New battery......smelling and clicking

[Momac]

Can anyone advise please? We had a new engine battery fitted less than 3 months ago. We have used the MH for a few nights since ....the last time 3 weeks ago....with no problems whatsover.

A week ago it was plugged in at home, which is what we usually do, and the sargeant usually charges all the batteries.

Today, we went in the van and there was a faint sulphur type smell coming from the engine battery, along with a clicking noise which coincided with the instrument panel needles jumping about. The reading on the leisure batteries was 13.5 and the vehicle battery was only 7.1Kwh so I switched the charger to vehicle battery. It immediately went up to 13.8 but, because of the smell we turned the charger off. The reading went down 11.1 but this was not enough to lock/unlock the doors. What to do? Is the new battery dead? Have we killed it somehow?

I think it would start using the EHU to get it round to the garage, but would that be dangerous?

 

[Lenny HB]

Yes, the new battery has had, not advisable to start with EHU plugged in.
If you are getting a sulfur smell from the battery it should be disconnected immediately, no way should you drive it with that battery connected, the alternator will start charging it and there will be a high risk of the battery exploding.
Either a faulty battery or the charger is faultily overcharging it.

I repeat:-

Disconnect Immediately

 

[GeoffnDee]

I think you will find you have a faulty starter battery and it would be best to switch the charger and electrics off also disconnect the EHU for now , if you try and start it you may also cause the seat belt ECU to go faulty. It would be better if you can get the garage to come out to you and remove the faulty battery , it needs to be done with great. care as the gasses you are smelling are explosive

 

[jumar]

Disconnect the battery in a well ventilated area...even a small spark in a Gaseous Atmosphere can cause an explosion.....if in doubt, call someone out...

 

[Momac]

Thankyou for your replies. The garage that fitted it has ordred a new one, and will come and fit it tomorrow. Just hoping that there is actually something wrong with it, and not our electrics!

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[Nedge68]

Hopefully just a faulty battery, I would ask the garage to check the alternator, I once had the voltage regulator fail, causing the battery to be charged at 18v, it didn’t like it and scary seeing smoke pouring out of a battery, also worth getting your Sargent battery charger checked.

 

[GeoffnDee]

I think you may well find that Sargent battery charger is ok as it charges both the starter and leisure batteries (via the PSU) and your leisure battery seems to be ok.

 

[Gromett]

2 causes for this.
1) The battery is defunct, it has low electrolyte which is causing it to boil and produce the sulphur smell.
2) The charging circuit is damaged and overcharging the battery causing the electrolyte to boil.

You need to find out which is causing the problem. 1st point of call would be to check the voltage whilst this is happening.