Battery inquiry

[johnm]

Just took delivery of a 07 Z and was reading through the owners manual where GM spends a lot of time describing the correct (safe) way to jump start the car. Seems the batteries put off some toxic and very flammable fumes which can ignite from a spark during the jump. GM goes a far as placing remote battery terminals in the car to avoid ingition if a spark occurs during jumping. My question is Why did GM put the battery in the paasenger compartment. Is this safe? what about the affects of these fumes on the passengers especially when driving with the windows up? Is there a ris k of ignition from a spark or flame inside the car?

 

[SPANISHVETTS]

Just took delivery of a 07 Z and was reading through the owners manual where GM spends a lot of time describing the correct (safe) way to jump start the car. Seems the batteries put off some toxic and very flammable fumes which can ignite from a spark during the jump. GM goes a far as placing remote battery terminals in the car to avoid ingition if a spark occurs during jumping. My question is Why did GM put the battery in the paasenger compartment. Is this safe? what about the affects of these fumes on the passengers especially when driving with the windows up? Is there a ris k of ignition from a spark or flame inside the car?

Safe practice on all vehicles is to never Jump a car by putting the jumper cables on the battery terminals. This is to avoid a spark near the battery where it might be gassing. On automobiles without Jump Start terminals the standard procedure is to connect the Hot cable first to the dead battery then to the booster battery and then connect the ground cable to the engine block or chassis as far away from the battery as possible.

All flooded cell lead acid batteries give off explosive gases when charged at a high rate. Under normal conditions, i.e., the car's alternator charging the battery or the car being started with a normal ¨car-type¨ booster this will never be a problem.

GM is doing a CYA in the manual to avoid litigation when when some fool tries to jump start his car with a 4000 amp truck battery while lighting his cig with a blow torch and doing all of this in a sealed, oxygen enriched environment.

Lots of cars have the battery in the passenger compartment including every VW Beetle ever built, Audi, BMW, etc. So there should be nothing to worry about under normal driving conditions.

 

[johnm]

Thanks for the explanation spanishvette, makes sense and makes me feel a lot better. By the way what side of the road do you guys drive on in spain?

 

[SPANISHVETTS]

Thanks for the explanation spanishvette, makes sense and makes me feel a lot better. By the way what side of the road do you guys drive on in spain?

That depends entirely on how much of the local wine one has consumed.:ugh

With the exception of the UK all of Euro-land drives on the right - same as the states; just a lot faster. On the Motorways I usually set the cruise control between 100 and 110 MPH.

Spain has one of the highest accident rates in Europe and the highest ¨deaths in the ER¨ on record. 90+% of the accidents are inside city limit's and most of those involve alcohol. In the 7 years that I have lived here I have only seen 1 accident on the Motorway, Snow was involved, while there have been more than a dozen, including one with fatalities in front of my business.:W

We do not drive during the drinking hours, 4-6 PM and 2-4 AM. So far this works fine as neither Moni nor I have ever been involved in or close to an accident.

 

[NORTY]

I've heard of the autovia's in Spain! 110mph and you'll get run over!

Sure wish we had something like that over here, (with intelligent people behind the wheel...)

 

[SPANISHVETTS]

(with intelligent people behind the wheel...)

I wish we had some of those over here.

The best Euro drivers are the Brits and French. All the others are in a dead tie for worst.

Being fair this if the first generation of Spanish and Portuguese to have grown up with automobiles. When I arrived here in '86 only the land owners and new rich owned cars and most of what they owned would not be allowed on a US hi-way.

Now, like in the USA the first thing a kid buys when he gets a job is a car but the ¨my donkey knows the way home so it does not matter how much I drink¨ attitude remains... What would you expect tobacco commercials are still allowed on TV and it is common to see a Police car parked in front of a bar and Uniformed Officers inside knocking back J&B.

 

[johnpesar]

Just took delivery of a 07 Z and was reading through the owners manual where GM spends a lot of time describing the correct (safe) way to jump start the car. Seems the batteries put off some toxic and very flammable fumes which can ignite from a spark during the jump. GM goes a far as placing remote battery terminals in the car to avoid ingition if a spark occurs during jumping. My question is Why did GM put the battery in the paasenger compartment. Is this safe? what about the affects of these fumes on the passengers especially when driving with the windows up? Is there a ris k of ignition from a spark or flame inside the car?

Only the Z06 has the battery in the rear. There should be no fumes and you are safe with the windows up. If you pop the rear hatch and look at your battery you should see a vent tube plugged into the top right side of the battery. The battery is lead acid but it's sealed except for the place where the tube attaches, and the tube exits to the exterior of the car. An interesting fact is that all Corvettes made from 1968 through 1982 had the battery located in a interior compartment behind the seats and vented to the car's exterior. These batteries were never subjected to thermal cycling from the engine, and when compared to C4 and C5 cars, my experience is that they had much longer battery life because of their location. I was pleasantly surprised to find the Z06 battery located away from the engine compartment.

 

[johnm]

Hey thanks for the further explanation ZR-1 john. Makes sense. I didn't notice he vent tube when I first got the car. I will check it out today. The isolation for temp cycling certainly makes sense when it comes to battery life. Have a great one.