Thank god for warranties. Almost a BOOM! incident.

[willwren]

Drove the ZiLLA to Salem last night for Tyler's birthday dinner at The Outback. Me, Lisa, Tyler, Katie. Smelled rotten egg occasionally on the trip, blamed Tyler.

Smelled it again on the way back. This was an 80-mile round trip. Did another 35 mile round trip to Albany and back this morning. Had the same smell as I pulled into Home Depot on the way home. Got out of the car, and was about to let Dex out, and heard a high-pitched whistle. Louder from the hood vents. Popped the hood to reveal a 2.5 year old Optima swollen up, venting Sulphuric gas, and whistling like mad. Did you know there are whistles in the vents to warn you? I do now.

Called the shop I bought it from. 3 year full replacement warranty honored by Optima. Lisa and Tyler brought along my old 6 year old spare Optima (65% left on it according to my batt/alt tester which can test all different types), and some tools. Swapped in the spare, went in for my garden shopping, traded batteries on the way home. New one is ready to go in, 3 year warranty clock starts all over today.

After 45 minutes when I dropped it on the counter for exchange, I still had to have gloves on. It was that hot. Even right before I pulled it out, everything in the car worked. I probably could have driven it 4 blocks for the exchange, but wasn't willing to risk it. Lights, gauges, and starter all still worked.

[99bonnieSE]

Yowch, good thing you caught it. i've never heard of an optima doing this.

[willwren]

Never heard of it either. My faith in them is still sound. Many cheaper batteries would have failed. This thing was cooking and swollen. Even after 15 minutes on cool asphalt, which was also 30 minutes after shutting it down, the thing was smoking hot. Never failed a weld or seam.

And if the thing hadn't whistled, I might not have checked it as early as I did. No overvoltage or undervoltage on the car at all.

[2000Silverbullet]

OMG...and I have one of those bombs under my back seat!

Yesterday I got the Jeep back on the road after sitting for 5 months. Had to replace the battery. Chose an EverReady 1000A due to cost.

Is this a common problem with Optima's??!!

[99bonnieSE]

Never heard of it either. My faith in them is still sound. Many cheaper batteries would have failed. This thing was cooking and swollen. Even after 15 minutes on cool asphalt, which was also 30 minutes after shutting it down, the thing was smoking hot. Never failed a weld or seam.

And if the thing hadn't whistled, I might not have checked it as early as I did. No overvoltage or undervoltage on the car at all.

Wow, thats really odd, wren.

[willwren]

Like I said, first I'd ever heard of it. Many lesser batteries would have been BOOM. And that would have been ruining my custom hood paint and a bunch of other stuff. You'll have ample warning on the odd chance this ever happens. First a rotten-egg smell, then a whistle.

[Jrs3800]

Very good to know.... My next batter is actually going to be an Optima red top....

[LeSabreUltra]

Wow...I'd probably crap myself if I had a battery explode on me. Talk about a mess. Good thing you caught it on time.
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[willwren]

Trust me, exploding batteries are the worst thing that can happen. Battery (sulphuric) acid all over the place eating paint, wires, and anything else. You can fight problems for years afterwards. That custom paint job on my hood would have been GONE.

I'm glad Optima has the built-in safeties they have.

[00Beast]

That's really weird for a gel type sealed battery. Glad you caught it in time, and I bet Optima will be looking at that one trying to figure out what happened.

My next battery will be an Interstate, FWIW. In an 00+, it's not worth the hassle of having an unsecured battery right underneath someone's butt. I'd rather have a battery that is secured and properly vented. /threadjack

[2000Silverbullet]

I have never heard of a battery heating up and gassing like that unless it was overcharged during a boosting operation.

Bill, have you checked your alternator regulator? You stated that you run it overspeed with a smaller pulley.

[Mechanical Mike]

x2

[willwren]

I have an alternator tester. It went on the car the minute I came home. 14.4 volts at idle. The regulator was also changed in this alternator, so the voltage stays in range, but it puts out 160 amps rather than the stock 140. The alternator is fine, and didn't cause the problem. The most likely scenario is that somehow one cell in the battery shorted.

I intend to email Optima myself and let them know where the battery is coming from. I'd like to know the autopsy results.

The car showed no symptoms whatsoever during any of these episodes.

[1fatcat]

I have seen a few acid batteries short internally and do this, usually with no odd things happening in the car either. Never seen a gell battery do this, but I have only seen a handfull of gell batteries in cars. Almost all the cars and trucks I have worked on have the standard acid battery.
All it would take is a piece of debris getting in between the layers durring the assembly proccess for this to happen.

[willwren]

Every now and then, even the best quality control will let one slip by.

[SSEimatt93]

wow that could of turned out to be real ugly!

[2000Silverbullet]

I bet it has more to do with Bill's leaps over those railway tracks. I've seen him get air over them.

That would knock the stuffing out of the best batt!

My laplop battery gets so hot I can hardly pick it up. Maybe it's all those lights and gismos on your dash and 860 amp alternator loading the crap out of it.

[willwren]

Except for the fact that it was broad daylight, and I had no lights on.

[John Deere Boy]

It might still get ugly. I overcharged a battery once (timer on the charger stuck), and the sulfur gas ruined the finish on the charger's terminal clamps. You might want to wash down the engine bay.

[99bonnieSE]

. You might want to wash down the engine bay.

x2.