Boiling battery
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Cross-Country
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Boiling battery
After driving for about 25 miles today I opened the hood of my 1983 F100. I have been noticing a swampy smell whenever I drive the truck for any distance. It starts to smell so bad that I almost don't like driving the truck because of the smell. Anyway I was looking under the hood to see if I could tell where the smell was coming from. When I've checked before it seemed like it was coming from the radiator area. Did the previous owner have algae growing in the radiator? It seemed like the heat would have killed any algae. Well today things got interesting. When I opened the hood I noticed the battery was boiling!
Steam rapidly coming out of the battery fills!! This may be the smell - sulfuric acid boiling off? That can't be good. Any ideas why this is happening or better yet, how to prevent this? Is this a battery issue or an alternator issue. Both battery and alternator are relatively new (past 6 months). The battery is obviously easier to take out and replace, but I don't want to replace the battery just to have the alternator destroy another battery. I think the ground is good but I'll check again later today or tomorrow. Right now I'm just trying to get ideas on the issue.
Thanks - Drew
Steam rapidly coming out of the battery fills!! This may be the smell - sulfuric acid boiling off? That can't be good. Any ideas why this is happening or better yet, how to prevent this? Is this a battery issue or an alternator issue. Both battery and alternator are relatively new (past 6 months). The battery is obviously easier to take out and replace, but I don't want to replace the battery just to have the alternator destroy another battery. I think the ground is good but I'll check again later today or tomorrow. Right now I'm just trying to get ideas on the issue.Thanks - Drew
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From: Virginia
You will have to get a meter, and read the battery voltage with the truck running. If it's much over 14.5v, then you probably have a charging system problem. If you don't want to do that, then take it to a store that checks things for free and see what their machine says. It can test the battery by itself, and also check the charging voltage.
If the charging voltage is too high, the regulator could be burnt out, or the wire going to the "F" terminal of the regulator is shorted to the large wire going to the alternator.
If the charging voltage is too high, the regulator could be burnt out, or the wire going to the "F" terminal of the regulator is shorted to the large wire going to the alternator.
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Cross-Country
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Mine too. I replaced the alternator and the battery last summer, not that it can't be those. I picked up a voltage regulator yesterday after stopping at one of the local auto parts stores just to find out that the sales people had no clue. Unfortunately it is hit or miss with that place. Yesterday was definitely a miss.
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Cross-Country
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I changed out the voltage regulator yesterday. It actually took less than 10 minutes, including getting the tools out. It doesn't get much easier than that. The voltage guage in the cab looks much better now but I haven't run the truck long enough to see if the problem is solved, but I think this may have done it. Thanks for the help!
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