What causes a battery to EXPLODE!

[freakinbox]

So I got into my car after driving to my friends house tried to start the car and BOOOOMM. A spark came off the hood and a bunch of smoke. I was like WTF

tried to start it again, very little power

Waited a few seconds... opened the hood and all the caps were missing from the top of the battery. The top was all cracked and barely together. battery acid all over their driveway :s

Got my dad to bring me a battery we had from the 1992 jetta we bought for parts a couple years back.. Pulled the battery and turns out the one side is all cracked and broken open too. I'll have to take pics tomorrow hahaha

**EDIT**

[thousand_five]

Hydrogen buildup causes boom.

[Flashmn]

short circuit.. good luck with rusting tho, battery acid is very corrosive, so you better neutralize that shit ASAP.

[90 GP]

Check your alternator to be sure it isn't overcharging the battery.

[freakinbox]

My dad thinks the battery was to dry, probably for a long time

[Flashmn]

a dead battery can go into an internal short circuit, just fyi.

[freakinbox]

I took a look a little while ago since it's daylight now... And the force blew the large plastic plug beside the battery tray out so thats why the battery acid drained onto the driveway instead of the shit sitting in that area.

[Flashmn]

better still neutralize the area, or it will rust fast. Anyhow looks like a short circuit, seen it before, that shit is nasty, imagine you or your dad was standing next to it. You'd look like two face from batman now.

[freakinbox]

well it didn't explode when I was working on the car or anything like that. And since I work on the car alone it would have just gone anywehre. I am just happy I had the batter tie down in place. Otherwise it might have dented the hood

[Liter]

4th of July in your engine NICE

[Tercel GTS]

Originally Posted by freakinbox

My dad thinks the battery was to dry, probably for a long time

I agree

[freakinbox]

had to charge the battery I have in it now... you have no idea how scared I was carrying it AHAHAHAH like the force of the one in the car shook it and blew plastic bits everywhere

no idea how it could have been dry since I checked it before the winter and it had lots. and the ammount of fluid on the driveway and still in the batter and in the car should have been plenty for that battery.

[thespud]

Originally Posted by Flashmn

a dead battery can go into an internal short circuit, just fyi.

Thats probably how... Internal short causes a spark, Hydrogen buildup goes boom and the end result is what you see now.

For those who were reading the thread on the strange idea on converting water to H2 and then combusting it in a standard engine, here is another example of how explosive hydrogen really is...

[Tercel GTS]

I'm thinking that dirty positive terminal sparked from a poor connection, thus igniting the fumes from the weak cell.

[freakinbox]

as you can see in the pic the positive terminal was clean, I had cleaned them about 3 months ago.