Electrolytic cap starting to bulge

[BoxOfSnoo]

Are the caps getting hot when they are running? Are they old stock caps?

Careful when you have it turned on though, don't put your face near the top of the cap - a common failure of electrolytic is where they develop a short, draw excess current, and as a result the electrolytic paste inside boils and the cap explodes out the top (or all round if it is bad enough!).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

a possibility, maybe? where'd you get them from?

It's one of the box-packs from Smallbear.  I've replaced it a couple of times, but the last time I took one, hooked it up to the breadboard and ran 9v through it for an hour or so.  (I also added a LED in parallel so I would know it was on)... it was fine.  Then I boxed it up and this one puffed up (just a bit) too.

I did have some issues with grounding against the box, I wonder if whatever it was that was touching made it seem like there was charge against the ground wire...