Battery exploded......

[muleskinner]

I started up Red the other day. It sat idling when suddenly the battery exploded!
Here is a pic of the battery looking straight down at it. As you can see it blew the top half right off.

Here ar a few other pics also.


So far it split the top of the radiator, so I need a replacement radiator now.
Also it bent the hood of the car up a bit.
My question is why did the battery explode? I have never seen this happen before.

[Spike]

That... is just sketchy. Were you in the car, or just warming it up? Glad you weren't hurt!

[FestivaCollector]

Hydrogen gas and a spark, maybe from loose clamp. I had it happen to me while over it. Nasty! Wash and use baking soda to neutralize corrosive characteristics of the acid.

[muleskinner]

That... is just sketchy. Were you in the car, or just warming it up? Glad you weren't hurt!

I went inside the house after I started it. Then I heard a loud bang sound. I went back out to see what it was and the car was still running and smoke was coming out from under the hood.

[Bert]

Graphic example to use caution when 'playing with' batteries. What happened to you is in the extreme but obviously can and does occur. Imagine that battery exploding while you were connecting cables or boosting someone; you'd want to have been wearing safety glasses and been very close to a source of water rinse. Glad you weren't hurt.

[muleskinner]

Graphic example to use caution when 'playing with' batteries. What happened to you is in the extreme but obviously can and does occur. Imagine that battery exploding while you were connecting cables or boosting someone; you'd want to have been wearing safety glasses and been very close to a source of water rinse. Glad you weren't hurt.

I didn't even think anything was wrong. I just went out to start the Festy to warm it up. Cable connections are tight .... I just don't under stand why it would just explode for no reason?!

[TorqueEffect]

God that probably would have given me a heart attack if that happened while driving it. Good thing you weren't hurt.

looks like it is time for a new battery.

[1988lx]

Hi Mike,
VERY glad to see your ok,

unfortunately, this isn't the first time I've seen this so here goes...

The clean-up...
FIRST...thoroughly rinse your whole engine compartment with water after CAREFULLY removing the battery remnants USEING GLOVES/SAFETY GLASSES and very OLD CLOTHES
(if any acid gets on your clothes, it WILL eat right through them once they are laundered)
SECOND...cover the whole WET engine bay and underside of hood in baking soda (one box MIGHT be enough) and let it set for about 30mins to neutralize any leftover battery acid.
THIRD...wash all the acid soaked soda off. and your done (you may wanna spray-bomb any unpainted metal now, B/C it will start to rust almost immediately)

the possible causes...
four things come to mind....
1-overcharging (possibly bad regulator in the alternator)
2-a large short (like a wrench laid across the battery terminals, don't think this happed, just throwing it out there)
3-clogged battery vents (allowing hydrogen gas build-up, add a tiny spark and then ka-bluey!!! )
4-most likely-an internal short by the way the ends of the lead plates look (esp. if your battery was over a couple of years old and was low on water)

my 2 cents of advice...take the alternator off and have it tested at least 3 times back to back at a chain store like carquest or napa the multiple testings will help weed out a faulty regulator. when installing a new battery, after hooking up the positive, just lightly graze the ground wire across the neg. terminal you may see some tiny sparks which should only last a couple seconds(this is normal) if you get a loud pop , you've got a major short somewhere!

Hope this helps!

[nitrofarm]

Most likely the post was cracked and this caused a spark internally igniting the gases. Dont every twist or pound your cables onto the posts. As far as clean up goes. You must put baking soda in your water IIRC you want @ 10% soda (but google this). Thankfully your ok-

[koRnhead]

Bad regulator in the alternator will do that. Especially if you drove on it for a while.

[Larry Hampton]

Had one blow up right in front of me. It was in a dump truck, battery mounted behind the steps under the front of the bed. It had a bad post (I thought it was loose and had no tools) and keep in mind how big dump truck batteries are. I was wiggling the cable while another guy cranked it. Blew the top off and I got splashed with acid. I had the guys lead me to a house (my eyes shut, we were working in a neighborhood) and they hosed me off. It was scary, gained new respect.

[muleskinner]

God that probably would have given me a heart attack if that happened while driving it. Good thing you weren't hurt.

looks like it is time for a new battery.

Yes, and a new radiator.

[muleskinner]

Hi Mike,
VERY glad to see your ok,

unfortunately, this isn't the first time I've seen this so here goes...

The clean-up...
FIRST...thoroughly rinse your whole engine compartment with water after CAREFULLY removing the battery remnants USEING GLOVES/SAFETY GLASSES and very OLD CLOTHES
(if any acid gets on your clothes, it WILL eat right through them once they are laundered)
SECOND...cover the whole WET engine bay and underside of hood in baking soda (one box MIGHT be enough) and let it set for about 30mins to neutralize any leftover battery acid.
THIRD...wash all the acid soaked soda off. and your done (you may wanna spray-bomb any unpainted metal now, B/C it will start to rust almost immediately)

the possible causes...
four things come to mind....
1-overcharging (possibly bad regulator in the alternator)
2-a large short (like a wrench laid across the battery terminals, don't think this happed, just throwing it out there)
3-clogged battery vents (allowing hydrogen gas build-up, add a tiny spark and then ka-bluey!!! )
4-most likely-an internal short by the way the ends of the lead plates look (esp. if your battery was over a couple of years old and was low on water)

my 2 cents of advice...take the alternator off and have it tested at least 3 times back to back at a chain store like carquest or napa the multiple testings will help weed out a faulty regulator. when installing a new battery, after hooking up the positive, just lightly graze the ground wire across the neg. terminal you may see some tiny sparks which should only last a couple seconds(this is normal) if you get a loud pop , you've got a major short somewhere!

Hope this helps!

This does help, thanks!
I washed the engine compartment out right a way. I need to redue it though. I didn't use baking soda, I used a cleaner instead. I will get back in there and use baking soda.

We purchased the festy with the blue festy, in West Virginia and haven't done anything to the red festy yet because of weather and working on the blue festy. I'm glad the battery didn't blow when i was driving it home after buying it. I had to drive it 300 plus miles home.

[MasterTec]

You forgot to mention the possibility of a frozen battery. I know if you try to charge them up while frozen there is a big risk of something like this happening.

[nitrofarm]

^ I thought about that too, but they usually wont start if frozen. And if they do start, its usually ok.(because they werent frozen enough)