Radcap

Holy Smokes, Just installed a new Optima Red Top today and drove my car for a couple hours, geez, the battery was smokin hot!!, pulled it out, and it had started leaking acid. I have had no problems with the old battery but thought it a good idea to go to a sealed unit. I will be taking this back in the morning. Old (couple year old battery) back in, not sure about another. Anyone else have this issue?? never had an electrical prob up to now..


Rod,

hamah

Sounds like you have a bad voltage regulator and you have boiled your battery.

theiceman

lots of this going on lately. Get a voltmeter on your battery with the engine running and see what you have at idle and at about 2,000 RPM.
report back ..

wwest

If you check that OLD battery's fluid, electrolyte, level I'd bet you find at least one cell with the fluid well below the top of the cell structure. That "poor" cell, or cells, would not allow the battery to be overcharged even with the regulator "wacko".

But put a new battery in...and smell the "sewer gas", boiling sulpheric acid.

By the way, the Optima red top wasn't defective when you purchased it. It might now be.

Edgy01

Don't forget to wash out the inside of the trunk where that battery was--acid vapor is also nasty stuff and will shorten the life of electrical wiring in that area!

Radcap

Thanks Guy's, Did a check and at idle I record 14.3 volts and the same at a steady 2000 RPM. Is that enough to point to the voltage regulator? I know it calls for no more than 14.2 but is there any tolerance? I did return the battery and it was exchanged as defective with no questions given what happened. Let me know what you think.

Rod,

theiceman

I think 14.3 volts is just fine .. you should rig uo a small voltmeter in your car and hook to any 12v line so you can monitor it real time .. Your symptoms indicate over charging but your analysis does not. If you hook up a VM you will be able to see if it is intermitently going into overcharge mode... maybe you just had a shorted cell in the battery ...

Radcap

Good idea on the meter, i will be monitoring this one closely,

Rod,

irobertson

I recently had an issue where I was boiling my battery.
When I got the meter out I found I was sending 18.5 volts to it at idle!!
I have spent some time cleaning my battery area out with a baking soda solution.
In some spots if foamed up like mad.

Haven't completely resolved the problem yet, as this is my 3rd weekend away for work.
Will post more once I have it all fixed.

good luck with yours :-)

good luck

theiceman

i have had small VM mounted below my ashtray just above the centre console for 5 years now. it is one of my most monitored guages.

Radcap

where did you pick that up? i am running a bit paranoid (for a reason) and am checking the voltage every time i fire it up.... i would rather just have a nice looking guage that works,

Rod,

theiceman

Just a local parts store . i am sure auto zone or some place will have a cheap one .. mine is very subtle. Some guys have replaced the clocks with VMs and I think it is a great idea. But mine was only 2.00

if you search you may find the post where i instaled it with pics.

Edgy01

Many years ago I needed a new voltage regulator for my 911S and picked one up from the local Porsche dealership. (I was away from my usual dealer on business). Enroute home a couple of weeks later I got that dreaded smell of sulfur! I wound up disconnecting the thing so that the car was NOT recharging the battery and drove it until I felt the battery was nearly depleted, and then plugged it in again, and nursed it home. Took it in to the local dealer and they determined that the Porsche OEM part was defective. They replaced the VR, the battery, and fully flushed the trunk. Sometimes the regulators--even NEW, can be bad.

whalebird

Maybe a small fabricated unit that could be plugged into the cigar lighter and removed would work for general periodic observations.

I mean a voltmeter

theiceman

I thinkthiose actualy exist already .. it's a good idea actually.