Gonna be even more careful with car batteries now....

[KFunk]

Luckily I was inside the truck when this happened. I didn't really do anything wrong, as far as I know. The battery had been acting funny the week before this happened. It would show full charge after trickle charging, then it would barely be able to turn the engine over. Sure, the engine was cold from sitting for a few months, so no biggie.

Then yesterday, I put it on the trickle charger for a while. It showed full charge, and I gave it a turn. It still cranked really slow, then BOOM. It took me a minute to figure out what happened.

I power washed the entire engine bay and truck multiple times with water to get rid of the acid. Luckily it didn't spray much, and a pool of it was contained in the plastic battery tray (make sure you've got one of those intact in your car).

I've just been researching the common causes of battery explosions. Usually its caused during jump starting. In case you didn't know, it's not just a matter of stupidly connecting to the wrong posts. You should also remember to connect the ground cable second, and connect it to the engine (not the battery post). If you connect it to the battery post, it usually makes a spark, which can ignite gases venting from the battery.

But yeah, I didn't do that. There musta been some internal problem in the battery. I got lucky it didn't hurt anything or anyone. I'll probably never watch an engine start again. I swapped the miata's battery over to the truck, and she's starting and running fine now. Now I just gotta wait and see how many holes I have in my clothing, and figure out how to safely get rid of that battery.

[SteveJ]

Buy yourself GOOD safety glasses and use 'em. Mine are so comfortable, I forget I'm wearing them.

If you are using reading glasses, AO has some safety glasses available with magnification lenses in them- Bi-focal style.

[ray_]

Saw that happen once, a long time ago.

Time to go AGM!

Glad all survived.

Ray

[Emyers]

When I was flying UH-1H Hueys, on the start up procedure for the aircraft, after the turbine was up and running, you had to watch the amp meter when bringing the generators on line to ensure they were putting out less than two amps, otherwise you ran the chance of getting into "thermal runaway" as a product of overcharging, and the battery would explode. With a 24 volt battery in the nose of the aircraft, inches away from ones feet, not a good situation.

Earl