My battery on my '86 Ram started boiling today. I noticed a sulfurous smell in my drive home tonight, getting worse and worse. Got home, and the battery was whistling. Yesterday, the battery died in the driveway, and I recharged it easily. Bought the truck in Jan this year, and swapped the battery out with my '92 Dakota. The battery is a 4 year old Diehard. What might be the problem? I plan to check the volt at the terminals to make sure the system isn't overcharging, but thought that maybe the age played a role in its boiling. thanks

The battery ought never to boil at any age; small bubbles can form under heavy charging, but boiling is very, very bad and could be due overcharging or shorted cells allowing way too much voltage on the unshorted cells. I wouldn't drive it until I checked it out, and be very careful - a friend had the whole top of the battery blow off in his face when he went to check it after encountering a similar problem. Only his glasses saved his eyes from serious injury.

my voltage regulator failed causing this ... It was " stuck" putting out 14.4 ALL the Time and my battery was spitting up water, making a mess. Check voltage with a multimeter.

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63 valiant v200 Wagon 9.5, Schneider cam, E.I. 22 mpg all day

My voltage reg went bad and was putting full charge all the time into the batt! Im glad it didn't blow up! I have had this happen on two seperate occations.

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'74 Duster 225 Super Six w/904
14" Cragar SS wheels