C5FrankC5

I have a 2003 50th Anniversary with an AC Delco AGM battery. Anyone ever have an AGM battery leak? I had to replace the AC Delco battery (not an AGM) in my 2001 Tahoe today. It was leaking around the positive terminal. I know all the horror stories about AC Delco batteries but has anyone had an AC Delco AGM leak?

Y2Kvert4me

The AGM has no liquid in it...it cannot leak. That is precisely the reason they switched to it in 2001, to cure the leaking battery issue.

Unfortunately, the AGM came with a different problem...it likes to short out internally and totally fail at any time without any warning.

This high and unpredictable failure rate was why it was discontinued in 2003.

ptdrummer54

They are not like the side post models in the 97 - 01s - and as a general statement they don't leak. You should be OK...

Stock Man

Oh! I didn't know that. How long before mine goes south? It's 3 years old now. I was hoping for another year or so out of it. It's been kept up, and is in great shape right now. Battery tender through the winter and all that good stuff. It's not good to hear it could go south at any time though.

Y2Kvert4me

If I could tell you that, it wouldn't be unpredictable...would it?

Many people had them fail within the first year. Mine lasted 3.5 years. Many people are still using them.

I'm certainly not saying yours or anyone else's is destined to fail anytime soon....just noting the reason GM stopped using them after the 2003 MY. They (of all the Delco AGM's put into 2001-2003 C5's) had too high of a failure rate to be considered acceptable. Whether that means 30% or 70%, I don't know. All it means is they were a high enough warranty expense for GM to sh!tcan it.

But when they do die, they tend to do so instantly.
You could stop for gas to fill up, and try to restart, and nothing, no crank, no lights.
That's the way this battery likes to call it quits. Not trying to scare you or tell you to buy a new battery for no reason, just noting the way it fails when it does.

Dave68

My AGM is going on 4 years (beginning of June) and is as strong as day one. I think the key to AGM (and any battery, actually) longevity is to drive at least 10 miles after each startup, or within a couple of hours after a shorter jaunt. It is not uncommon for Miata owners to have their AGMs last 7+ years. Hey, when your alternator finally goes, it just goes. Why worry about it?

Stock Man

Thanks for the heads up. I think I'll start the search for a Redtop.

warpster

That is exactly how mine went at 18 months...warranty paid for my replacement RedTop!

Lancer033

it won't leak, but it will leave you stranded. Get an optima and forget it.

vettenuts

Well, I planned to do that this spring with my 02 AGM, but the recent Optima failure threads are now making my AGM look good

I may just go with an Interstate or other replacement battery this spring, I don't think the Optima is the way to go after seeing all these failures of 1 year old batteries.

Ragtop_Rob

I noticed those too.... BUT I also saw where that was Red Tops - I think I would just get the deep cycle yellow (will look better with my MY car)

This is the first I have heard of trouble with the AGM battery

vettenuts

Well, almost. There was a dead yellow top in the mix as well. There are a couple of threads on dead Optima's floating around right now. All seem to be about 1 to 1-1/2 years old. Wonder if Optima had some "issues"?