bradleyls103

My 2003 Vette still has original battery (I know I'm buying one this weekend) It worked fine as long as I disconnected it when sitting for longer then 2 days.

Like I said I am replacing it but had a strange thing happened. Thursday night I hooked it up for the first time since last November and the car started right up. I drove it around for an hour and then left it over night with a 2 Amp trickle charger to give it a full slow charge. I drove it to work yesterday and it worked fine as usual. It was parked for 9 hours with the alarm set and after work it still started fine. I Drove it home and parked it outside around 6PM. At midnight I went out to pull it in the garage and it was completely dead. I pushed it in the garage and hooked the battery charger up. The green light came on the charger right away like it had a full charge. I pulled the battery out and went to bed. This morning the volt reading was around 12.5 sitting outside of the car. I tried to hook charger up again and still green light on charger and needle going towards o. Hooked it up to car again with volt meter and charger hooked up. It reads around 14.3 and 15.6 in engine start charger mode. Go to crank over and just clicks from starter and weird noises inside. meter drops down to 8 or 9 volts. Then when I stop it goes back up.

I'm getting a battery but just don't understand what happened to my very dependable battery??? Also its the original AC Delco and is gray plastic not standard black. Never seen a gray battery, kind of liked it. Delco rep said it must have been a batch that was a different color at the time.

Please advise if its just the battery saying bye bye or something else?

Mr.Bill

Maybe an amp issue with the battery, It is 9 years old, It shows 12+ volts but maybe it just doesn't have the amps to back it up.

Jet-Jock

What they said!

Consider AC-Delco Professional 78-6/7YR, 120RC spec.

Vettmann17

Just like anything else, it got old. Get a new AC Delco, Die Hard, Duralast or any other good battery with a solid waranty and you'll be good for a while. Nine years out of the original battery is very good, you certainly got you moneys worth out of it!

Blackjack888

You probably have a dead cell in the battery, same symptoms on my battery before I replaced it with the die hard AGM.

bradleyls103

Thanks for the help everyone. I got a little worried. Now I need to get the AC-Delco Professional 78-6/7YR, 120RC. I'm sure with my luck it will be a special order battery, but worth it for sure. 9 years sure was a great battery might as well stick with the Ac Delco again.

Too-Fast

9 years, battery is toast.

Vetteman Jack

Sounds like the battery just decided to give up the ghost. Once you put a new one in there, I'd be all will be fine.

Jet-Jock

Can't say for sure what prices are today, but recently the 6YR was around $108 and the 7YR was about 30-40 more??

6YR provides a 30 months free replacement and 7YR 50 months free replacement.

The cold crank amps and reserve capacity (RC) is the important specs to look for.

Enlightening video on C5 electrical: Video there are two parts to the video.

vettman96

What he said. Voltage and amperage (either CCA or RCA) are seperate measurements. 12 to 14.5 volts @ 1 amp wont do much work.
You would need a load tester for amp reading. The batt is at near end of life.

01C5Penny

I have similar problem with my 01C5... But random not starting. Put key in... gages do fire... move to start position and nothing. No click, moan... just dead. But walk away, come back later... insert key... bingo starts! (this time) Had it to two dealers... they can't duplicate the action so they don't know what it is. Any suggestions where to start? Thanks, Penny

Jet-Jock

See Post #6 here:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-g...ont-start.html