Sigh @ Battery

[vitagen]

OMG, guess what happened tonite? was driving the *BOOM* car dead, swayed onto road, got hit on the side, dented my drivers fender ( not too bad ), dude in green old magna hit me, lucky his car is an old POS, anyway car completely died after late night shopping!!! imagine the traffic, opened by bonnet cos i saw smoke comin outtra my grille, the battery exploded? all this white smoking was coming outta the friggin battery! lasted for like 20 minutes!, called rac had to get a new battery put in, $110 bucks, gg toyota, the guy said the battery was completely dead!, something short circuited? thank *** that nothing else died in my car, the guy said that the battery that they put into the car from the factory was the wrong type :S someone figure??

[vin corolla]

Sorry to hear that, mate, but lucky you're ok. Althought I don't understand what happened.....

that's something i would never expect from the battery....smoke and explode.....learn something new everyday...

you sure the radiator is not leaking or anything? better give it a check before you drive....

[barryogen]

OMG, guess what happened tonite?

the battery exploded?

Get a steam clean ASAP... battery acid(if any spilt) will kill wires/panels etc

[Blade Hunter]

Man, sorry to hear about your problems.

Toyota LISTEN UP, the batteries in our cars are **** house. Stop denying all responsibility and do something about it, 3 people have posted on here with battery problems in cars that are under 3 years old in the last week.

Sorry for the outrage, I am seriously tired of Toyota, I sold the Daewoo and bought the Toyota because of the excelent reports on their service and build quality. If by excelent service you mean forcing customers to pay for warrenty repairs and denying all responsibility when things go wrong then yes, you have excelent service.

Build quality on these things sucks. I love my little car but the quality of the build on it and many other Sportivos is nothing short of pathetic.

[Les]

Wow ... u got a stereo in there ?

[Saiya]

What brand of battery was it?

[MR22ZZ]

1ZZ-FE had a similar incident a couple of years ago from memory

[RME1]

1ZZ-FE had a similar incident a couple of years ago from memory

*SHAME*SHAME*SHAME* *hinch style

yeah my battery died last week - just outta the blue - dead - lucky @ Kmart xide batteries are 20% off :P <_< not happy with toyota my car is just under 3 years old

[perthcamry]

Could it be something to do with a faulty alternator? just done want you to have it happen twice ;)

[blue_rolla]

thats so pathetic... i think my battery is on the way out too... its not cranking as fast anymore, and i got all this weird flakey **** coming out of my positive terminal

guess its time to upgrade... optima yellow top here i come (in a while)

[MR22ZZ]

Mine is the same Tom, I just clean the corrosion off every month or so, but should look at replacing it soon.

[neK]

hmmmmz, my battery is still going strong after 2.5 years.

Maybe its a problem with a particular batch?

What surprised me about the battery is that my mums Hyundai was given a dry cell battery, whereas I had the wet cell one.

[vin corolla]

Mine seems fine...althought it is over 3 years old, maybe my car is all stock, no stereo, no sub...nothing....so it has less wear on the battery?

[RME1]

Mine seems fine...althought it is over 3 years old, maybe my car is all stock, no stereo, no sub...nothing....so it has less wear on the battery?

my conquest is APOC SA 03 model... <_< ???

-only toyota mp3 head unit from 2005 accent sport as mod

[Blade Hunter]

My car is also stock :(

[CAP]

1ZZ-FE had a similar incident a couple of years ago from memory

That was an Exide in dad's AE92, but that happened when I started it after a charge and the battery was dead, it completely exploded, not just smoked.

The stock black topped Panasonic (As equiped with the Jap built cars) in my own car is still good after almost 3 1/2 years.

What brand is the white one in the SA built cars ?

[saintz01]

mine's stock as well, cept for the headlight bulbs.

no probs thus far, car's nearly 3 yrs old.

[RME1]

1ZZ-FE had a similar incident a couple of years ago from memory

That was an Exide in dad's AE92, but that happened when I started it after a charge and the battery was dead, it completely exploded, not just smoked.

The stock black topped Panasonic (As equiped with the Jap built cars) in my own car is still good after almost 3 1/2 years.

What brand is the white one in the SA built cars ?

mine is sitting at home somewhere about to exploded when a rat touches both ends of it...i'll take a note and psot it up - the SA battery is HUGE - my exide battery is almost 1/4 shorter in length :o

[iNdCeNt]

OMG, guess what happened tonite? was driving the *BOOM* car dead, swayed onto road, got hit on the side, dented my drivers fender ( not too bad ), dude in green old magna hit me, lucky his car is an old POS, anyway car completely died after late night shopping!!! imagine the traffic, opened by bonnet cos i saw smoke comin outtra my grille, the battery exploded? all this white smoking was coming outta the friggin battery! lasted for like 20 minutes!, called rac had to get a new battery put in, $110 bucks, gg toyota, the guy said the battery was completely dead!, something short circuited? thank *** that nothing else died in my car, the guy said that the battery that they put into the car from the factory was the wrong type :S someone figure??

lionel, do u know the battery #? mine does get corrosion, have to constantly clean it....

i same all my sterope stock ect...

[vitagen]

sorry mario the RAC took the old battery away, he compared mine to the new one he gave me and was like confused, cos he thinks the RAC database is wrong, i told him toyota put the wrong battery to start with, apparently, the battery in my sportivo is different from 'normal' corollas, the 2005 corollas got different batteries too, he said mine was about 3 years old, my sportivo was the first ones to arrive in australia, build date early 03, registered 10/03

i got no sound system in my car, only stock! yeh im gonna give it a wipe inside to get rid of the acid, i thought it was the radiator but the steam was coming out of the friggin battery, scary as hell, lucky no one got hurt, and lucky it was a piece of s*it car that i hit/hit me and not some luxury car

if my fender is dented, whats protected by the fender that could be damaged?

also off topic, the new rotors that toyota gave me are making that crunching noise when i come to a stop again, but my steering wheel does not shudder so i dont know whats wrong, the pads still got some meat left in them, but the crunching noise is quite scary and only happens when my brakes are warmed up, i dont think its abs because i dont brake hard? please toyota give me a new sportivo!!

[CHA54]

put some vasoline on the terminal to stop the corrosion.

Do any of you ever check your battery water level? and that the vents are clear?

[Blade Hunter]

put some vasoline on the terminal to stop the corrosion.

Do any of you ever check your battery water level? and that the vents are clear?

I don't check anythnig, thats why I bought a brand new car, When I wanted my head under the bonnet every weekend I owned a hotted up mini :).

[order last 1]

put some vasoline on the terminal to stop the corrosion.

Do any of you ever check your battery water level? and that the vents are clear?

I don't check anythnig, thats why I bought a brand new car, When I wanted my head under the bonnet every weekend I owned a hotted up mini :).

hehe... It is good to know something underneath of the bonnet, It helps to report the faults back to Toyota for claiming the warranty~~ :P

[Buddha]

I'm not sure if this is still the case, but on my Starlet the original battery packed it in just over 1 year from new ... Toyota said that they only warrant the battery for 1 year, but paid for half of a battery in the 2nd year.

Pretty crappy ... the replacement battery from the RACQ lasted over 4 years before needing replacing! :P

I agree with the above comments about maintenance ... even though its a new car, its best to keep an eye on the usual suspects so you can catch a problem before it catches you!

I have been told by a sparky that batteries can explode when the water levels drop and the battery overheats ... don't know if that's the issue in this case, but as we've seen, something relatively small like a battery can cause quite a bit of damage when they let go.

[CHA54]

I've performed a routine check under the bonnet on all the brand new cars I've owned at regular intervals.

The water level in batteries does go down over time as it evaporates out the breathers. I wouldn't be suprised if it's even mentioned in the owners manual... it was in my wrx. The battery failed in my rex after 4 years, the battery in my SSS failed after 3 years, the battery in my GTI golf failed after 4 years. All did over 100,000km each in those periods before the batteries collapsed.