Strong sulpher odor

[jjoerger]

I keep smelling a strong sulpher odor coming from our truck.
Last place we fueled was TA in Oregon.
Any ideas?

Sent from my PG06100 using EO Forums

 

[Turtle]

It's almost certainly one or more bad batteries that have gone south and have started swelling up. They'll short internally. Voltage is probably way high one the bad ones. When that happens it vents hydrogen that smells like rotten eggs.

 

[OntarioVanMan]

Yep had that happen to me once in my cab....battery swelled up like a football!! the smell of rotten eggs...

 

[GandJ]

What kind of truck do you run? Gas, Diesel ?

Every time I have come across that problem it was a gas engine with a bad catalytic converter.

Just a thought.....

 

[ATeam]

If one or more of your truck batteries is the source of the odor, be very, very careful when working on or around it. I have it seen it happen twice that batteries explode in the face of the people working on them. A spark ignites the gas that has built up around the battery and BOOM, the next instant you are washing acid off your face and eyes.

 

[zorry]

JJ,weren't you having battery problems just a few months ago ?

 

[14Wheeler]

And, can't bad regulators cause the boil ? Doesn't the boil smell like the rotten eggs ?

 

[jjoerger]

Replaced all of them. 2 were swollen and tested at around 11 volts.

 

[Turtle]

An overcharge, as with a bad regulator can cause that. So can high heat, like when it's 100 degrees. As temps increase, the charging voltage needs to decrease. If the batteries are charged without temperature compensation, and most rarely are, they can receive way too many volts resulting in an overcharge. This can happen with a perfectly functioning regulator. The internal temperature of the batteries are higher than ambient anyway because of the heat generated in the chemical process of charging them. If it's 100 degrees, the batteries can reach 120 or more while charging. High temps mean quicker charging, more available amps, and shortened battery life. Cooler temps is the opposite.

When batteries are overcharged, the will short internally and.the internal voltage rises above 14 until it fries itself, then the voltage drops to under 12 after a while because it can no longer hold a charge. They swell because of the rapid sulphation.

 

[jjoerger]

And they were all over 2 years old.

 

[Turtle]

So they were already sulfating, since that's a normal thing anyway. You can't prevent sulfation, you can only slow it down. Well, you cam certainly speed it up, too.