heavy85 Posted August 6, 2005 Share Posted August 6, 2005 This happened yesterday evening. OK so here it goes... Took her out for a test drive (the car that is - keep focused), cruisin down the highway, right turn at 'agressive speeds' from highway onto couty road, immediately over railroad track ... what's that smell ... seems kind of like burning plastic .... hmm that's bad (check gauges and alls well) ... wait what's that smoke out of the corner of my eye ... dont know but I'ld better kill the engine ... crap it's the battery (pull over, get out, open hatch) ... crap the fuel pump is still running (fuel pump dies on it's own) ... crap why are there so many threads on the battery box cover (battery is remote mounted behind passenger seat) it'll never come off (finally get cover off) ... crap the battery strap is glowing cherry and there are flames shooting off it from the paint burning ... what the hell do I do ... my car is going to go up in flames in front of my eyes and theres nothing I can do about it ... I have no tools with me ... wait maybe I didn't put the terminal on tight and can just yank it off (yank on positive cable) ... crap it wont come off (stop think duh slide the battery over so the positive terminal is not direct shorting to the mounting strap) ... ouch I think that should have hurt but can't feel anything ... good it's not glowing red anymore ... crap it's still hot and now melting through the top of the battery ... wait I do have a screwdrive (pry strap off battery) ... I'm not going to drive it anymore without a fire extinguisher ... wish I had a cell phone ... all is calm So I bummed a cell phone from a kind passer by to call my wife and she graciously (without even a bad look) picked me up and a $109 Optima battery later I drove her back home (the car still) with a little better understanding that you cant trust that a store bought part (battery box and mounting strap in this case) was engineered properly. Should have known better. On the bright side later last night I finally got the right turn signal working:). Tonight I will be re-engineering the battery mounting system. Cameron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNeedForZ Posted August 6, 2005 Share Posted August 6, 2005 good to hear the car(and you) are fine. (note to myself : buy a fire extinguisher) duh, i said "distinguisher" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim240z Posted August 6, 2005 Share Posted August 6, 2005 Never leave home without one, plus three more in the house and 2 in the garage.....paranoid type! Glad everything is ok! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RB26powered74zcar Posted August 6, 2005 Share Posted August 6, 2005 My first car was a VW, need I say more about the need to keep a fire extinguisher... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted August 6, 2005 Share Posted August 6, 2005 Sounds kinda familiar! Check my post in this safety thread: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=103166 Glad nobody got hurt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
datsunlover Posted August 6, 2005 Share Posted August 6, 2005 Yah I actually stole the fire extinguisher from our appartment to put in the Z.. I guess that makes me a little parinoid too, as I feel the car needs in more than the house.. Note to self.. buy two more of those things tomorrow.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest zfan Posted August 6, 2005 Share Posted August 6, 2005 I always keep one in the car. Not sure if it is big enough but it is better than nothing. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jersey Posted August 6, 2005 Share Posted August 6, 2005 My favorite part... "call my wife and she graciously (without even a bad look) picked me up and a $109 Optima battery " Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZR8ED Posted August 6, 2005 Share Posted August 6, 2005 except for the fire, I just had the same thing happen a couple of weeks ago. Hard corners, and the battery moved in its tray, and touched the pos terminal to the body... I couldn't figure out why I started blowing signal fuses??? It toasted the battery. 1 gelcell coming up. And for the twilight zone crowd, I had the same thing happen in my other 280 a few days later...I suppose I didn't tighten that one down enough either.. it only needed to move a bit... BTW now it doesn't matter. I have insulated the battery terminals from close by metal FIND a plastic cover for the battery terminals... VERY handy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pop N Wood Posted August 6, 2005 Share Posted August 6, 2005 Don't know that a fire extinguisher would have given you anything more than piece of mind. Until you "lengthed" the short the fire was just going to keep flaring up. That is unless the battery exploded. That might have put the fire out. I have never been a big fan of batteries in the passenger compartment of street cars. Plastic covers are not sufficient protection either. You need something that will seal in the battery acid in the event of a roll over. Nothing adds to the joy of being trapped in an overturned vehicle like having battery acid dripping in your face. Funny story though. Believe me, I have done worse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest zfan Posted August 6, 2005 Share Posted August 6, 2005 OUCH! Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted August 6, 2005 Share Posted August 6, 2005 Those little plastic terminal covers don't help much. I had a 1992 Corvette and the previous owner had swapped in a universal Pep Boys battery that had the requried side mounts and an extra set of top posts. There was a plastic cover over the unused positive top post. It was rubbing against a frame bracket. One day the dash gauges, headlights, engine, etc. went all "woogy" and the car shut off. You need a fairly complete set of tools to get to the battery in C4 Corvette. I used a stick to pry the battery away from the frame and I jammed another small piece of wood between the battery post and the frame. Luckily, the car started right up and amde it to the shop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted August 6, 2005 Share Posted August 6, 2005 I have never been a big fan of batteries in the passenger compartment of street cars. Plastic covers are not sufficient protection either. You need something that will seal in the battery acid in the event of a roll over. Nothing adds to the joy of being trapped in an overturned vehicle like having battery acid dripping in your face. Plus the stock battery placement in a Z is pretty good anway. A little higher than preferred, but offsets some of the driver's weight nicely. A better relocation IMO is the one the Cary talked about and I think he had some pics too. The inner fender liner was cut and changed so that the battery sat in the stock location, but right above the frame rail instead of right under the hood. So basically it just got moved down a foot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heavy85 Posted August 6, 2005 Author Share Posted August 6, 2005 I have never been a big fan of batteries in the passenger compartment of street cars. QUOTE] When I got the car a lot of stuff had been halfway done - like the battery was relocated to the floor behind the passengers seat. But it was just sitting there in a plastic box and was not even bolted down but just sitting there. There wasn't even a strap holding the cover on. So I asked on the hybridz board and was told the best place to put it for handling is behind the passenger seat plus I for some reason had the misconception that Z's were front heavy so I decided to keep it back there. Other thing I considered was that I had (and now have a new one thanks to all of this) an Optima gel cell battery that are not suppose to leak and are not suppose to give off explosive gas like a typical lead acid battery would. So I thought I would be conservative and ditch the plastic box for a 'sealed' aluminum battery box. So I bought and proceeded to what I thought securely mount it in place. That box looks OK (even saw the same one on Hotrod TV which a fairly lame show by the way) but it is in no way sealed. I've now added some considerably more rubust means to keep the battery from sliding around inside the box so this WILL NOT happen again but it's still not sealed . If I had the parts in hand I would just mount it back to the stock location given what I now know. Sounds kinda familiar! Check my post in this safety thread: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=103166 QUOTE] You know I just had read that post the day before and thought that'll never happen to me. Ironic isn't it. Cameron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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