What Have I Done, Please Help

[JThacker]

I just got my gauges installed and went for a drive they work great but I got a check gauges light to come on and then the voltmeter quit working, under the hood the battery on the passenger side is oozing acid, WHAT???? Please help...

 

[starkmr]

Pull the negative cables off the batteries immediately. You may have a short in the system. The batteries are toast at this point. Without knowing how you powered your guages, I'm afraid you won't get much help, please be specific in how you did your install.

 

[JThacker]

I did it if you can give me a # by pm I will call you if you have time, I kinda in a pinch here. Jay

 

[Parks]

Is this everything you did? Is there more to this story? I have never seen batteries start oozing acid after a gauge install. Did you do anything else?

Short the battery cables together or something?

 

[DieselFiend]

Yup, sounds like a short in the system but, wouldn't fuses blow first???? Unless he ran hot wires straight from the batter without fuses.

 

[betterthanstock]

I just got my gauges installed and went for a drive they work great but I got a check gauges light to come on and then the voltmeter quit working, under the hood the battery on the passenger side is oozing acid, WHAT???? Please help...

oozing acid means overcharged. Get a digital voltmeter and check. You may have tapped into a charging circuit wire somehow, and the alternator is overcharging to compensate for the voltage. Have you left disconnected some of the many wires going to the batteries? Never run your alternator disconnected, or you will toast the diodes.

 

[Augie]

Is this everything you did? Is there more to this story? I have never seen batteries start oozing acid after a gauge install. Did you do anything else?

Short the battery cables together or something?

I played around with the adapter and found a fuse slot that isn't being used and comes on with the ignition, I have one question, it is a 15 amp circuit and my adapter has a 10 amp fuse in it, I think this will be alright but I am no "lectrician" does anybody know of any deleterious effects of just running my Juice off of this circuit instead of the recommened one? The power source is just for the attitude monitor isn't it? Thanks, Jay

Just wondering if the problem is related to your "Hot Juice" installation?

 

[DGamelin]

I would have to agree with Betterthanstock it is over charging, not a short. The size wires used on the gadges would get hot and melt. The voltage regulater is inside the computer. You must have taped into something, that's confusing your computer into charging continuasly. If it's over charging constantly the battery can explode, I've seen two batteries explode it's bad news. It could be something as simple as a relay that you've taken power from is closing or opening and the computer is missreading this. I would disconect the gadges. When I install gadges or something like that I take power from the cigerate lighter. That way when the key is off so is your power, and it's already fussed. I don't smoke so it doesn't get used anyways. Good luck and be careful.



04. 5 3500 6x6 quad cab 6 speed 373 25K

93 250 2wd xcab auto 354 240K

 

[JThacker]

OK I think I know what happened, first off let me say, I took one wire t-tapped into the dimmer switch and braided and soldered four tails to this wire from the dimmer switch to power the lights for the pyro, fuel p and boost gauges, I t-tapped into the cigarette lighter for key on power for the rail p gauge and t-tapped into a white wire with gray stripe that is on with the headlights but not dimmed, I did a very good technical job with the wiring and drove the truck for a short distance after the gauge install, without the lights on, Now comes the problem, I installed my Juice after the HOT update and EDGE lost my little metal post used to hook to fuse 50, so I took the service manual and found a circuit not used and took a 10 amp fuse and powered the Juice that way, then I got about 7 codes which I posted earlier, thinking it may have been the fuse 37 that I used I unhooked the Juice and thought I would try to clear the codes by discharging all the capacitors in the truck by unhooking pos and neg from both batteries and zip tieing the pos and neg wires to each other, they were of course nowhere near the terminals on the batteries, I left them like this for about 10 minutes then hooked the wires back to the terminals, and I still had the codes. I then jumped into the truck and went to Wal Mart to get an OBD II to just clear the codes the right way and on my way home the check gauges light came on and the voltmeter all the way to the left, I didn't stop because I knew I wouldn't be able to crank the truck if I turned it off, when I got home the battery on the passenger side was leaking acid, I pulled the battery and got a new one and drive about 2 hours this pm and no problems.

I am confident my gauge install is good, but I did something stupid by holding the pos and neg wires together, I don't know what it did, can somebody explain what happened? Anyhow after 65 dollars for a battery and 98 dollars for an OBDII the codes are gone and battery seems fine and EDGE is sending me some of the metal posts, it was needless to say a bad afternoon. Jay

 

[zstroken]

Acid oozing isn't always over charging. If you shorted the batteries, they will get hot and OOZE.

 

[betterthanstock]

Acid oozing isn't always over charging. If you shorted the batteries, they will get hot and OOZE.

If you have a short, you would fry the wires completely (all insulation melted down to the bare copper) then the copper would melt at the weakest point and the short would be over. These batteries can produce maybe 3000 Amps when shorted, far more than some thin gauge wires can handle. It makes a good welder for a few seconds. The starter uses up to 600 A, and they never leak at that level, so a short, unless done by shorting the big cables, will just fry that particular circuit, and never harm the battery.



If you short using big cables, the battery will explode, or the terminal posts will melt inside the battery, opening the circuit and stopping the short.

 

[zstroken]

I guess I shouldn't say a short. If it was a dead short it will melt the wire in short time. But if he doesn't have a dead short, discharge through a poor connection, it could cause the batteries to discharge at a greater level than design. Discharging batteries at a rate/time greater than design can cause them to ooze. Been there, seen it.