106 battery overheating

Hey, ive got an N reg 96 106 1.1 escapade with 49,000 miles on the clock. About a week ago whilst driving home i could smell a horrible eggy sulphury smell and dismissed it as sewage works, but when i got home i could still smell it. I opened the bonnet and the battery was spitting liquid and had steam coming from it. Previous to this i had no problems starting the car and no problems with electrics. I let it cool down overnight and it started fine the next day when i drove into town to buy a new battery. Since fitting it a few days ag it has been fine, but today i noticed the smell has come back and the battery was very hot after a 20 minute drive. Can anybody help me??? I have no big sound system or anything else that would be drawing excess power from the battery by the way.

i can see that thia post is quite old now and im sure this fault has probably gone to the next level (so to speak) in other words the battery has most likely failed completely or blown up !! it sounds as if you may have one of two possible problems the first is a dead cell in the battery which can cuse a dead short in the battery itself the cell will then gas badly and give the smell you metion or if not the alternator is overcharging check the charge rate it should be no more than 14.2 v all consumers on but as I said im sure its probably been done by now :-) by the way be aware the gas given off is "hydrogen" be most carefull !!