wcbcruzer

So I went to start the truck tonight and the starter turned over a few times but it just didn't have enough juice to get the engine started. So I tried jump starting it with another car but my jump cable connectors were somewhat corroded so I wasn't able to push enough amps through them to start the truck (Cummins needs a lot of juice on a cold start...). But here is the weird thing. With the jump cables attached, after I tried cranking the truck over a couple times, I got out and started smelling something good. Kinda like a flower or something. Then it went away after a few moments so I thought it was nothing. Then I attached the jump cables to the driver's side battery and cranked. Again, same thing, a sweet smell coming from somewhere. So I pull the cables off the battery and closed the hood (just incase the battery explodes) and start sniffing around the battery area. And I'm pretty sure the smell was coming from the battery. This ever happen to anyone? Could it just be the acid seeping out? I didn't really want to mess with jump starting it anymore. A battery exploded on my friend once and I'm very glad that nothing happened to him; but I don't want to take any risks with old batteries.

Geico266

Maybe you were smelling hyrogen? That's the gas that explodes.

BTW, Don't put your face near a battery.

JKM

I had a battery explode under the hood of my truck this week , not pretty, i am really glad that i was not standing beside it.

take the batteries out and get them tested/charged.

Jim Lane

You might have been smelling Ozone from an arcing connection though I would not want to smell something arcing next to the hydrogen gas.
Ozone would smell sweet like a fresh lightning storm,
Hydrogen like rotten eggs
And if you were to taste diluted sulphuric acid it would be like licking a super concentrated LIME with sores in your mouth, kinda has a zing..
Don't ask about the sores.
Jim

infidel

Jim's got it right, it's ozone from sparks you're smelling.
Bad practice to cause sparks near a battery, they can ignite the hydrogen gas causing the battery to explode. I knew a guy in high school who lost both eyes to it.
That's why they tell you to hook the negative jumper cable to a metal ground rather than to the battery itself.

Clayten

I had a battery blow up in my face. Got it in my eyes and man was that a hot one. I was running around the parking lot trying to find the washroom, with my eyes closed. A girl had just walked by, my friend sitting in the coffe shop thought I had said something nasty to the girl. He says, I thought she slapped you in the face. Funny now, but at the time I thought I was going to not have any eyes.

gmctd

Starting the truck at night could tend to indicate that maybe you were all spiffed up to go somewhere, and would have had fresh after-shave on your hands - which becomes more odiferous as the skin warms up, and which would also evidence itself as it wafted into the air from your hands being on the hot battery cables.

Ozone has an odor of fresh-cut grass to some people, hydrogen gas odor is like being in a radiator repair shop, and H2S hydrogen sulphide gas odor is like rotten eggs - but if you smell that, you ain't long from expirin', so run like 7734...................

Harold G

Where would you suggest to hook the Neg jumper cable to (metal ground)? I know the Duramax's have a special place to hook the Neg jumper cable but I don't find anything of that sort on the Dodge.
Harold

wcbcruzer

I took the batteries and got them tested. One was bad, the other might be ok. It's on the charger. The guy I bought the truck from had 1 marine/deep cycle battery and 1 regular battery. Is this better? He had a power inverter set up in the cab, so I figured that's why he decided to go with a marine battery.

Today I bought a new battery. Is it ok to run the truck with just one battery hooked up? I started it once and it was just fine. Took about 2 seconds of cranking time. I didn't wait for the grid heaters to finish the full cycle.

Jim Lane

Quote:
and would have had fresh after-shave on your hands

You mean you don't put a little dab of diesel fuel on your hands and rub it on your face?
What kind of Cummins owner are you?
I love the smell of diesel fuel.

v8440

I've always heard you should run two identical batteries. I for one will always follow that advice, unless for some reason I absolutely can't. If I were you, I would definitely NOT run two different batteries, especially two as different as an ordinary car battery and a marine deep cycle.

gmctd

It ain't bein' a Diesel owner that concerns me - it's the other half of the equation, that buys the colognes and after-shaves.........

FYI - use two identical battery's - the weak one will fool the alternator into heavy charging, which will soon boil the water out and ruin both.

FYI - there are many places to hook the negative jumper cable, starting with the lug on the ground cable, where it attaches to the block.

Redleg

I don't know, seems the batteries in the army APC's always had a sweet smell when the acid started to cook. You smelled that, you hit the breaks and drop the ramp right now, or you lose the lining of your lungs and burn your eyes. No air transfer inside a tank.

XLR8R

You should always run two identical batteries unless you have isolators.