Drivers side battery STEAMING.... Causing no starts etc

[devinjuneau]

Well i kept having intermittent weak starts and sometimes a dead battery in the morning. Well i went to mess with it again today, and the batteries were dead as a doornail, and wouldnt take a charge, swapped another battery in, got her running, let it charge for a bit, turned it off, it started right back up strongly. Left for a ride an hour later it started (weak), went to get some food, it was idling high when i left it set at taco bell. Went home, was running fine, was making 13.5-14.3 v during ride- got home and we kept smelling this PEUTRID smell, we smelt it at taco bell too, well this time i knew it was the truck since it was coming through the vents, popped the hood and the drivers battery was F'n STEAMING.... like high pressure steam coming out! I moved away from that bastard quick, since a buddy that was with me said his bosses 08 f250 (he bought used with unknown miles) had his drivers battery explode, literally EXPLODE, (also a motorcraft like mine)... and warned me this was about to happen to mine. It didnt, luckily, but needless to say, that battery is toast..... now the ?s.

1. Charging system seems ok from minimaxx readout, and the fact that the other good battery keeps a charge short term and does re start the truck after sitting a few minutes, is there any way i can test otherwise other than auto zones/auto parts store test?
2. Has anyone seen this happen and WHAT THE HELL causes a battery to steam!?!?
3. The truck has ~32k miles, and is still under 3/36 warranty- although i seriously doubt it, would this be covered?

[ianstew]

your batts should be covered.....steaming usually occurs from an overcharge situation, or a short in the battery internals

[devinjuneau]

ima call in the morn and find out, its almost not worth it though cuz i am worried ill have to put the dpf/cat back on in order to bring it in..... making it almost worth it to just replace that battery

[RobertS450]

Just an FYI on these trucks batteries get replaced is sets not singles. If one is weak it will kill the new one in no time.

[devinjuneau]

well ford did right by me today! I was still good under warranty, drove it up there with the minimaxx tune(took the module down and hid it of course) on and no dpf, gave me 2 brand spankin new batteries. Phew! Glad that i didnt even have to pay for one, cuz had i not had the warranty i woulda only bought one. So, lets just hope that this is the only problem i have requiring the warranty. My buddy that was working even got me the door code that i didnt know for free.

[dieselkane]

Are you sure the problem is the battery, and doesn't lie elsewhere?

[devinjuneau]

according to the minimaxx its not overcharging voltage wise and the trucks battery isnt steaming anymore with the new batteries, so i guess time will tell.....

[jlint1988]

haha I had the same problem happen in my truck, my batt. were mfg in 2005 so i guess it was time. I thought the damn thing was gonna blow haha.