Im not sure if that is really what happened, but yesterday morning i was heading out to go to class and my 2000 firebird v6 wouldnt start. i figured that since the battery was dead when i bought it about 3 weeks ago it just needed a quick jump. Come to find out after poppin the hood that most of the battery acid/filling crap had leaked out. The sides of the battery were bulging out and cracked with fluid coming out and the two little covers on top of the battery were leaking profusely also. I hadnt paid much attention to the battery before but i dont remember it looking like that when i bought it. Could over charging cause that? and how would i stop my car from over charging a battery? BTW i got my car to AutoZone by wrapping speaker wire around a top post terminal battery and using alot of electrical tape to hold it to the cables Got some nasty burns pulling the old battery out though, that sh-- hurts!!! Its runnin good now and the battery looks fine i was just curious how a battery explodes like that.

 

****ty battery. There are defects in everything.. You got one of those.

 

get a red top. ****s awesome. what i had.

 

Your battery went bad. It had a bad cell(s) and just bubbled over. You don't necessarily need to jump to a gel cell battery unless you have the money to drop $160-170 for a red top optima or an Exide Orbital. Any maintenance free "wet" battery should be sufficiant. Don't get me wrong, gel-cells are nice, but in my opinion, unless you're going off road/4x4ing or doing something else that would cause your battery to slosh/move around quite a bit, it's kind of a waste of money.

 

i got mine for free, mom worked/works at advance auto. got a core for free, was bad, they gave me a new one. and i had it for car audio(pushed 800watts with NO volt drops, actually kept it at bout 14V). but ur rite, really no purpose unless needed. but they claim they last ALOT longer too...

oh yea.. i forgot to take that outta my camaro when i sold her

 

The problem I have notices in both my Camaros is that the battery can either get loose from regular daily driving or the mount the holds the battery breaks.

My '01 had a broken battery tray (which resulted in some battery acid and/or antifreeze spillage eating up paint in that area) when I bought it and had to replace the whole plastic antifreeze tank/battery tray (all one unit).
My '95 has had the battery holder bolt/rubber get loose on it on multiple occasions -- it's a good idea to always check that it is snug! That could be an argument for the gel battery, like insurance maybe against spills?

 

You know, for a system you're better off with a deep cycle battery seperate or a high amp alternator since if the cars running, you're runnin off the alternator and if you're not, deep cycles are designed for constant battery output rather than the short burst to run the starter like regular batteries.

One thing I don't like about gel cells though is that they are very sensitive to over charging and fast charging. Most of the gel cells that we get as "defective" at my work was caused by the owner overcharging them (14 volts is like max) or they fast charged them (slow charge is ok but trickle is preferred).

And knock on wood, my 94's battery hold down bolt has been messed up since I got it (too lazy to actually figure out the problem, I just know it won't screw down) and I've never had a battery leak or tip or anything. They're pretty wedged in there. And I drove the car like a normal 20 year old (aka idiot with a heavy foot) when I got so unless you roll the thing I doubt the gel cell would be any better (and if you roll it the battery is the LEAST of your concerns).

 

electrochem 101:
you cannot really overcharge a battery. The battery works by dropping solid lead and lead oxide into sulfuric acid. The lead/acid reacton produces electrons, and the lead oxide/acid reaction consumes electrons.Separately the two reactions cannot occur, but when hooked together with a wire the electrons have somewhere to go and a current is formed between the cells. As the reaction occurs the lead and lead oxide are both turned to lead sulfate. when you charge a battery you are really just forcing the electrons backward. a car battery is 12v, so it takes a potential greater than 12v to reverse the process and "push" the electrons back. At the moment i cant find a voltage for alternators, they are usually rated in amps, but the relationship in the amps depends on the voltage of the battery (you attach a 19v battery to a car alternator and it is no longer operating at its advertized amp rating). but anways, driving the electrons backward will turn the lead sulfate back into lead and lead oxide in their respective cells. this will continue until all of the electrodes have been "rebuilt". once "rebuilt" the potential from the charger or alternator simply keeps the charges in place, thus no "overcharging". I say "rebuilt" because the process is random and cannot perfectly reconstruct the electrodes. Eventually, the vertical shafts (that you hook the giant red and black wires to) will erode and fall to the bottom of the battery. the reaction can still occur if there is any connection between cells, however, because one or both of these main electrodes has broken you arent making contact with the solution anymore. this is how a battery fails.


but as for what happened to ur battery.... i dunno

 

well, my red top was free, and they say, red and yellow tops are 2ndbest for car audio, best is Kinetik(400 dollar batteries). and i had a HO alt anyway. 175amp, not much, but a 70 gain over stock. and a stock alt at most, usually only does 60% of maximun output, so figure, it uses 65amps on stock electronics, i had a 175 put in, i had 110 amps to play with, and thats when stock electronics pulling maximum, on a daily basis, more like 130amps to play with. and a high current amplifier can explode regular batteries, also, i noticed after putting red top in, my volts read consistently at 14, 15 and 16. i never saw it drop below 11, nand after HO alt, never saw drop below 14. it didnt give me more volts, jus kept it ALOT more steady. jus like common beleaf is capacitors help car audio. in reality, they hurt it a crap load(extra thing to charge), unless your alternator, battery, wiring, ground, and Big 3 can handle it without a Cap, then the cap regulates volts even better.

u are right tho, if a gel cel goes dead, u better charge it very slowly, and no jump starting. the gel cel, also stands out and adds a nice touch to the engine bay.and they can go ALOT longer, without having to be charged(by alt). but again. not a necesity(sp?) specially if you don't have a use for it, and can use money on other stuff.

not to be mean or rant, but i may not know so much about cars(consider myself fairly educated on them) but i know a **** load about mobile audio systems.

 

Really? What is the problem with jump starting a gel cell battery?