dbletap_ed

I have a 2009 with 14K miles. When I purchased the car in Oct 2015 it had 4900 miles and had a new battery. I use the car as my daily driver and the volt meter has always looked good. We just got back from a short 1 week vacation and I found the battery in the Vette dead. Reading through the forum find may post on dead batteries after the car sits for awhile but is a week enough for the car to kill the battery? I have a charger on the car now and will see if it starts in the morning.

Corvette_Ed

A week isn't enough time to kill the battery unless something was left on that caused the power drain.

extrapilot

Get it load test after you get the battery up and charged. It should be good for a week, but a bad cell in the battery, could lead to it not holding the charge very long. Auto parts stores should do it for free.

ATC399

I has a similar experience with a two year old stock battery...Put it a trickle charger and it still going strong over two driving seasons..

psp6158

This is one of the nuances of our cars, you read it over and over and over here, anything over three days or so without a tender could kill it. I was cleaning the inside of the car after I got it and my head was by the fuse box and it sounded like a computer room... I've read that the car is always looking for the fob, security etc.

Corvette_Ed

If your battery is only lasting three days without a charger you've got something going on that's killing your battery. It should last 2-3 weeks without having to put a charger on it. Mine sits all week long and only comes out on weekends; I've never put a charger on it and never had a problem with the battery.

EVRose

No, the car is NOT always looking for a fob. It only does that when you push a button I.e. start, door, hatch.

4SUMERZ

It should be good for 2-3 weeks if you have a good battery and there is no parasitic draw on the system. A normal draw with the car off after 20 minutes should be less than 0.02 amps. Anything more and it's an issue that needs to be found and fixed.

Knob Jockey

That's because one of the car's computers is located next to the fuse box in the passenger foot-well.

The car shuts everything down, except the RCDLR so you can use your fob buttons, and unless there is a problem with some kind of parasitic power draw, the car should be able to sit for a couple weeks with a good battery.

Of course that isn't ideal and a battery tender is a pretty cheap addition to maintain your battery for years of reliable use.

cclive

Simple test. I have no Onstar, which also uses a bit of current when sitting, but mine draws 11 - 17 ma after a few minutes of calm-down time. (.011-.017 amps).

LMB-Z

Just put a battery tender on it, problem solved. It will always keep the battery charged. I keep mine plugged into the wall. Just unplug from battery and go. Takes 30 seconds.

gloffer

If you're going to leave your C6 parked for more than a few days, and its a manual 6 speed, then you need to place the shifter in reverse and set the emergency brake. Apparently this shuts down some of the larger parasitic electronic draws on the battery.

My car used to NOT start after less than a week of sitting. Now it goes more than three weeks and still starts. I know, I know I should drive it every day.

There was also a software fix for this, that I would think a 2009 would already have.

EVRose

That's only for 2005 MY.

Kent1999

No, it does NOT need to be on a tender if you're going to park it for a few days. If it doesn't last at least two weeks of park time -- DON'T band-aid it with a tender, get it fixed!

No, it does NOT need to be in reverse -- that was ONLY for 2005 MT C6's, (as has been mentioned by EVrose)

Also, now that your battery has been dead, it won't last as long. Every time you let your battery go dead, it shortens its life, even after you recharge it.

gloffer

My car is a 2007 and putting the car in reverse did fix this issue for me.

Kent1999

The "shift to reverse" code no longer existed in 2007 C6 systems -- it was totally removed from all Corvettes starting in MY2006.

Something might have fixed your problem, but it just is not possible that it was "shifting to reverse".

dbletap_ed

Thank you for all of the input. Here is where I am at this point:
I charged the battery at 2A over night and in the morning the car started w/o issue. I decided to take the car into the Chevy store for them to look at. They reported that they performed the following:
Charged the battery to full
Load tested the battery and it was fine
Connected the car to equipment to check the car and all was fine.
Reported that the car only drew 20mA after everything shut down
Since the car had killed the battery they put the car in the corner and reran the test several times throughout the day and each time it came back to 20mA.
I was very shocked and happy that I was only charged 1/2 hour labor.
Today I removed my CTEK charger from my generator (house backup) and connected it to the car. This charger not only slow charges a battery and will keep it floating it will also report back any battery issues. It takes many hours to analyze the battery so will not know till morning.

BTW the car is normally driven daily so never have worried about a slow charger for it. The car sat for 6 days as we were out of state.

ICU2TV

Glad you are happy with it.

I have a 2009 and my battery lasts three weeks or more but when I know I am not going to be driving them I do put the battery tenders on them.

Mikado463

I agree, same thing applies to me.

CadVette

Not sure if this applies to our C6's, but Silverados have a problem where the instrument panel will draw a battery down overnight. Apparently because lead cannot be used in solder due to E.P.A. restrictions. This causes the solder they now use to flake off like dust and short out the leads on the circuit boards. Sometimes all it takes is to remove the gauge assembly and wipe off the leads on the circuit boards to correct this. There are also companies that rebuild gauge assemblies redone with rosin core solder.