MMMMmmmmm, wrong battery? Makes sense to me

Ron Semko
Orlando Florida

Rennie Sawade wrote:

> I've owned this van for less than a year (first VW I have ever owned).
>
> A few weeks ago, I started to have trouble with my van as I drove down a
> road.  I would get power surges.  Later it got worse, where the engine would
> momentarily loose all power.  Then one day, the van just quit, it wouldn't
> start, and it wouldn't even turn over (there was no electrical power).  As I
> sat in the van wondering what the heck was going on, I suddenly noticed this
> smoke rising from under the front passenger seat.  Quickly, I slid the seat
> forward and opened the battery compartment (the lid was quite warm).  I
> discovered that the battery terminals had worn the paint off from the metal
> lid that covered the battery and caused a nasty short.  Apparently, the
> paint was the only thing insulating the battery from the metal cover.
>
> This looks awfully strange to me.  I can't believe that VW designed it this
> way.  Could it be that this van has the wrong battery installed?
>
> ras