Odd Battery failure

[karl]

Drove to a job site, then to a diner this morning. When I left the diner the truck started like always, in about a half mile I smelled strong sulfur smell and soon it cleared, then came back. I checked the voltmeter and it was only charging about 12.2 v, normally around 14v. Pulled over and checked house batteries- all good, popped the hood and the start battery was bubbling out acid(6 yr old, maintenance free= no caps, 770 cca) and so hot I couldn't touch it.
I tossed a folded tarp over it to protect me and pulled the + cable, left it to cool for close to an hour before pulling it and taking it to be tested- one cell was dead.

Never had or heard of a battery failing that way before- kinda feared for my vans life for a minute

 

[johnny b]

Rare, but it happens. I had a similar failure years ago...pulled in to get gas in my 88 dodge mini van and when done, turned the key to start and I had nothing...no clicks, gauges all dead...zilch!
Luckily the station I pulled in was where my brother was working at the time. We tested and found the battery was just plain dead. Slapped in a new one and I was on my way.
Talked it over later with a friend (auto electric specialist) who said that on occasion there can be a defect from manufacturing, or perhaps rough conditions that cause a break between the cells. Sometimes it breaks causing an "open", sometimes it "shorts out".
Mine was an "open", yours sounds like it "shorted" causing the heat. Hopefully a 'once in a lifetime' occurrence.

 

[user 423]

Never had or heard of a battery failing that way before- kinda feared for my vans life for a minute

How old was the battery?

 

[rvpopeye]

Agree ^ very rare but it does happen !

A new battery is probably all that you will need to be back to normal...

 

[Weight]

That is how batteries fail. Most often over charged or otherwise mistreated batteries. One cell finally shorts from shtuf building up on the bottom and finally reaching the plates.

 

[karl]

Agree ^ very rare but it does happen !

A new battery is probably all that you will need to be back to normal...

Normal???? never been normal! ;-)
Ya, new battery fixed it. Hope this one lasts at least the 6 yrs the last did.

 

[user 423]

(oops.didn't see the 6 yo in first post) Not bad for time though. I've never seen one go that way either.

 

[Trebor English]

I had one go that way in a Saturn.  It took out  the alternator.  Way back regulators for generators, those pre-alternator dinosaurs, had 3 coils in them.  One was for current limiting.  Nowadays alternators don't have current limiting in their regulators.

I wasn't driving it at the time but there was a school bus where I worked that had that happen.  There were two batteries paralleled and the 12 volt battery was charging the urine out of the 10 volt battery.  Turning off the engine didn't stop the current flow.

 

[theinfamousj]

popped the hood and the start battery was bubbling out acid(6 yr old, maintenance free= no caps, 770 cca) and so hot I couldn't touch it.
I tossed a folded tarp over it to protect me and pulled the + cable, left it to cool for close to an hour before pulling it and taking it to be tested- one cell was dead.

Never had or heard of a battery failing that way before- kinda feared for my vans life for a minute

Happened to me on my former car battery (I don't have a house battery). $100 later and a battery change that I did in the rain with borrowed tools from NAPA Autoparts and I have put that in my "Things which can happen" folder.

No one I dealt with who had greater knowledge about cars than I seemed the last bit nonplussed about a battery cell failing.

I did notice that my car's clock used to be consistently two minutes slow. I would reset it and then it would be slow by two minutes. I would reset it and then again the two minute delay.

With a battery with all cells functioning, no more clock problem.

Sadly, my bad cell battery was too old to get a warranty return on. Oh well. One lives. One learns.

Sent from my SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

 

[Weight]

Well, we are glad the battery did not explode. They do that with a bad cell.

 

[highdesertranger]

yep internal short. bad juju. highdesertranger