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exploding OEM battery
Posted by Leng, Mark S [AMSTA-AR-CCL-B] (more from Leng, Mark S [AMSTA-AR-CCL-B]) on Thu, 4 Oct 2001 14:46:55
following morning drove a few miles from the hotel to the campus. That
evening drove from the hotel to the campus dormitory in order to drop off a
care package from a freshman parent. Stopped at the dormitory's front door
long enough to open the trunk in order to remove the two suitcases, upon
restarting the vehicle, a loud firecracker/backfiring sound came from under
the hood. Needless to say, the engine did not turn over and the power
windows did not operate. Evidence fluid leaking from under the front side
of the motor, popping the hood open revealed that top casing of the battery
blew off completely as a result an apparent hydrogen gas explosion inside of
the battery!! No ignition, radio or power windows, but the dome light did
turn on whenever the door was opened. My observation of the two center
cells of the battery was that the plates seemed irregular, cruddy, some
corrosion or not evenly spaced as the other now exposed cells or it could
have been that they were not submerged in the electrolyte as the outer cells
were (had too much time while waiting for the tow truck). My concern is
that the OEM battery is maintenance free and neither does it have a
observation window or indicator for fluid level. So what could have caused
this, yes the battery is over six years old, but I have never heard of this
occurrence or what should have been done to prevent this. Has this
occurred to other members or is this unique, especially with the newer '
sealed' batteries even though it has the SAAB sticker all over it is it a
DELCO product?
As a background, this is a 1995 900 convertible with the odometer reading
about 70K, the battery is the original OEM from SAAB, no external corrosion
on the terminal was evidence and overall condition was good as done by my
super tech at the 60k service interval. No recent electrical gremlins or
new work done on the vehicle in the past months so what caused this.
What's with the cheap plastic parts on this vehicle? Such as the
headlight switch, the overhead lens/cover of the interior light or the
retaining clips of the rear reading/dome lights. They have all minimum use
or abuse yet they all failed.
Just a warning to other SAAB enthusiasts,
Mark
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