Scott,
Many factors come into play to cause a battery to short out, the most
common would be a build up of sulfation in the bottom of the cell
shorting out the plates of the cell this is an age related failure as
all batteries will produce sulfation how close the plates sit to the
bottom of the cell will determine when the comes into play. How ever
hitting a large bump or pot hole could jar some of the sulfation lose
and and cause it to get stuck between the plates, shorts of this type
can sometimes be burned out with a high current charge, but this runs
the risk of warping the plates in a cell making the short permanent.
Warped plates are another possible cause this tends to happen when a
battery is subjected to too high a current charging it( bad regulator in
your charging system ), is shorted out, or run dry.
Decomposing plates in a cell can cause this problem as the battery ages
the plates erode away and sometimes a large flake will come lose
shorting a cell out.
On a poor quality battery ( most automotive batteries ) the separator
material between the plates may fail or shift enough for the cell to
short out.
One other issue using anything but distilled water in your battery can
cause mineral build up in a cell causing it to short out.
In this age of tight environmental controls there are not that many
manufacturers of batteries out there most come off the the same assembly
line and are made to the individual brand specs thus, buy the best
battery warranty you can afford from a brand that gives good support in
your area, ask around.
I had one battery that I tries to get warranty on that failed miserably
on the test equipment we had for aircraft batteries used in military
helicopters. The battery had less than 30% of it's rated capacity but
when the dealer tested it on their Bear analyzer it passed so they would
not replace it because that machine is the manufactures standard to test
their batteries, but the dealer used an old 100 amp load tester on the
battery and it failed right away, he gave me a new battery at the same
pro-rated price as I would have had to pay if the manufacturer had
warranted the battery and that way I started with a new warranty period
sometimes even when they give you a new battery your warranty period is
only from the original purchase date.
Doug Hamilton
1960 TR3A
1963 Fiat Cabriolet
Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 09:50:29 -0700 (PDT)
From: Scott Tilton <sdtilton@yahoo.com>
Subject: Battery cell shorting: Why?
What causes a car battery to short out one cell?
Is it a manufacturing issue or is it dependent on how it is used?
TIA
Scott Tilton
In Leesburg VA
w/ broken retainer brackets for steering rack bushings.
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