Smoking, whistling battery.

C

Chris142

Joined
Jun 5, 2003
Messages
28,029
Location
Apple Valley, California
Had a guy bring one of the work trucks to the shop. Had to jump start it that morning. As soon as he turned the truck off I heard a whistle. Opened the hood and saw one of the batteries was making the noise. It was blowing steam out the vent.

I promptly walked away from it. After about 20 minutes I dawned goggles and a face mask and disconnected the other battery.

A minute or so later the whistle stopped.

I'm guessing that the battery was shorted internally.

It was very hot. After I replaced both batteries the charging system checked out ok.

The batteries were 4 year old from the local battery mart . Pretty good battery life for those here.

I put in some duralast ones from AutoZone.
 
Had this happen with the Mercury Grand Marquis my niece is using (picked up a Dodge Grand Caravan with a silent 3.6 Pentastar for her; still reconditioning that).

The O’Reilly alternator I put in to replace the dead original was putting out 18 volts, causing a ton of electrical havoc. Yes, the battery was venting and lightly spraying acid and it stunk. Damaged the case on the Motorcraft 850 battery due to it swelling and puffing up. The thing didn’t blow up, and actually still has a full charge. I knew these things happen, but I’ve never witnessed it personally before.

O’Reillys made good and the one in there now is putting out a proper 14.5 volts to an old Deka battery. It’s too old to rely on so I’m swapping it this weekend.
 
Chris142 said:
Had a guy bring one of the work trucks to the shop. Had to jump start it that morning. As soon as he turned the truck off I heard a whistle. Opened the hood and saw one of the batteries was making the noise. It was blowing steam out the vent.

I promptly walked away from it. After about 20 minutes I dawned goggles and a face mask and disconnected the other battery.

A minute or so later the whistle stopped.

I'm guessing that the battery was shorted internally.

It was very hot. After I replaced both batteries the charging system checked out ok.

The batteries were 4 year old from the local battery mart . Pretty good battery life for those here.

I put in some duralast ones from AutoZone.
Click to expand...
Depending on what truck had the problem it could very well be the battery cables are the problem. For instance on my truck as time goes by the Crossover cable can go bad unseen to the user,corrosion forms under the cable insulation.
The battery temp sensor is on the drivers side battery and the passenger side battery is not monitored, if the crossover isn't sending the correct voltage the passenger side will continue to get charged too high for the situation due to the DS battery looking for higher voltage than it's receiving, hence the PS battery gets overcharged to the point of failure. Running voltage at each battery should be within.02 volts of each other or the cable should be repaired or replaced.
Larry
 
That's like handling wet dynamite! I'm glad you disposed of it safely.

Years ago Sears introduced a battery called Incredicell. They were pushing them hard and one day I put one into a 1978 Corvette Indy Pace Car Edition. It was the guys pride and joy. As some of you probably know, it was located in a compartment behind the diver seat.
About two hours later the guy shows up complaining of a bad smell and the alternator warning lamp was on. I opened the lid to the battery compartment and a plume of smoke engulfed the interior and the battery had swollen up..... and was red hot. We swapped it out with a conventional Diehard but Sears ended up replacing the interior because the plume of acid ate everything cloth in that interior. Holes in the carpet, headliner, etc. What a mess.
 
Lubener said:
That is scary. My dumb neighbor parks his vehicle between my house and his. He has been jump starting that vehicle for two months now with a booster everytime he uses it. I can see something bad happening.
Click to expand...
He will be replacing the alternator soon. Jumping a car in an emergency is fine, but doing it regularly makes the alternator work overtime charging the battery. Eventually the alternator gives out. There is a reason battery maintainers became popular. :)
 
I had that happen once too. The case cracked and evacuated its water down the side of the car and I saw it dripping off of the side skirt. I'm thinking I got lucky it didn't catch fire, especially after it went bone dry.
 
Chris142 said:
Had a guy bring one of the work trucks to the shop. Had to jump start it that morning. As soon as he turned the truck off I heard a whistle. Opened the hood and saw one of the batteries was making the noise. It was blowing steam out the vent.

I promptly walked away from it. After about 20 minutes I dawned goggles and a face mask and disconnected the other battery.

A minute or so later the whistle stopped.

I'm guessing that the battery was shorted internally.

It was very hot. After I replaced both batteries the charging system checked out ok.

The batteries were 4 year old from the local battery mart . Pretty good battery life for those here.

I put in some duralast ones from AutoZone.
Click to expand...
usually when a battery cooks it is either because it is low on electrolyte from so if it is sealed it is basically done for

other alternative is overcharging.. aka charging rate is too high.. which effectively does the same thing

problem when they are hot like that is they are explosive.. so its best to wait.
One of our mechanics took a set of overheated batteries out of the vehicle and when he sait one of them on the floor it blew..
lucky for the mechanic was he had his back turned.

I've seen it a couple times in my career... sounds like a 357 magnum going off in the shop.

not good.
 
Back in the mid-late 90's I was the backup battery guy in a really big 24 hour a day warehouse. One of my duties if I ever had a few minutes to spare was to water batteries. I pulled one down out of the rack one night and commenced to watering it. Had all the right PPE on, thank goodness. Did not notice that one of the leads (wires) had a bare spot. Did not notice that when I draped the leads over the battery that the exposed wire lead was sitting on one of the lead (like the element) plates. She shorted out, and upon my soul I had no idea what happened. It was the loudest sound I'd ever heard, and I've been an avid shooter for over 40 years. I just know that I was sitting on my bottom with my ears ringing when people started showing up, the concussion actually knocked me down. I couldn't hear well for a couple of hours. Would have made a .357 sound like a .22
 
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