Overcharged Battery in 355??

I ruined my battery with a Schumacher trickle charger, and now I buy the brand "Battery Tender".

I think you may be on the right track in thinking that you need a new battery.


JM

 

Symptoms of overcharged battery are low electrolyte. You may have boiled the water out of the battery. If you wish to rejuvenate the battery buy a gallon of distilled water in your grocery store. Make certain it is truely distilled and not just fancy drinking water. Remove the battery from the car. Use safety glasses - MANDATORY from here on.

Pop off the covers at the top of each cell and fill each of the six cells with distilled water almost to the top. There are often marks or molded in features to indicate full. A small funnel and flashlight are often quite helpful.

Charge the battery slowly leaving the cell covers OFF. Slow because the acid and water need to mix and a fast charge excites violent liquid motion which can damage the plates. And covers OFF because if things aren't going well, fumes can build up and expel or squirt some acid. You still have safety glasses on don't you?

Most times the battery will be ok, depends. Dendrites or slivers of lead extend from the plates of well used batteries and can drop to the bottom when the water level gets low and short out a cell. After charging, cell caps on and reinstall.

I would buy a new battery but in an emergency situation, the refill-rejuvenate-recharge does work in cases where the battery was fine before the overcharging occurred.

 

I have attempted Paul's suggestion before...while it did restore some function to the batteries, I have found they had very little capacity left. I connected up a load tester and typically found less than half their rated capacity. Generally, once you have boiled out the electrolyte, you might as well replace the battery...YMMV.