Battery Smell

[bfarroo]

I've been noticing a Rotten Egg type smell in my garage for the last few days. At first I thought it may be a natural gas leak from my garage heater so I tested all of the joints and couldn't find a leak. To be on the safe side I shut the gas for the heater off at the source just in case and aired the garage out for a few hours. I went out this morning and was still smelling the smell so I started investigating more and think it may be coming from the battery in my 87 Shelby Z. I have a battery maintainer on it so it's kicking on and off to trickle change when needed. Has anyone had or know of a battery giving off a rotten egg smell? It really seemed to be coming from the batter area when I first popped the hood but after a short time I couldn't smell it anymore so either my nose got use to it or it dissipated when I opened the hood.

Thanks,

[bakes]

You bet it can smell if the battery goes south and is still trying to be charged!!!

[bfarroo]

That seems to be the consensus I'm finding on the internet. I know the battery wasn't in the best shape to begin with so either the battery went south and the charger is trying to charge it or the charger is overcharging it. I've had the charger on there for 6 months so I'm hoping the battery just went. It's under a 2 yr warranty yet so I'm going to yank it and bring it back and exchange it.

[JDAWG]

yes a bad battery smells like rotten eggs (acid), maybe your maintainer is malfunctioning, I have great luck with the $20 ones from harborfreight, if it is bad and you keep trying to charge it you will boil the acid out of it and it will smell like rotten eggs

[looneytuner]

I hope you are disconnecting the battery terminals. I like to be on the safe side.

[bfarroo]

I pulled the battery and brought it in. They put it on their tester and it came up with a bad cell. Got a new one under waranty. Since the car is in storage anyway I'm going to put the battery in the basement for the winter.

[looneytuner]

Keep it off the concrete. It will drain on a concrete slab.

[bfarroo]

Yeah, I store them on the steps up to the garage to keep them off the cold floor.