?

[BeBuLamar]

Definitely clean all all the chemicals from the battery. You can replace the wire but it looks like you don't need to.

[james_s]

It's not acid, it's alkali, that's why vinegar (acid) works to neutralize it.

It does look like the corrosion has gone all the way up the wire, you might get away with just cleaning the crud at the ends though.

[tooki]

Replacing the wire is so easy I would do so anyway. Just practice with some scrap wire and scrap PCBs before attempting the repair.

[james_s]

It might not be that easy actually, when the battery corrosion strips off the plating it can be quite difficult to solder a wire to it, especially if the contacts are made of steel or something instead of copper. When you combine that with the terminals being in plastic that melts easily it could end up being pretty frustrating for a beginner.

If you do end up replacing the wire, I would use a wire brush on a rotary tool to really clean it up nice before trying to solder it.

[JustMeHere]

The other day I used 3% H2O2 diluted about 10:1 with distilled water to successfully clean a battery leak.  Worked well.  Just said WTF and tried it.