Andre The Giant

After my ride Saturday to Dalhousie lake, I told myself I would check why the car sometimes stalled completely when hitting some big bumps and sometime some burning smell ! At first I thought it was coming from my steering column, maybe some wires were getting squeezed, so I lifted it a little higher to release any pressure, but it was happening again !
I then decided to check the battery in the hatch area, I was amazed to see what I saw ! The battery sits in a cavity inside the body of the car and it's covered by a metal door with a latch to keep it closed. the spare tire goes on top and then another cover and then the regular carpeting.
It turns out that the battery was too loose inside this cavity and was jumping upwards and that caused the positive terminal to touch the inside of the compartment door which is negatively grounded. You can see on the inside of the compartment door where the positive terminal would hit the door causing the shorts.
The hole you see was caused by the tire iron arcing enough to cause black marks on the iron and also cause a hole, OMG !!!
I have installed a piece of plywood between the battery and the side of the cavity where the battery sits to make sure the battery sits tightly in it's place. I have tried to move the battery sideways and upwards and it would not budge, good !
Since my compartment door pins were rusted out and were not holding the door closed anymore, I have decided to remove the door and in it's place I have cut a piece of rubber floor mat which sits against the receptacle for the bolt of the spare and also rises on the other side of the compartment so that nothing can come in contact with the battery.
If the battery would have done this more times, I'm sure the battery could have exploded and or caused damage to my alternator. See the pics below.

Bertrand Daoust

Ouch!

That's not good.

I'll call you tomorrow evening.

dr bob

Besides the battery hold down not quite doing it's job, there's a plastic cover that sits over the positive terminals. engages the battery case with a pin.

The battery itself slides into a C lip at the forward end, where a lip on the bottom forward end of the battery slides into the C. The wedge clamp at the rear then holds the rear of the battery down, and the whole battery is held forward by the wedge clamp. so the battery can't move vertically at the front. Look carefully at the way the battery sits in there to be sure te lip on the battery is actually in th C rather than sitting on top of it. If it's on top (easy to do if you just lowered the battery straight down to install), the clamp at the rear won't do much for you at all.

Hilton

My first check was to look and see that the hold-down is bolted in place in his pics. It is, but somethings obviously wrong with the setup, as there shouldn't be any movement in the battery with the clamp tightened properly.

I'm guessing either the battery is the wrong size, or one of the hold-down's is bent or missing? (IIRC there's also a hold-down at the forward end too, which the edge of the battery has to slide under for the bolt-down clamp to work).

Of course, I use the plastic cap Dr Bob mentions too, because more safer.

Gerald Finden

There are rubber blocks, measure about 3" square and 1/2" thick, that are stuck to my battery access door and line up with the positive and negative terminals on the battery. No worries about shorting out, ever.

bogdann

Had the same issue when I first bought mine as the PO fitted the wrong battery. He had a piece of cardboard between the battery and battery lid. Found out why it was there when I removed it. Battery lasted 3 years and the cardboard was replaced by some rubber matting.

FredR

You are lucky- when this happened to me the battery spot welded itself to the lid on my late S4 and I could not get the thing open. in the end i had to drill a ring of small holes until I could get the lid open.

The [new] battery was also wrecked- but no marks on it so i took it back and told them "there was something wrong with the battery"- not a new one under warranty- see honesty does pay.

I always advised folks to get a sheet of rubber like from an inner tube and pack the area in and around the positive terminal and small connections as they sit very close to the lid.

Rgds

Fred

Andre The Giant

Thank you Dr.Bob, I will investigate further.

Andre The Giant

Thank you everyone for your help, I will investigate the inner cavity to see if missing the C clamp and also to see if my battery sits on top of it. Yes this is a new replacement battery purchased and installed in 2014.

Right now I don't have to worry about the door anymore since the hinges were too rusted and now the door came off. So for now the battery is held down by that piece of plywood hammered into place for now and since I have no door now, I have cut out a piece of floor mat to cover the cavity hole/battery so I can put my spare tire in place.

Yes indeed I was very lucky in many ways. At least this setup will hold in the meantime.

dr bob

Besides protecting the battery from spare-tire well junk, it also servs to keep battery fumes out of the spare well and ultimately the rear of the car. The 48 & 49 batteries are fitted with a gas recovery area above the cells, and have a connection available for a how to vent all those acid fumes through a vent hose. Until you can find and fit a new cover, make darn sure that the vent is connected to an appropriate hose, and the other end of the vent hose is routed safely out of the battery well. Mine passes through the grommet where the positive cables exit the battery well, and dangles just below the bottom of the battery box, and protected by the exhaust shield from the heat of the crossover pipe. The connecting piece for the vent came with the battery. I used PU black drip irrigation hose for the vent itself.

Andre The Giant

IIRC I don't remember the old battery having those things. More to check.
BTW is the battery door easily replaceable, it came off at the hinges ?

bureau13

I'm missing the stock tie-down hardware...I've been trying to get some used, but they're apparently not commonly available for some reason. I have a towel wadded up there...probably not good enough, it came with the car lol. There is evidence that at some point I had battery-to-lid contact as well...

mdkelly1

The battery door on mine had the same two battery post "burn" marks when I bought it seventeen years ago. I was surprised when I saw them, but understood pretty quickly what caused them. The battery in the car at that time was the right size, but there was no battery hold down clamp in place. My guess was that someone had tried a taller battery in the past and caused the two "weld" marks.

To be safe, I bought a battery hold down clamp and also placed a flat piece of rubber (cut to the battery door size) over the battery as extra protection against future direct contact or a "short" against the door.

Next step was to always use the appropriate size battery.

Andre The Giant

Pretty scary !

Andre The Giant

When I did purchase the new battery I can't remember if it was a group 48 or 49, i will have to check my records, but the side matched the old one taken out. I am possibly missing that C clamp Dr.Bob was also talking about and I only have the rear clamp which doesn't without the clamp !
You setup sounds like what I will be doing when i replace the battery cover door once I purchase another one and possibly a C clamp since I might be missing that also !

Let me tell you I was shocked when I saw the puncture and the weld on the tire rod end !