OT: Car battery just blew-up!

[VolvoHeretic]

So, I tried to start my Volvo with the old boat battery that had died and left us stranded on the lake over night a month ago. The boat motor just died, and wouldn't restart but the boat lights worked fine.

I replaced the battery and put a charge on the old one, which held a 12.7 volt charge for an entire month. I just put it on the battery charger for another hour, put it into the car's trunk, turned the key and instantly, it blew up, sounding like a shotgun blast.

Was it the battery or my car starter?

[Phil-G]

it was the hydrogen from the charging, that was ignited by an arc from a bad connection inside your battery. be sure to wash the inside your trunk with a lot of dish soap. to nuetralize the acid your battery sprayed all over the inside of your trunk. especially directly above the battery. otherwise the rust will eat the entire ass end of your volvo off.

[VolvoHeretic]

Thanks Phil, I also suspect it was the battery, but didn't want to try another battery and have it do the same thing. I was wondering if a dead short in the starter winding could result in the same thing. I sprinkled 2 boxes of baking soda inside and rinsed everything thoroughly, hopefully neutralized it all. First battery I ever had that exploded.

[Phil-G]

baking soda will not get into the seams where acid will do the most damage.

[VolvoHeretic]

Only the top blew off, so I sprayed maybe a pint of acid around the trunk, I dumped one box of soda on the acid I could see, let it foam up, rinsed the entire trunk off and then threw another box up onto the underside of the trunk/fenders/fins, let sit and then rinsed off again. I think that I got soda everywhere, but tomorrow, I will mix up a strong hot water solution of baking soda and spray everything again really well, rinse, and wash with Dawn detergent. Thanks.

[GM]

FWIW, spraying everything with PB Blaster has worked well for me with the downside that if you ever want to [re]paint over it, an acid wash prep like required for painting aluminum or similar is required to cut through its long term protective 'skin' for lack of knowing a more technically correct description.

GM