Anyone ever had a battery blow up?

bdazzgt said:

Well i'm driving home today, my radio suddenly shuts off and car dies. So since its in the middle of church hour traffic on one of the busiest roads in town i get out and push my car out of the intersection. I get it to a parking lot, get out notice that the front is smoking. I open to hood to see the battery swelling, it wasn't antifreeze smoking, it was battery acid boiling. All i have is my pocket knife since i left my tools at home (which i rarely do). I cut the negative battery cable off the terminal and popped a cap off the battery it finally stops spewing. I wondered why my fuse block didn't stop the alternator. Then i look down and the wire is basically welded to the engine bay, along with the positive wire coming from the battery. So i took my alternator to a local shop, the regulator was bad it basically charged wide open. I'm guessing what happened was the alternator charged wide open blew several fuses in the box, melted the rubber on the wires creating a dead short for the battery when it touched the wheel well. so all in all today has sucked, on a positive note an elderly woman saw me pushing my car and brought me water since were in a terrible heat wave. Has anyone had this happen to them? what can i do to keep it from happening again? I will post pictures when i get this disassembled. I just had to Vent

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bdazzgt said:

Well i'm driving home today, my radio suddenly shuts off and car dies. So since its in the middle of church hour traffic on one of the busiest roads in town i get out and push my car out of the intersection. I get it to a parking lot, get out notice that the front is smoking. I open to hood to see the battery swelling, it wasn't antifreeze smoking, it was battery acid boiling. All i have is my pocket knife since i left my tools at home (which i rarely do). I cut the negative battery cable off the terminal and popped a cap off the battery it finally stops spewing. I wondered why my fuse block didn't stop the alternator. Then i look down and the wire is basically welded to the engine bay, along with the positive wire coming from the battery. So i took my alternator to a local shop, the regulator was bad it basically charged wide open. I'm guessing what happened was the alternator charged wide open blew several fuses in the box, melted the rubber on the wires creating a dead short for the battery when it touched the wheel well. so all in all today has sucked, on a positive note an elderly woman saw me pushing my car and brought me water since were in a terrible heat wave. Has anyone had this happen to them? what can i do to keep it from happening again? I will post pictures when i get this disassembled. I just had to Vent

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Stever89 said:

You, my friend, just dodged a huge bullet. When you opened the hood and saw that battery swollen and smoking, you should have shut it immediately, and then on top of that, you popped one of the caps off the cells and it didn't blow acid in your face! Had there been even a spark, BOOM. You are one lucky guy.

Waaaay back in 1981, I was working at a gas station. Guy comes in to get gas and his car won't restart. I open the hood and see that the positive post of the battery has been sheared off somehow. I don't know how he got it started to begin with. I wrap a rag around the positive cable. I tell the guy not to hit the starter until I tell him to. I'm already taking a huge chance by doing this... I touch the cable to the sheared positive post...

That's all I remember. Next thing I know someone has drug me into the men's room and has my head and face under the faucet. I can't see, my eyes are on fire, I can't hear anything. My shirt and t shirt are blown off, my right arm is burnt by the acid, but it took the brunt and saved my vision from further damage.

When I touched the positive cable to the positive post, there was a spark of course, and the guy had the key in the start position, all that current draw exploded the battery like a bomb. It knocked me back 20 feet and to the ground, folks heard it for blocks, thank God there were people around who knew what to do. The acid burned off the outer layers of my corneas, thankfully your eyes heal quickly and I was back at work in less than a week, my right arm took a lot longer to heal, and I suffer from tinnitus to this day, though most of that's from loud music.

Since then, I've been pretty anal about batteries and charging systems and jump starting techniques. When your alternator's regulator quit, that alt was probably dumping 16-20 volts on your battery and it was swelling up and preparing to detonate. I guaran-dam-tee you had there been one spark (and fire was a definite possibility) you'd be in the hospital right now. I'm glad you're okay, next time, shut the hood and get the hell away. I know it's your car, your pride and joy, I'd feel the same way, but dude, all I can say is I'm glad you were here to tell us about it, and your day could have sucked a LOT harder!

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BlackGT89 said:

I saw a similar thing happen on a 71 Pontiac years ago. My mom pulled up from a 6 hour drive and the battery was smoking and it was bone dry. Not as bad as yours but, it could have been, voltage regulator was toast.

Then soon after I bought my car it had a hard starting issue when the engine was hot. I had gone into a convenience store, came right back out and the engine would barely turn over and the wires would smoke. I grabbed the battery cables and gave them a shake thinking there was a bad connection, followed by "Kabaaaam !". The battery blew up right in my face and the caps went right by my head. I ran in the store and washed my face off, so no permanent harm was done (I've always looked this way). But the shirt I was wearing was all hole-y after that. Turned out I had a bad ground at the engine block.

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bdazzgt said:

it was a 3g alternator, 200A Alternator for Ford Taurus. with 4g wire and i think a 75amp fuse, the whole thing is melted so i can no longer tell. i just had to vent

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Stever89 said:

You, my friend, just dodged a huge bullet. When you opened the hood and saw that battery swollen and smoking, you should have shut it immediately, and then on top of that, you popped one of the caps off the cells and it didn't blow acid in your face! Had there been even a spark, BOOM. You are one lucky guy.

Waaaay back in 1981, I was working at a gas station. Guy comes in to get gas and his car won't restart. I open the hood and see that the positive post of the battery has been sheared off somehow. I don't know how he got it started to begin with. I wrap a rag around the positive cable. I tell the guy not to hit the starter until I tell him to. I'm already taking a huge chance by doing this... I touch the cable to the sheared positive post...

That's all I remember. Next thing I know someone has drug me into the men's room and has my head and face under the faucet. I can't see, my eyes are on fire, I can't hear anything. My shirt and t shirt are blown off, my right arm is burnt by the acid, but it took the brunt and saved my vision from further damage.

When I touched the positive cable to the positive post, there was a spark of course, and the guy had the key in the start position, all that current draw exploded the battery like a bomb. It knocked me back 20 feet and to the ground, folks heard it for blocks, thank God there were people around who knew what to do. The acid burned off the outer layers of my corneas, thankfully your eyes heal quickly and I was back at work in less than a week, my right arm took a lot longer to heal, and I suffer from tinnitus to this day, though most of that's from loud music.

Since then, I've been pretty anal about batteries and charging systems and jump starting techniques. When your alternator's regulator quit, that alt was probably dumping 16-20 volts on your battery and it was swelling up and preparing to detonate. I guaran-dam-tee you had there been one spark (and fire was a definite possibility) you'd be in the hospital right now. I'm glad you're okay, next time, shut the hood and get the hell away. I know it's your car, your pride and joy, I'd feel the same way, but dude, all I can say is I'm glad you were here to tell us about it, and your day could have sucked a LOT harder!

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NikwoaC said:

Wow, that is a HUGE alternator, an average sized wire, and a teeny tiny fuse!



Yikes! Glad you survived that one, buddy!

Two things I hate working on the most are fuel systems and charging systems. I hate the little sparks you get when you're just R&R battery cables normally, let alone when you've got a swelling battery.

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bdazzgt said:

I guess i will run 2g next time, and a 100 amp fuse, unless anyone as any other ideas? i dont have the funds to repair everything else after having the alternator repaired so it will be a bit before i post pictures of the tear down

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LarsD said:

I have a 2g alternator rolling around here I don't even need that you could have if you were closer and you could use it.

Stever: @ your story. I was already wary of batteries, and you aren't helping any.

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Stever89 said:

I still remember the brand name, just before it damn near blew my face off. It was a Delco Freedom battery, one of the very first side-post/sealed top batteries with the green indicator "eye"... blew the entire top clean off.

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