Colin Lindsay Posted February 2, 2019 Report Share Posted February 2, 2019 On 31/01/2019 at 17:56, dougbgt6 said: Johny, Ruptured implies a minor occurrence, in fact it was an explosion and one end of the battery was blown clean off! Both times. So acid everywhere, the smell was also pretty gross. It was more difficult to clean the Mini carpet and seat underside than the 306 battery compartment. The Mini battery was a couple of weeks old and once the seller saw the damaged battery they were very keen to take it off my hands and give me a new one. Doug This was a Halfords battery fitted to a Spitfire 1500, a mate arrived at my house asking me to tune the carbs for him. He sat in the driver's seat and with the bonnet open, started it up for me. The resulting bang blew the tops off the filler compartment and they flew right over the roof of my house. We didn't bother going back to Halfords. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave.vitesse Posted February 2, 2019 Report Share Posted February 2, 2019 New battery required, plus new underpants. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpitFire6 Posted February 2, 2019 Report Share Posted February 2, 2019 Hi, pictures & experience shown could have been life-changing. Fortunately not. I would have thought you would need hydrogen + oxygen in the correct range of combustion + ignition. I would think only possible on an overcharged battery? I do not think that correctly connected jump leads could cause such a problem if the final connection is at the "dead" battery. I have used a Leasure battery as the main car battery with no problems. Lower CCA, but much higher AHr rating with a few deep cycles possible. I switched to my present battery only because the specs are better and I don't plan on buying another this life. Cheers, Iain. PS. I will replace with Li Ion, when the price is not silly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpitFire6 Posted February 3, 2019 Report Share Posted February 3, 2019 Hi, A car battery: 6 lead-acid cells. You can adjust the physics of the -ve plate that’s parallel to the +ve plate by many means. Thin plates mean lower internal resistance for example. Other modifications may be present: Increase the surface area, reduce the clearance, modify the chemistry with trace elements. Elements that are “added” to the pure lead have a great influence on the characteristics of the cell. Different builds for different applications. FLT's, Trucks & cars for example. Non are any good at all applications for a good price. Dificult to tell what is best as adverts/brands & fancy stickers & colour of box seems to dictate price and not performance. I'm utilising a car battery that cost 100 quid and happy it was cheap. I wouldn’t put a period spec/technology battery in my car, for the same reason I don’t use 20W50 API SD/E. Overall, they are 12V batteries & any other voltage would not be suitable for the loads. With engine running the voltage should be between 13.8v to 14.2-7. Higher better on a maintenance-free battery. Last I looked at Li-Ion batteries they were all protected types & therefore their high current discharge voltages are poor? They are advertised as 12.8 volts. If they can hold close to this voltage under cranking they have a buyer! I couldn’t restart my car while in front of a railway line. Fuel pump cut out. Lol. I used the starter motor to drive out of the way. V LOL. Battery lifetime, not an issue. SM? I would not have faith in a battery of unknown pedigree and specs. The lead acid will not last forever. But good quality will last longer. Cheers, Iain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NonMember Posted February 3, 2019 Report Share Posted February 3, 2019 8 hours ago, Spitfire6 said: PS. I will replace with Li Ion, when the price is not silly. If you think an abused lead-acid battery does bad things, just try abusing a Li-Ion one! 6 hours ago, Spitfire6 said: I couldn’t restart my car while in front of a railway line. Fuel pump cut out. Lol. I used the starter motor to drive out of the way. V LOL. When I worked on the engine controller for a Volvo, one of the things I had to implement was a safety interlock to prevent the starter motor running with the clutch engaged. There was a special exception, though, which seemed odd to us, so we asked. "Oh," said Volvo, "that's essential, in case you stall on a railway crossing and can't get it to start again." 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave.vitesse Posted February 3, 2019 Report Share Posted February 3, 2019 If the car has be running the battery may well have given off hydrogen, if there were any loose connections then when the starter was engaged this could have caused a spark. Then bang. This is more likely to happen if the battery is in an enclosed space were the hydrogen can build up. Either way always ensure there are no loose connection on or around the battery and there is some ventilation. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johny Posted February 3, 2019 Report Share Posted February 3, 2019 Cant see that an external hydrogen explosion would have split the battery case like that - think its more likely to have been a high internal resistance or short inside somewhere that quickly generated a lot of heat during the engine start up causing an rapid expansion of the battery contents..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Lindsay Posted February 3, 2019 Report Share Posted February 3, 2019 10 hours ago, Spitfire6 said: Hi, pictures & experience shown could have been life-changing. Fortunately not. I would have thought you would need hydrogen + oxygen in the correct range of combustion + ignition. I would think only possible on an overcharged battery? I do not think that correctly connected jump leads could cause such a problem if the final connection is at the "dead" battery. The mate arrived at my house in his 'new' Spitfire, having driven about 30 miles; parked it up, asked me if I thought it was running ok... so I opened the bonnet and asked him to start it up. Bang! Thankfully I had walked back to the driver's door to talk to him. One thing I did notice was that there was no acid anywhere at all after the bang. The battery must have been almost completely dry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johny Posted February 3, 2019 Report Share Posted February 3, 2019 modern sealed batteries dont contain free acid as its all held in a gel or a glass mat which offers both disadvantages and advantages (eg. no spillage). One failure mode is that the lead connections between the plates inside the battery are gradually eaten away and when that reaches a certain point cant carry the high starting current without overheating which can then start a rapid downward spiral.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave.vitesse Posted February 3, 2019 Report Share Posted February 3, 2019 43 minutes ago, johny said: Cant see that an external hydrogen explosion would have split the battery case like that - think its more likely to have been a high internal resistance or short inside somewhere that quickly generated a lot of heat during the engine start up causing an rapid expansion of the battery contents..... I have back in the 1960's. It was in the battery charging area, well ventilated. The person concerned disconnected a battery from the charger when it was still turned on. Against instructions. I can still remember the chap going out of our workshop to the garage workshop across the road. As he left he was told to turn off the charger before disconnecting the battery by the Senior Tec. He ended up in hospital, fortunately he didn't lose his sight. You don't forget things like that. The Halford batteries, 015, do contain acid. In Colin's case it sounds more like a case of over charging. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougbgt6 Posted February 3, 2019 Report Share Posted February 3, 2019 My explosions were inside the batteries. The Mini battery was two weeks old and the mini was used daily. The replacement ran for 6 or 7 years. The Peugeot battery was 2 years old and again the replacement ran for many years. So car's alternators overcharging? I'm not convinced. Discussions with the Mini battery retailer were guarded, but a loose or broken internal electrical joint which arced seem most likely. Doug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johny Posted February 3, 2019 Report Share Posted February 3, 2019 yes its difficult to see how a modern sealed battery can have an internal gas explosion ignited by an external source like a connection spark.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpitFire6 Posted February 3, 2019 Report Share Posted February 3, 2019 Hi, Could the vent have been blocked and a pressure build-up caused the case to rupture? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johny Posted February 3, 2019 Report Share Posted February 3, 2019 well with a maintenance free battery its effectively sealed as the gases produced recombine so topping up is never required. However if over charged or discharged rapidly the gases are produced too rapidly so there are valve(s) built in to the casing to release the excess pressure. Its possible this didnt happen and the pressure rose however I would still expect those plugs to push out before the casing ruptures so think it must have been caused by something more 'explosive'..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpitFire6 Posted February 5, 2019 Report Share Posted February 5, 2019 Hi, The maintenance-free battery is achieved by alloying different elements to the plates. The H2 O2 is never produced. As they say; recombined. The maintenance-free will still gas if overcharged. Different alloys in different price ranges dictate their intended use and "quality". Cheers, Iain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppy916 Posted May 22, 2019 Report Share Posted May 22, 2019 I run a Duracell Battery DA45-154 from Shield Batteries https://www.shieldbatteries.co.uk/brands/duracell-batteries.html It's only three years old but no problems and loads of cranking power on my GT6 MK3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Posted July 16, 2019 Report Share Posted July 16, 2019 I’m a bit late to this thread but i’ve had my vitesse for 5 years and it came with a Halfords HB063 maintenance free battery and it’s always started first time - until this evening. I took the car out on Sunday for a quick spin and it ran fine but went to start it this evening and it was flat as a pancake. It’s been on charge now for about 3 hrs but the charger is still showing less than 20% charge so i’m assuming the battery has had it. Is there a problem with Halfords apart from price? Tanya seems to be recommended - is there a particular battery I should look for? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted July 16, 2019 Report Share Posted July 16, 2019 I buy batteries from eurocarparts. Use the code a good prices, with local collection the same day. Nothing wrong really with Halfords batteries, in fact they used to be very good, but I honk they changed supplier? Anyway,vi tend to buy Bosch or varta. Exide etc all decent too but avoid the cheapies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Lindsay Posted July 16, 2019 Report Share Posted July 16, 2019 10 minutes ago, Robin said: Is there a problem with Halfords apart from price? Didn't they used to offer a battery for life? (lifetime of the car replacement warranty) Has that stopped now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppy916 Posted July 16, 2019 Report Share Posted July 16, 2019 use a DuracelI DA45-154 from Shield Batteries £60 back on the 16/12/16 https://www.shieldbatteries.co.uk/brands/duracell-batteries.html it's blinking great Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted July 16, 2019 Report Share Posted July 16, 2019 49 minutes ago, Colin Lindsay said: Didn't they used to offer a battery for life? (lifetime of the car replacement warranty) Has that stopped now? Stopped years ago. It used to be simple to return a battery, but now they test them with a magic box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Posted July 17, 2019 Report Share Posted July 17, 2019 Ok - Thanks for all the advice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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