[s-cars] Click>>>BOOM...yes Virginia, batteries can and do explode! NAC

[Ian Duff]

Not necessarily a low on juice battery. My wife's old 95 VW Passat did the
same thing to us when it had something less than 10K miles. We got it very
soon after it came off the boat, so it hadn't been rusting its rotors in the
dealer lot waiting for us to come along, either. Dunno why it happened to a
new car, but a similar "boom", puff of smoke out from the edges of the hood,
and no joy. Must be FM (flipping magic...)
-Ian Duff.
-----Original Message-----
From: s-car-list-admin at audifans.com [mailto:s-car-list-admin at audifans.com]
On Behalf Of Peter Schulz
Sent: Tuesday, 02 September, 2003 1:44 PM
To: 200q20v at audifans.com; 20v; s-car-list at audifans.com
Subject: [s-cars] Click>>>BOOM...yes Virginia, batteries can and do explode!
NAC


And I thought this only happened to other people...

Patient was a 1992 Infiniti G20 owned by a friend of my wife's. She went to
leave our house, turned the ignition key which was followed by a loud BOOM
and smoke from under the hood.

I opened the hood to find the vent caps missing from the battery, the top of
the case cracked open and the stench of sulphur. If it had not been for the
"over the case" battery clamp, the whole top would surely have blown off.

The battery was a Nissan oem battery, After I liberally washed the area
around the battery with baking soda and water, we were able to find a
replacement at a nearby Autozone...

I shudder to think what might have happened if this battery had been under
the rear seat, as in one of my Avants.

I assume what happened is that the water level was too low, and that the
turning of the ignition switch caused an internal short that ignited the
hydrogen?

More reason to periodically check the water level in you batteries.

-Peter

Peter Schulz
1990 CQ (awaiting S2 3b engine transplant)
1991 200 20v TQW indigo mica
1991 200 20v TQW titanium grey
Chelmsford, MA USA
peter at audifans.com

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