InsaneSp

Nope. See below.

Long story short, I left the ignition switch on after fueling for the next race. Had enough juice to light the dash but not crank. Quick swap out for the lead-acid and made the grid - wrong wave but still got out before the green - anyways. Got home that Sunday and put it on the special charger. Thought nothing of it and went to work Monday. Worked from home Tuesday and went to check on it at lunch. Charger was in fault mode and wouldn't charge the battery. Battery manual says if it reads >8v across the terminals the battery can be salvaged, less than 8v and it's toast. Mine read 10. There were some steps with the charger to reset it and to "wake the battery up", which I followed after work. None of that worked, so I unplugged the charger from the wall and the battery and went back inside ~530.

Made the wife dinner. Car was still in the trailer and I had to pull the ECU and ship it to Haltech the following morning, so ~730 I went and opened the garage door in advance of unloading the car. Garage was completely filled with pitch black smoke and I could see 3-4' tall flames in the 3rd bay where I normally park the car. Ran towards it and tried to kick the flaming battery out in to the driveway but it had melted to the floor. Went out to the driveway for fresh air and to grab the fire extinguisher from the car trailer. Put the fire out and called the FD to do a safety check just in case. Fire Inspector came out, noted the brand of charger and battery, verified the manuals for each (max charge rate for battery, charger specs, etc). He hadn't heard of many issues of battery failures like this but LiFePO4 batteries are (relatively) new tech and can have issues with thermal runaway.

TL;DR: Promised the wife a hot date for Valentine's day. Delivered.

flanders

What brand and model was the battery?

InsaneSp

Aliant X6.

flanders

Interestning, it seems that battery does have a BMS and a fairly safe chemistry (LIFEPO4) so wonder how it could fail so violently.
Did you measure 10V before you connected the charger or after it had been somewhat charged?

InsaneSp

10v was nearly constant every time I checked, first time being at lunch on Tuesday when I found the charger in fault mode.

RedCelica

This thread reminds me...I've got a "probably" bad battery (normal lead-acid) dead that's been on a trickle charger for about a week and wont get above 9V. Maybe I should take it off :/

So I installed the Deka battery last night, and had to put a little scrap wood in between the tie down and the battery because the rods were too long. Anyone found shorter rods?

s2000ellier

cut them

RedCelica

I'd have to cut the non-threaded section and then either reweld, or bend a new J hook onto the bottom? I do have a buddy with a welder. Or I could just bend it in my vice into an L, but wouldn't that weaken the integrity of the metal?

flanders

Make more threads or just install a strap instead

RedCelica

I do have a tap and die set now that you mention it...just dont know if I have that fine of a pitch.