ok so the other day i was gonna turn on my fc, and i notice the engine turning so SUPER slow.... so i figure hey its the battery thats drained.... it started up fine, just turn over slow and took like 5 whole seconds to crank up.... the idled and drove fine.... however i thought id be nice to take my battery to autozone to get it fully charged... so ok about 2 hrs later i come back and try to hook up the battery... i hooked up the positive post first, then when the negative terminal touched the negative post.... BOOM incredibly loud boom right in my face left me hearing a solid ringing sound for a whole minute.... (still cant hear 100%).... and a blinding bright light came out.... so i call autozone up all like WTf***.... they said if it was over charged it would have blown in there store.... so after a while of arguing about my hearing, they offer me a new battery to avoid a lawsuit....... i went back to hook it up and nothing, no crank , no power in the car.... i checked the fuses under the hood, the MAIN fuse and ENG INJ fuses are blown.... what could have caused that? is it going to blow up again if i replace the fuse? any help would be greatly appreciated

 

dude lol, that is one for the grand kids. good luck though. be safe.

 

Im not positve but im pretty sure your suppost to put the ground on first. I dont exactly recall what but i heard storys.

 

hmm maybe your right... but why would those fuses have blown out? i just wanna make shure i dont have to experience that one again.... if i replace it i dont want a boom again..haha

 

Wrong. B+ then B-, always. Sounds like you have a larger short to ground. I have never heard of or experienced this exact boom and flash. But that is the most likely cause. Glad your OK.

 

Perhaps one of the plates in the battery warped during charging. Not sure just throwing out an idea. Anyone?

 

not shure, i wanna go get the fuses, but dont wanna have to buy a battery

 

wow! I never heard of a battery exploding in your face.

 

You haven't been around very long then. The flash and the boom are called Arcing. I'm gonna have to say that you didn't hook the battery up right, even though you say you did.

 

id honestly rather hear that then that there could be a short circuit in the car..... so do u think ill have any more explosions if i put in the fuses? or should i disconnect the battery , put in the fuses, then reconnect?

 

My first reaction to the title was, don't post here, you need a hospital. But if you survived it, the other posters had good suggestions. Maybe you connected it up wrong. Fix it and double check your work. Then try another battery after you've fixed the electrical...

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by RETed:
All the other **** don't really need to be torqued properly (yeah, I can hear the boo's now), and I use the "German" standards or "fukintite" and "titenuf".
You forgot about your german girlfriend "gudintite".

So on the subject. Fess up, did you actually hook it up incorrect? B+ to B- and B- to B+.

If you just slap in new fuses and try it, WEAR SAFETY GLASSES.

 

This is a prime example of why to use dielectric grease on battery terminals. Having the battery charged causes the electrolysis of the water in the battery's acid. When you connected it, there was a significant draw on the battery (key on, headlights on, etc.) this caused the arcing or electricity between the terminal and the battery. As we learned in chemistry class, H2 + ignition = boom. had there been dielectric grease on the terminals (and/or there been no draw for power) there would be no spark and no explosion.

Moral of the story- Use dielectric grease on bat. terminals, make sure ALL accessories and other powered items are OFF, wear proper safety equipment, and take responsibility for your own stupidity.

 

probably hooked up the battery backwards

 

Yep..I'm with Icemark on this on.If you blew Fuses when this happened,you most likely Put the terminals on the Wrong Posts..You are a Very Lucky Man though.I hope you are Alright and the Only thing Hurt was "your Pride".this could have resulted in Phsyical injury...Look at the Posts,on the battery.They are Two Different sizes.When you install the battery Again,Think about this..then As a Precaution,get RED electrical Tape and Wrap a Turn of it around the Positive Battery Cable..THERE!,now no more Exploding Batteries!..

 

mix up some baking soda and water and dump it anywhere battery acid touced anything and repeat until it stops fizzing or anything that got wet will soon be paintles and very rusted.

 

buy a dry cell like an optima and dont risk it

 

Optimas are not dry cell batteries...they are "sealed and spillproof" (their description) but there is still battery acid involved.

I'm not sure how an Optima would react to a misconnection (as apparently happened to the OP) and I'm not willing to sacrifice mine for the team but I sure wouldn't count on it not doing something nasty just because of it's housing design.

 

So in summary. Disconnect the battery completely, install new fuses, reconnect battery correctly.

 

wow i never heard of accident like this i would have sued autozone, but wut they say is tru about the load on the battery and that it was connected backwards thats the only explanation

 

Sued them for what? Losing your pants?

 

even if you hook up the battery backwards it wouldnt go BOOM! i dropped a wrench on a battery once and it shorted the terminals. It just made a little pop and a bit of smoke and blew the main fuses. (in a 240sx). replace the fuses and tripple check that your + and - are correct. use the same battery its fine.

 

x2


lol @

Always have your face away from the battery.

 

When you recharge a battery little bubbles of hydrogen form on the lead plates. once these bubbles get big enough they rise to the surface and pop filling the air chamber with flamible hydrogen gas. Charging a battery very quickly like auto part stores do causes these bubbles to form more rapidly and makes more of them than a slower charge would. When you hooked up your terminals backwords you created a spark at the terminal and ignighted some hydrogen gas that was leaking out. Since the battery was recentally rapidly charged this caused pressure to build in your semi-sealed battery. Hydrogen gas under pressure with an ignition makes a big boom. Remember the hindinburg!

 

Sorry brother but YOU are wrong.
When installing a battery you always, always connect the positive terminal first then the negative. This is the same sequence for connecting jumper cables. Making the connections in this order greatly reduces the chance of a spark. Lead acid batteries produce hydrogen gas. In the correct mixture hydrogen:oxygen+spark=boom.
Regardless the chance of this happening is rather remote. I have personally had one blow just by the act of turning the key to engage the starter...sounded like a shotgun blast and scared the **** out of me.
A reasonable theory is the dumb asses at Twilight Zone failed to be certain the battery was full of water before they charged it. If it was low and put on the rapid charging system they use it boiled it down even lower. That air gap combined with a cell that has a short most likely caused the spark that left your ears ringing. You are lucky you did not get a face full of acid as well.