This morning I start my car and the battery exploded. I removed the battery and replaced it with a new battery I had on hand. Poured baking soda on every surface the liquid seemed to hit (cool sizzle effects). Turn the key and the car started right up. No problems apparent.
Particulars:
87 Ford Escort GL 1.9l fuel injected
Last tune-up: 4mos ago. I changed the plugs, wires, cap and rotor.
Replaced the Ignition Module about a year ago, after frequent stalls, no problems since.
I haven’t made any other changes to the car other than installing a new transmission mount a month ago.
Batteries leak hydrogen gas. As you are probably aware, thats pretty explosive. (Look up - Hindenburg). This is why most batteries have warnings that say EXPLOSIVE. No open flames or smoking around them.
My guess would be some sort of a spark when you started it up caused the detonation. Maybe your cable was kind of loose and sparked when you loaded it? Just a guess. Keep an eye on it. Make sure there isn’t any grotesquely large amounts of corrosion around it. Maybe buy new battery cables too.
It is kind of odd for a healthy battery to that though with no outside intervention (IE - Booster cables, match, cigarette).
Consider yourself lucky though. I have seen the front end of a car demolished by one of these going off. People have been killed too.
Was your old battery giving you starting problems? If you’ve been having to crank and crank the car to start it, it’s possible that a quantity of hydrogen gas accumulated within the battery.
The hydrogen leaks out through the battery vents, and if you had a loose battery connector, it’s possible that a spark was generated when you started the car this morning, causing it to explode. That’s one reason why it’s important to be careful and follow a proper sequence when jumping a battery.
Now that you have a new battery, make sure your cables are tightened, and apply a light coating of vaseline to the terminals and cable connectors to inhibit corrosion.
There are probably other possibilities, but that’s the only one I know of.
Twice this week my wife drove the car and left the lights on, requiring a jump both times, in the last case I know it wasn’t done correctly, i.e. sans another vehicle. I was there neither time, so I’m not sure how it was accomplished that latter time (I’m curious about that if anyone knows of a way to do this). We both have other cars but this is our commuter car we use because it gets better mileage than both of our newer cars.
I replaced the battery cables about the same time I put the battery that exploded in the car (the battery had previously been in another of my cars btw). I guess I’ll go get some tonight when I go get another new battery.
There was a lot of chalky corrosion between the bolts of each cable, but I’ve seen worse and had planned to clean it up later. They weren’t lose, as I had to use a socket to get the post off.
When it happened to me, it was due to a crack in an internal connection between two cells that either sparked or got very hot because of the heavy starter current being drawn. I also used a lot of baking soda on my truck and my car parked next to it. I still ended up with some discolored paint on the car though.
Just a friendly suggestion, but if your wife uses jumper cables to jump start the car when the battery runs down, there is a chance of causing the battery to explode if they are hooked up improperly. It’s better to get rid of the jumper cables and get an emergency start battery (for $50-70 at places that sell auto parts). They won’t cause your battery to explode even if hooked up wrong, won’t spark, and don’t require another car.
i’m going to pick one of those up thanks. My wife likes to drive with her headlights on, during commuting, for visibility. So her leaving the headlights on can happen pretty often, despite the bells my car emits when you do.
