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Barry Wolk
06-14-2024, 01:01 PM
It blowed-up real good. It only took two damaged batteries and one that blew up for me to figure out, with a lot of help from others, what likely happened.

2022 Bought a battery. Everything was fine until I left a light on and the battery went flat. I hooked it up to my tender and it wouldn't take a charge. I took the battery back and it was out of warranty, so I bought another. Everything was fine with that battery.

2023 Another light left on. Took the battery to the shop and they were able to revive it. I hooked it up and the car started fine, hooked it to the tender, and it wouldn't start the next day. They put it through a load test and you can hear it producing prodigious amounts of hydrogen gas, and oxygen. They replace the battery, I put it in the car, the car starts right up, and I park it for the winter with the CTEK charger on it. The lights show it was nearly fully charged, so I left it to do it's thing.

Sometime shortly after I put it away for the winter I noted what appeared to be antifreeze on the floor and thought, "That'll keep until spring."

I needed to get the Mark II out of the way to get something else out of the storage building. I unplugged the charger, sat in the car, put it in neutral, turned the key, nothing. Nothing at all. No dash lighting and no headlights? I popped the hood and wasn't sure what I was seeing, because the battery was hidden from my view by the gigantic oil bath air cleaner. The I shined a light on the battery I saw the top half of the battery gone. I noticed a stain on the hood liner. I looked right into the half-empty acid chambers and saw a cataclysmic scene I never hope to see again. I'm just fortunate no one was around, and I'm fortunate the hood was closed. There was white acid residue that had done its damage months before. Everything it touched that was plated isn't, anymore. Zinc and pot-metal parts have severe etching, as do all of the aluminum parts. Anything I had painted with Rustoleum was nearly bare of paint. The Jet Coat exhaust manifold resists heat, but not acid. The powder-coated parts look just fine.

The battery has the worst ingress and egress I've ever seen. When it blew it spewed foreword into the back of the carb and the area under the air cleaner. The acid then ran down the back of the engine, spreading out over the aluminum bell-housing and cascading over the iron transmission. I reported the incident to Hagerty. They wanted a copy of the receipt for the battery. I went to a knowledgable group on the Vortex and asked them to explain to me what happened.

It turns out I likely had no "bad" batteries, only marginally good ones. I'm convinced that, in all cases of failure and eventual hydrogen gas explosion, the charger was the culprit. It was brought my attention that all 3 batteries could have come from the same pallet in the dealer's warehouse. It appears that they all had a weak cell and it was detected as needing more charging. The tender started boiling out the single battery compartment that contained a negative and positive terminals. It appears that the fluid got so low that it exposed the defective plates and the third element of an explosion became available, ignition.

The only thing that I can see that's unscathed is the 1994 blue paint job. I believe it was lacquer. Several people that have looked at the damage say that the engine must come out to get to the rest of the firewall that's been cleaned and neutralized, but everything steel flash rusted. The front of the engine is just fine as the air cleaner blocked the spray. I've asked Hagerty that they ship the car to Rick Payton in Wisconsin, a former Mark II owner and lover. His shop produces some serious prize-winning Cadillacs that all pass muster. It won't be in better hands, if this all works out.

31974

Lee Craner
06-14-2024, 03:22 PM
Wow, Barry. Sorry to read all of that. Hopefully, Hagerty will make it right. And this happened just when it's time to take our Mark II's out for road trips.

Lee

Graham Rollo
06-14-2024, 03:23 PM
Thats not good, I wonder about the totally sealed wet batteries, get low on water, the old ones you could check the levels & top up.

Barry Wolk
06-14-2024, 03:34 PM
Thats not good, I wonder about the totally sealed wet batteries, get low on water, the old ones you could check the levels & top up.

This one had 3 gang caps that both blew out. I found them intact. However, it did stay sealed enough.

What a mess.

31975

Barry Wolk
06-14-2024, 03:38 PM
Wow, Barry. Sorry to read all of that. Hopefully, Hagerty will make it right. And this happened just when it's time to take our Mark II's out for road trips.

Lee

This story is about the charger, not the car. If you use the car you'll not need a trickle charger. No reason to not use the car. I meant it as a cautionary tale, not a dire warning.

Barry Wolk
06-14-2024, 04:20 PM
I'm sorry if this came off as a critique of what we drive. It wasn't. This only had to do with a series of events that led to a defective battery charger causing an explosion that left me with a very damaged car. I'm re-thinking using a tender as the one I had was a good one. I just don't know if a knife switch is the right thing, either. I had a bad experience with a green knob disconnect, just because there is too small a contact patch, IMO. Maybe simply disconnecting the battery at the negative terminal is all I need to do, although it doesn't seem to make much difference, from what I've seen. I'd love to digest some battery facts and dispel the myths.

Hagerty has always made it right. Like gambling, insurance is just a bet that you're going to have a claim and they're betting you won't. The house usually wins. You also pretty-much get to name your bet, within reason. I've had a long history with them, over 20 years, and I've at least broken even on my insurance costs over the years. The biggest payout was the damage to the trailer and Porsche. The Mark II had been slightly damaged several times, also.

I had give strong consideration to doing the work on this, like I dod on the trailer, but then I remembered that I'm 72 and have a PD shake in my right hand. I normally work through it, but high quality finish work may not be my cup of tea anymore. A 6hz shake is great for sandblasting and grass seed application, but not so good for detail painting, nor giving a urine sample. Won't be baiting any hooks, either.

You can see that the battery literally blew up.

https://scontent-ord5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/447268854_439102388844652_6103260115905946844_n.jp g?stp=cp6_dst-jpg&_nc_cat=111&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5f2048&_nc_ohc=s3bhYGTQfccQ7kNvgFm4r-f&_nc_ht=scontent-ord5-1.xx&cb_e2o_trans=t&oh=00_AYAI-rbeNhKR1u03ee74KoTDsJiqcSSnnw38d2VjdIWWYA&oe=66726A36

Barry Wolk
06-14-2024, 04:23 PM
https://scontent-ord5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/448020516_439102612177963_8840098140976909211_n.jp g?stp=cp6_dst-jpg&_nc_cat=101&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5f2048&_nc_ohc=yvOc0OutLPAQ7kNvgHRsHqK&_nc_ht=scontent-ord5-1.xx&cb_e2o_trans=t&oh=00_AYCrvMpT_7hhwfbRLKN3nT4dxIJeJ40RI9teelKAkMla FA&oe=66726B3C

Roger Zimmermann
06-15-2024, 02:19 AM
Oh! What a mess. I'm sorry for you. I was not aware that a trickle charger could be defective and create such a damage.

Milsteads Garage
06-15-2024, 10:47 AM
I’ve had this happen a few times in my career. Sorry to hear it Barry, that battery left a mess

Milsteads Garage
06-15-2024, 10:55 AM
Are you going to have to pull the engine out again to fix the damage?

Barry Wolk
06-15-2024, 12:44 PM
Are you going to have to pull the engine out again to fix the damage?

No other way. Even the wiring harness was drenched in acid.

Egenolf
06-16-2024, 01:13 AM
Barry,

I am sorry for your bad luck!

What conclusions can be drawn from this story?

I haven't followed this either, but obviously it is dangerous to keep a charger constantly connected to the battery.

It seems to make more sense to charge the battery and then disconnect it from the vehicle electrical system using a circuit breaker.

Anyway, I'll do it that way from now on.

Barry Wolk
06-16-2024, 06:46 AM
Barry,

I am sorry for your bad luck!

What conclusions can be drawn from this story?

I haven't followed this either, but obviously it is dangerous to keep a charger constantly connected to the battery.

It seems to make more sense to charge the battery and then disconnect it from the vehicle electrical system using a circuit breaker.

Anyway, I'll do it that way from now on.

That is not always possible. On my old BMWs the battery is under the rear seat.

I don't think it was the charger alone that caused the problem. I think I started with a poorly made battery.

When I bought my car there were no 29NF batteries. There are several available now. I'm told the Die Hard brand is still made and it looks about as close to the original as you're going to get outside an expensive fake tar top.

https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/wcsstore/CVWEB/staticproductimage/2916/large/11968146_qfm_29nf40_alt1_pri_larg.jpg

awags
06-18-2024, 10:38 AM
Cars can be fixed, thankfully nobody got hurt. Could?ve just as easily happened randomly when you/someone was under the hood working on the engine.

I?ve had a couple batteries explode on equipment I was running over the years but I?d like to add a quick similar story to this thread of how things like this can happen and to be cautious. Hopefully keep from happening to someone else.

My boat lift is 24v hooked up to a cheap (not smart) solar charger, so yep it?s always charging. Last year my wife went to lower the boat, I was talking to the neighbor. Of course the batteries are right next to the controls, waist level. She hit the button and the one battery closest to her exploded. Sounded like a shotgun went off. Everything exploded and went in every direction but by the grace of God nothing went towards her, got on her, or worse in her face or eyes. I couldn?t believe it?
Now the charger is always disconnected and only plugged in when we are using the lift and batteries need a charge.
Same goes for my cars, in storage/winter, I just plug in every month or so, once charged I unplug.

Barry Wolk
06-28-2024, 03:40 PM
My friend, Rick Payton, owns a restorations shop, and he's usually the only customer. He's a former Mark II owner and now collects high-end Cadillacs that he's had his shop restore. He's very hands-on when it comes to the homes he restores, too.

Hagerty asked where I wanted it sent, and Wisconsin is just far enough where I won't drive it there every day and make the shop crazy. No, I'll be content in knowing that it'll be done right. I'm having it sent without a battery. I'm not 100% convinced that it was a bad cell/charger incident as the same thing can happen if the contacts of the starter solenoid stick. In my '68 Mercury the battery exploded right next to me when I used a starter switch to activate the solenoid. I released the button, but the starter kept going, ending with the battery exploding in the very same manner as this one did.

The same thing happened to another Lincoln owner, but no explosion. Hagerty has approved over $5,000 to take it apart for a closer look. The only way to get to the inner recesses of the heater core area is to remove the fenders, and due to one bolt sandwiched between the grill and bumper the bumper has to at least drop enough to get the bolt out but I asked that the bumper be removed to protect it. The hardest thing about removing the fenders is removing the trim to get to the bottom bolts. Well, sometimes removing the exhaust pipe is a PITA, too. 3 more bolts to detach from the radiator support and it's pretty much free. Keep track of where the marker lights and headlights plug in. It's a lot of work to remove everything around the engine just to pull it, but that protects all that sheet metal while they're banging around under the hood.

20 years ago I would have done what I did do with the car hauler project. They paid for an estimate to be generated. They asked what shop I wanted to use and I responded by having them make the check to me. They really couldn't say no as there was no lien on it.

However, I don't need the work, nor do I want it. I pulled my last Mark II engine at 70 and vowed never to do it again.

Mickey
07-26-2024, 07:15 PM
I bought a battery for my Mark ii from a company up north that fit exactly into the space available for it. Well in the instructions it reads to charge it but don't put a battery tender to it, why i don't know but I've had the battery for over 5 years in my car and it never missed starting my car. Maybe I'm just blessed but it sure has lasted me. Maybe someone knows why my battery isn't supposed to have a battery tender hooked to it.

Barry Wolk
07-27-2024, 07:47 AM
I've never seen that warning on a lead acid battery, nor an AGM battery. Could you take a photo of the paperwork? What brand is it?

Shelly Harris
07-29-2024, 11:40 AM
FWIW ...... I use trickle charging very sparingly, like never. If for some reason battery is low...i'll charge it up then remove the charger by disconnecting the neg term. I never let car sit for more than a week w/o reconnecting the neg term and starting up.