Ok...here's the deal....hope you guys can help me. About a week ago, I changed out my battery (not that it needed it...I saw an Optima Red Top on sale...so I thought why not?) Anyway, I installed the new Optima and everything was fine. Drove it around town, started and stopped...the whole bit.

The next day, I noticed the clocks were off by 30 minutes....hmmmm. I know I reset the clock the day before. AND I noticed my radio was reset as if I had disconnected the battery. So I reset everything, the Vette started fine & dandy...no problems. Two days later (did not drive the next day), I went out to start the car...no probs but again I noticed the radio was reset but the clock was ok....which tells me that the electricity was "off" for less than a minute. Blamed the new battery....reinstalled my old one (never should have taken it out to begin with) and returned the Optima. Drove it a couple of days then went out the 3rd morning & my electronic alarm was not arming or disarming....noticed no juice from the battery Then, out of the blue, I got electricity...everything was then working fine....had to reset the ole radio and clock...(off by 5 minutes)

I checked all the connections to the battery everything is clean and tight. Reset the communications between the alarm system and the key fob.

So why is this happening.

P.S. The weather has been very cold (25-28 degrees)....would that have any play on what is happening...never did before....

 

My guess is that either the ground wire or the power wire from the battery has a bad connection [downstream of the battery] or has a bad area in a wire. When you initially changed the battery, the physical movement did enough stressing of the "suspect" wire that it is losing connection from time to time. If you are sure you made good connections to the battery, that is the only reasonable answer [in my mind, anyway]. An area of wiring that is defective (fatigued/corroded/etc.) and inside good insulation jacketing is difficult to diagnose.

 

Vetteguy,
Have you noticed any gauges jumping or lights flickering while driving the car? I've had bad alternators do all kinds of strange things to the electrical system. Might not hurt to have it checked out.

 

Your problem wasn't the battery and yes you should have kept the Optima. Your problem was probably a bad connection. When tugging on the battery and ground cables you can upset a weak point. There is a place that has an intermittent bad connection. Personally...and on a side note...I would suggest an Optima to anyone who doesn't already have one. Here's a pic of mine to prove it...with the engine off, and the battery sitting on a shelf for 6 months...I still had 13V at the posts.

 

I had both a bad battery clamp and some loose wires at the connection to the clamp when I replaced my battery with an Optima. I got the red top at the recommendation of a lot of people. I also replaced both battery contacts and cleaned up the ent of the battery cables also.

Durango_boy,

Where did you get those battery connections with the built in voltmeter? Nice battery setup.

 

Sears Diehard, leave it all winter in the car and it starts in the spring, 5 years running.

 

Here's a link. I couldn't find the exact terminals, but here is a very similar unit by Stinger.
http://cgi.ebay.com/STINGER-SXBTM-CA...QQcmdZViewItem