when starting up my car, i heard a loud noise from the engine bay, and found out that the battery exploded! Blew up the top of one of its cells, and had some acid spilled around.

this was the original white benz battery. What could have caused it to happen? Was it my disregard for the maintenance of the battery? Was it caused by something else, like overcharging by the alternator? Was the overcharging worsened by the banzai runs i've been making lately, which overstressed the battery? The strange thing is that it exploded on startup, and the battery was being drained.

so i had the battery replaced, albeit with a non-benz brand, which had a warranty of 5yrs. Could this happen again? I am bringing in the car to the Benz service center in one week - what should they check?

thanks for any advise.