Exploding Battery

[bill142]

Hey Guys ,

Been a while since I posted here, but I've just experience a bizarre event with my Astra H. I went to start it up when I was leaving the shops a couple of hours ago. Went to start her up, hear a loud bang and see some smoke or steam rising from under the bonnet. Open her up expecting to see nothing thinking it's an engine problem and see the battery in pieces with fluid and steam escaping from it. Anyway had to call out the NRMA to get a new battery. All's fine now and everything seems to work fine except for the drivers side window won't go down without having to hold down the button. So I'm thinking something's killed something in there so I'll have to get it looked at I think.

[MatsHolden]

Hey Guys ,

Been a while since I posted here, but I've just experience a bizarre event with my Astra H. I went to start it up when I was leaving the shops a couple of hours ago. Went to start her up, hear a loud bang and see some smoke or steam rising from under the bonnet. Open her up expecting to see nothing thinking it's an engine problem and see the battery in pieces with fluid and steam escaping from it. Anyway had to call out the NRMA to get a new battery. All's fine now and everything seems to work fine except for the drivers side window won't go down without having to hold down the button. So I'm thinking something's killed something in there so I'll have to get it looked at I think.

Nup, won't be anything killled mate. Whenever the battery is disconnected it resets the express down/up feature on the electric windows. Just got to hold the button down for 3 or 4 seconds to re-activate the express down/up.

[mania]

I'm guessing it was shorted somehow?

Anyway the window is an easy fix. Happens whenever you disconnect/change the battery. The car just needs to learn the position of the window again, hold the down button for ~10 seconds, then the up for ~10 seconds. Should work fine after that.

[astragsi4x4]

a bit obvious but make sure you wash away the acid from the exploded battery!

[bill142]

Thanks guys, the windows are fixed. And the first thing I did when I got home was coat the engine bay in degreaser and wash it all down. However the acid did manage to cause some minor damage to the fuse box cover and the water reservoir cap.

[InsaneAsylum]

did you jump start it recently or did you use your car to jump start another car recently?

[mintaka]

Slightly related, I had the alternator die on my Astra about a month ago. What age is yours, mine's an 06 CDTi

Mintaka

[bill142]

did you jump start it recently or did you use your car to jump start another car recently?

Nope haven't done anything like that. Nothing out of the ordinary to give me any indication that it was about to fail.

[mr corsa]

Nope haven't done anything like that. Nothing out of the ordinary to give me any indication that it was about to fail.

warranty tell holden

[Shay]

if a battery is accindently shorted while "hot" (recently used for a extended period) they can explode due to the build up of hydrogen gas in the cells that occurs...

def take to holden if short wasnt your fault,
tho they will try to weasel out pf it, so get your details straight. ;)

[delemonte]

Sounds messy :( There are a number of situations that will warrant a lead-acid battery exploding, but it seems very strange that it would happen with no explicable reason, unless the battery was faulty.

Taking it up with Holden sounds sensible...

[DirtyHarry]

also i wouldnt use degrease to wash the engine down where the acid was. i would use something that will neutralise the acid. you might find that its still eating away a month or two down the track unless properly neutralised.

[Desty]

also i wouldnt use degrease to wash the engine down where the acid was. i would use something that will neutralise the acid. you might find that its still eating away a month or two down the track unless properly neutralised.

Water will neutralize battery acid. Simply flushing the effected area with the garden hose thoroughly will immediately stop any further damage from the batteries contents. You might want to spray liberally a coating of any lanolin based lubricant product (Lanox) in the area to stop rust or corrosion from forming on newly exposed metal parts and connectors.