jwilson95

All-

So my original alternator went and cooked my battery.

Everything is cleaned up/repaired and good as new, but the reminder is the nasty cooked battery smell that remains.

I put an open small bowl of baking soda in the passenger compartment and in the front trunk where the spare tire used to be to absorb as much of the smell upon recommendation of my local indie shop.

Any other ideas/proven remedies?

thanks,

SC-targa

Those fumes are verycorrosive. You need to pull out the carpet ans wash it. You need to put a baking soda water solution all over under ther, including on the inside of the hood to nuetralize the acid vapors.

jwilson95

The inside (all painted/metal surfaces) has been wiped down with baking soda within 2 hours of battery failure. I will pull the carpets inside and do the same with baking soda solution and let them dry out whch should help.

ron mcatee

+1 for the soda & water rinse, plus I use Meguirs lliquid auto wash and clean it a final time to remove the soda residue and then flush the crap out of it and let it dry. Point the nose of the car at a downward slant to allow all the fluids to drain out. Sometime I use the compressor to air dry part of it, but I drape sheets over the fenrders to keep any spray residue off the paint.

theiceman

bottom line is that no ,matter how much you think you have cleaned it , if you can smell it you still have serious contamination. I would be throwing out the carpet and getting out the garden hose by now .. take a look at the thread here on the guy eplacing his tank support and front cross memeber. He didn't think he had much damage initially.

500

I'm the guy iceman is referring to. I would go overboard in your situation neutralizing, flushing and repeat - ad nauseum.

The area that seems to be oft overlooked is the portion between the gas tank support sheet metal pressing and the suspension pan. Some of the holes in the battery tray open into this void. This void is directly in front of the fuel tank. If you crawl down and look on the underside, you will see three soft, plastic plugs. Remove these to uncover the approximately 1/4" diameter drain holes. Then, flush HEAVILY from above by forcing water through the openings in the battery tray. In this picture, I have removed most of the fuel tank support and you can see the three drain holes running along the middle of that rusty mess.



Battery acid is BAD stuff. I can't tell you how long it took for my car to get that way. I have only had it a short while and the leak occurred sometime in it's earlier life.

What I can say though is that this car is otherwise exceptionally rust free. I have had the sills off, peaked into the rocker inners, the kidney bowls and all the other spots where rust can hide on these cars and have found not a hint of rust. So in other words, all the ugliness in the photo was from battery acid. And, as Ice said, it looked like hardly any rust at first (before I started cutting out metal).

With an agressive neutralizing and flushing program with those drains uncovered, you should be able to zap this problem. Good luck!

EDIT: When you are done and the inside is dry (compressed air would help) use an undercoating gun with a 360-degree spray tip to spray thinned Zero-Rust all over in that void (I would just go crazy and overdo it. After that has dried, follow up with some basitrol-type stuff (Fluid Film is highly regarded) and that should provide decent protection to any freshly exposed metal in that cavity.

rusnak

amj, I like your thread and eagerly await updates. I can't tell from your pics, but are there pinholes in your pan? Can you estimate pan thickness and how much was eaten away?

Jeff, I have never had to deal with something that extensive, but I have had to re-weld a battery tray and lower body panel of a 914-6 that had a battery acid spill. It's not fun at all. I don't understand the advice that you were given. They said to put a bowl of baking powder in the trunk? How is that supposed to neutralize the acid unless it is mixed in a solution and brushed on the area where the acid spilled/sprayed? I agree if the carpets are saturated, then they have to go. They died so that precious sheet metal may live. It's time to go full on obsessive to get the battery acid neutralized before it penetrates metal. I would not be above evacuating all wires and get the tank out, and irrigate the area with a garden hose.

Ed Hughes

Heed amj's advice on this. I had a battery erupt a few years ago, and here is what I found earlier this year, and my subsequent repair.

One of these days I'm going to pull my tank and get a good look at what is going on there.

See my adventure:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread.php?t=451977

500

No pinholes, but the metal is very thin adjacent to the driver's side lower control arm mount. There are some slightly shiny areas there from some aggressive prodding with a screwdriver. When I cut that area out, I will measure it with a pair of calipers for interest. For now I can say that when I pushed on that area with thumb, using moderate force, the metal flexed very noticeably. When I pushed the same way on other regions of the underside of the rusty area it still felt solid.

Laura

This works pretty well. Put an open bowl of straight ammonia ( 3-4 cups) in the passenger compartment and in the front trunk area. Close car up tight, no cracked windows, no openings in the trunk and let sit undisturbed for 4/5 days. It has always worked wonders fo me and it is worth a try. That rotten egg smell (battery) should be gone.

jwilson95

Let me clarify. I don't think I am anywhere near the battery eruption I could have experienced and did a very quick clean up.

You can see in the 1st pic behind the Interstate logo/NASCAR that there is some minor paint damage there and some minor paint damage near the hold down bracket that kind of looks like pink spots in the pic. That is really the extent of it.

I pulled the battery again yesterday and wiped everything down again with light soap/water and then hit everything again with some cleaner wax.

Also, I yanked the front carpets and gave them a good soak with just water yesterday and let them dry on the deck. I think a good bit of the smell was from that.

I may try the ammonia also, thanks for the suggestion Laura.

Ed Hughes

Now, let me clarify: Mine didn't erupt literally, it did boil over a bit, and leaked onto the battery tray. I didn't even have any lingering smell. I also thought I cleaned it up, but got the surprise 3 years later.

rusnak

Mine (the 914-6) didn't erupt but fell upside down off of the battery tray during a particularly exuberant corner. I used a can of battery acid neutralizer, lots of water from a garden hose, and still had to cut and weld new sheetmetal. I think in my case the acid was hot, and it quickly saturated the metal, as the paint had burned away. Also I lost one valve cover gasket, which literally melted.

This thread has caused me to pull my own battery in my 911 even though I do not know of any problems. I want to poke around and see if I can find damage.

Edit: I lost one valve cover, not the gasket. The right side intake valve cover was melted all the way through.

ditch68

Yes, flush it like hell - all the above advice applies. I have a hole through my frunk from years of that stuff.

Solution - Optima sealed gel cell batteries. Get one, worth the extra bucks. My years of offroading taught me the joy of Optima. No leaks, no acid, no maintenance, no spills.

Jeff

dshepp806

Damn Rusnak. That's wild. Vc';s lost? Holy SHeeit.

Doyle