my battery exploded ??

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Owen
Posts: 16
Joined: Wed Feb 22, 2017 7:54 pm

my battery exploded ??

Post by Owen »

I was trying to get my car to start but it was making a loud repetitive clicking sound from the starter sylinoid i thought i needed a new one when i got the new one it blew the battery. if you know what that loud clicking sound was and how to fix it please i need all the help i can get.

Comechero65
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Location: Santa Clara, Ca

Re: my battery exploded ??

Post by Comechero65 »

This might be a dumb question but could you have hooked up the batt reversed? The clicking may have been a bad ground to the solenoid or just bad connections causing the solenoid to be intermittant.
Ron
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Owen
Posts: 16
Joined: Wed Feb 22, 2017 7:54 pm

Re: my battery exploded ??

Post by Owen »

I hooked it up correctly i know that but i will go and check the grounds Thank you

popscomet
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Location: Jacksonville, Arkansas

Re: my battery exploded ??

Post by popscomet »

THE battery shorted out,,my father in law came in from work ,parked in drive way killed the motor and as he was walking away from the truck,the battery blew up........this was a truck less then 2yrso.....one time in my 71 f100 ,I turned the engine off,before I got out of trk ,,I could smell batt acid strong,and I could hear a boiling sound ,I jerked the hood open and the battery was so hot I could feel the heat,,I managed to remove a cabel,,I got away from it as fast as I could and waited til the acid smell laid low and even then the battery was almost to hot to handle...put in another battery,,but had nothing,acted like it had no battery in it,checked all connections,they were good,,then all of a sudden heard a click somewhere from under the dash,dome light came on and everything went back to working and it started,drove that truck at least 10 more yrs and that never happen again.......and same with father in laws truck.....................battery just shorted out,,,it just happens !!....pop
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pop/glenda

Kingspeedy2
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Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2015 2:36 pm

Re: my battery exploded ??

Post by Kingspeedy2 »

I agree as you did some recent work it sounded like it shorted out somewhere, The Solenoid clicking usually means its its shuttling properly but either the large internal contacts for the battery are toast or there is simply not enough battery power there to turn the starter. Look up a solenoid diagram on google. Its possible the solenoid itself shorted out sending battery power to ground instead of energizing the starter motor.In this case The battery cables would of eventually got hot and melted the insulation off. How do the cables look? if they look ok most likely the solenoid is not the culprit (I had this issue cause an engine fire once on a car I just bought from a friend)It was Chev with starter mounted solenoid so a little different
Over charging which causes overheating of a battery which can warp the plates inside the battery causing an internal short ,i found out this the hard way after a trickle charger malfunctioned and didnt go into trickle mode.
It actually caused the polarity of the poles to switch..It fried the electrical on my car as if I had connected the terminals in reverse. While checking the battery voltage after the fact with an analog meter the needle swung to negative when the positive lead of the meter was on the positive lead of the battery which is wrong .It was a cheap meter so I checked a known good battery and it swung in the correct direction indicating the polarity swap or some other weirdness.

Solenoids are cheap,if in doubt replace it
Do you know if your charging system is working fine and not overcharging the battery
Did your battery shift and the terminal gound out on the hood or fender
Just some other things to check

Owen
Posts: 16
Joined: Wed Feb 22, 2017 7:54 pm

Re: my battery exploded ??

Post by Owen »

If I get a new battery do you think it will do the same thing

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poboyjo65
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Re: my battery exploded ??

Post by poboyjo65 »

when you put on the new battery check for shorts by attaching the pos side first & just touch or bump the ground cable to the battery post in the dark to see if you see sparks. first make sure the key is off & all lights,everything should be off. if nothing is on there should be no sparks. but if you see sparks,especially big sparks there is a short ,don't attach the cable! I always attach the positive side first then the ground. but when I'm removing the cables I take off the ground cable first. I have had a battery blow up in my face by just bumping the wrench on the body while working on the pos side with the ground attached. safety glasses recommended.
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Johno

popscomet
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Location: Jacksonville, Arkansas

Re: my battery exploded ??

Post by popscomet »

what john just said X2.......without a short,a new battery ought to be safe...for as far as the 2trucks I talked about ..there was not any problems with anything....the battarys just shorted out inside and blew up......a new battery fixed both trucks,,for many years to come pop
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pop/glenda

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poboyjo65
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Re: my battery exploded ??

Post by poboyjo65 »

popscomet wrote:what john just said X2... pop
right Pop! it has happened twice but someone else was turning the wrench once. he took off running like a mad dog. A couple of us caught him, since he was running in a big circle with his hands over his eyes, & led him running to a nearby swimming pool at a motel. :lol: we were glad he could swim,,,, we didnt have time to ask! :lol: I just laid down at the edge & washed off my face which had begin to burn. the other time my buddy was watching me only he didnt have glasses on like I did. I caught him behind the store we were in front of & led him inside to their restroom, then finally had to knock him out of the way so I could wash off my face but I let him rinse his eyes for seemed like 5 minutes. I dont know why every body takes off blind runnin' :?
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Johno

popscomet
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Location: Jacksonville, Arkansas

Re: my battery exploded ??

Post by popscomet »

the same reason they run when caught on fire......FEAR..... :shock: :!: :shock:
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Kingspeedy2
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Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2015 2:36 pm

Re: my battery exploded ??

Post by Kingspeedy2 »

X3 Sort of ,yep if you disconnect the negative first(and secure it so the cables don't spring it back and accidently contact the terminal) you wont run the risk of a short if your wrench touches metal when removing the positive terminal..and then re - install the positive first as previously mentioned

Instead of touching the negative to the ground on reconnecting to check to see if there is a spark indicating a load (...sparks around Hydrogen gas produced by a battery are never a good thing)
You can use a Multi-meter with Amperage reading capability .
Turn off every accessory , shut the doors so the courtesy light is not on,set the meter to AMPS on the highest scale,place one lead on the negative terminal of the battery and one on the negative battery cable.
The amperage you see is the current draw in amperage.it should be ZERO or a very small amount if you have something like a car stereo or clock or something else that is always on. You are looking to see if there is a high draw that's enough to short a battery. you can also use an inline fuse instead of a mult-imeter as a cheap and dirty current checker.You can use a 2.5 amp or 5 amp fuse..place it between the negative cable and negative terminal..If the fuse blows you have an issue. Better to roast a 50 cent fuse than blowing up another battery.(your multimeter also has a fuse inside for the amperage side if it stops reading)
I have purchased some great automotive electrical books online and learned a few new tricks on there .Also read up on voltage drop to check for a parasitic drain using the voltage side of a mult-imeter
good luck be battery safe...there is a negative side to batteries..Pun intended

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