Exploding battery


wjhpc

wjhpc

GT Owner
Jan 5, 2014
7
Tucson, Arizona
I know this topic has been explored before, but here goes. I recently acquired a 2006 GT with the stock Optima with GT logo (I presume it is the original, but not positive). Battery was low charge so i put it on Battery Tender Plus for 2 or 3 days (trickle charge) and Tender finally showed green. I then drove the car 30 miles or so, and within 300 yds of my house on the return trip, i heard a loud "whump." You guessed it - I opened the hood and the red top had elevated 3+ inches, and the battery was hissing and hot, with battery innards spread around the compartment. Looks like a classic case of problems bringing a low charge Optima back to life. See pic attached.

For what its worth, i have a dozen Optimas and none have ever done this before, albeit I have never let one run down as far as this one was.

I replaced it with the exact same battery - Optima 8025-160-FFP RedTop. Took 15 minutes after I did the clean-up. I kept the car on 12v during the change-over by connecting the trickle charger. Easy job.

Jim
 

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YIKES! That freaks me out. Must have been an internal short. I don't think I could have brought myself to replace the battery with the same model after that experience.

Howard
 
That battery must have been deader than a doornail. Dead for long enough that one or more cells dried out and lost internal pressure. Direct internal short and/or overcharge.

I would not necessarily blame the Optima. I think this is rare and IMO likely the result of bad maintenance.

Was the car stored for a long time? If so, the oil pump belt may need changing too.
 
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Hell of a 1st post..... Must have been a mess. hopefully not much chassis paint was lost from the acid.

I agree with the above comments, that it is likely a product of not being properly maintained and allowed to go dead, maybe many times.

Congrats on the car, and welcome here.
 
Never seen that before.
Have had a dozen of those batts.
Probably not well taken care of prior to your purchase.
Agree with oil pump belt rec.
Congrats on your new car and welcome.
Best,
Mark
 
I thought all original batteries were black? When I first bought my car in 2005 the dealer did not maintain the battery properly and it was dead when the transporter got here. I charged it and took it on a short trip and at one point the instruments all went dead. I proceeded back to my home (about 50 miles) and found that the battery had one dead cell and was really hot so I can see how it could explode. The local dealer replaced it under warranty with another black top Optima, no trouble since that episode.
 
Mine had the red top with the black sides but I am the second owner so I am not sure if it got switched. I did have the GT logo on it.
 
You can easily check to see the production date of your battery. Look on the side of the battery below the word "unspillable" for the serial number. The first digits are the year and month of production.
 
I suspect the battery had been poorly maintained. The GT was owned by a dealer friend who kept it in the showroom and rarely drove it. Fortunately, the white fluff junk you see was fairly dry and wiped right off. No trunk paint damage - all good now.

BTW, when evaluating the explosion, i noticed that the voltmeter was always a line or two to the charge (right) side of center. I threw my multimeter on the battery while at idle and got 14.2 - 14.4 volts. Is this within spec? Same reading on the voltmeter and on the multimeter with the fully charged new battery. I want to make sure i don't have a regulator issue that is overcharging the battery.

Thanks,

Jim

Jim
 
Maybe a couple of tenths on the high side when initially started, but if the battery is well charged, the alternator should drop to 13.0 - 13.1 within a minute or two. That is way too high a continuous charging rate for a good battery, but what you might see to bring a partially discharged battery up to snuff. Battery should show 12.8 with the engine off.
 
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Thats going to be a mess to clean up. Sorry.
 
Original batteries were black (special to the GT). My guess is, from past psots here (very old), that the previous owner tried to put a quick charge on the battery and not a trickle. Even though you did no wrong, wrong place, wrong time. Lucky no damage.
 
I thought all original batteries were red top? My 05' MSO dealer car had a red top. It was bad though from sitting too much and in 06' the Ford dealer replaced it with a warranty black top Optima so I though that red meant original and black meant replacement???
 
My 05 came from the factory with a black top which I proactively replace with an OEM red top.
 
Factory Optima black top on my late 05 GT as well.
 
Agree. My 06 had black top original, replacement from dealer red top.
 
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