Vol95

Hello:

I encountered a dead battery in my 95. I went through the steps that I will outline below. I would welcome feedback if I have missed anything.

First, I bough a multimeter, an Innova 3320, to help me determine what was going on.

Second, I bought a new battery.

OK, here is what I did along with the results. I followed carefully the instructions for the multimeter.

Before I installed the battery I tested it. The reading was 12.4 volts. I was hoping for 12.6 but thought that the 12.4 was ok.

I installed it and did the test again, the result was 12.3. I did this to ensure that I had a good connection. I concluded that my battery was ok

I started the car and did the test again to see how the alternator was powering the battery. The reading was 14.2. Lower than I hoped but still a good reading.

Then I did the test again but this time with a load. I turned on the radio, the headlights, and put in the cell phone charger. I wanted to simulate my usual nighttime driving. The reading was 14.3.

With this I concluded now that both the battery and the alternator are working correctly.

I shut off the car and let it sit for an hour. I wanted to simulate how it would be in the garage overnight for a parasitic draw test. I did that test and got a reading of .11. With that I presume there is no parasitic draw.

My questions, please.

With the above are my assumptions correct?

The only thing that I did not test was the starter. Before my battery died I have experienced no problems starting the car. Now, the starter may have become saturated with some oil. I will check on that tomorrow. I really do not think the starter is the problem.

Perhaps the first battery died, and it was less then 6 months old, because of a poor connection or perhaps an interior light was left on overnight.

With the results above, I think that I am good to go. Opinions?

Any other tests I should do?

Thank you for reading my post

WVZR-1

Did you "load test" or have it "load tested" - your 6 month old battery before buying another?

How many miles? Have you or do you know if the starter has ever been replaced?

antfarmer2

pull out both door switches then shut the door to ajust.

don hall

All the batt readings are normal.

You posted: "The only thing that I did not test was the starter."

Yet, you post:"I started the car and did the test...."

Is that not testing the starter?

If the starter is saturated with oil, determine the source of the oil leak.

Vol95

Thank you for your response. What I was trying to say was that while I did a test on the battery and on the alternator, I did not perform a meter test of the starter. I was looking for confirmation that with the readings I had for the battery and alternator, I could safely presume that both were OK. I got that. Thanks.

Yes, the starter never failed then or now. My presumption was that the starter was ok, Also, the above tests seemed to confirm that the starter was not at fault.

In my post I was trying to be brief. Thank you for the suggestion but I had found the source of the leak. My Vette has a leak from connection of the oil dip stick tube to the engine block. My plan is to not remove the tube until I have found a replacement tube. In my search I have not found one. I plan to place a sealant at the connection point for such purpose until I do. My research leads me to believe the tube is quite fragile. I do not want to risk breaking the present one unless I know that I have a replacement.

Vol95

When I did the meter test of the old battery it read 2.7. It has been me practice that when a battery got that low, I replaced it.

In this case my replacement offer was for a free exchange. Hey that seemed to make sense to me. A free battery that I knew was good. I did not pursue that matter further.

The starter seems to work fine. The starter always starts the car without problem. That, and the other battery, alternator, and draw tests led me to presume that I did not have a starter problem. Would I be correct?

Yes, I am moving on the resolve the oil leak issues as well.

Vol95

Thanks for your response. I do not understand. On the draw test I had both doors closed. is that what you meant?

don hall

It is suggested that the sealant withstand heat, as that area of the engine gets very hot.

Research this link regarding a dipstick tube replacement. It is for a Silverado, but confirm it can be used on your vette: http://www.carid.com/2001-chevy-silv...FROSfgodMnIL7Q

antfarmer2

nope look at the haunted 93 post right by this one.

WVZR-1

If you have correct courtesy light activation and no unusual CLUSTER WARNING or DIC faults it might be safe to assume you got/had a bad battery. I'd maybe repeat the 'parasitic draw' test a couple times at random times and maybe just while having the meter connected exercise the jamb switches and observe the variances.

I'd say the draw is maybe below what's expected, maybe a meter variation or whatever.

Christi@n

You said old battery was just 6 months old. Are you sure 6 months only from when produced from factory? Or just 6 months In your hands? Sometimes batteries have a shelf life of years before someone buy them.

If you are lucky 7 years is its typical lifespan, most likely 2-4.

Hot Rod Roy

Is everything good, now?

Regarding your parasitic drain test:

Your reading of .11. .11 what? If that's .11 amps, that's a problem. Every Corvette has some parasitic drain. There's the ECM memory, radio, maybe keyless entry. You should not have more than 0.050 amp drain (50 milliamps). Please describe the procedure you used for this test. There are some features that cause a temporary high drain after any interruption of battery voltage, or other activities with the car. What electrical options do you have on the car?

WVZR-1

Yes if the check was done on the AMP scale a .11 would be 110 mA and quite high. Do the check again mentioning the setting of the meter and how you did the parasitic draw. I'm not familiar with your meter but if it has both AMP and mA setting, check first with AMP scale and then the mA scale. In my mind I inserted a 0 after the . and I mentioned lower than expected SO I mentioned a couple more checks. Don't wait do it now.

Vol95

Gentlemen, thank you for your posts. As requested in Hot Rod's post, I will walk through how I did the test.

I used an iEquua Innova 3320 multimeter. I did the draw test after both the varied battery tests and alternator tests mentioned above.

I made certain that every thing was turned off, even the hood lights. I left the Vette alone for 45 minutes to ensure any system that was running to go off. In other words, I wanted as much as possible to simulate the Vette being left alone overnight.

I opened the negative cable to negative post circuit. I placed the multimeter inside that loop. The meter was set to the DC10A with the positive probe placed in the DC10A meter port. I then placed the black probe on the negative cable and the red probe on the negative battery post. The reading was .11

By looking at the chart in the FSM on page 6D1-5 it was hard for me to determine what the dormat draw should be.

If the .11 reading is considered high, I could take the next step and pull the fuses, one by one, until I found the draw.

I had to take my daughter to the hospital, so I took a moment afterwards to disconnect the negative cable until I could run the test again, Hopefully today.

Is the .11 reading higher than it should be?

Thank you for your counsel in this?

Hot Rod Roy

When you "opened" the negative cable, and then placed the multimeter in that circuit, you reset all of the timing devices to start over again, so that sounds like a bad test. Did you leave the multimeter in that position long enough to see the interior lights and other timing devices "go back to sleep"?

Please, when you give a multimeter reading, always show what you are measuring. Volts, Amps, Milliamps, Ohms?

WVZR-1

See page 4 and page 9 in the manual and I believe you can set up your meter to read 0 - 200 mA. Here's a .pdf for your meter. I believe the pages are correct. The way I read it the display should be less . unless it was appropriate. It's generally felt that 50 mA +/- very little is desired.

http://innova.com/Content/Support/Ma...anual_3320.pdf

Page 9 shows probe placement I believe and page 4 the select **** placement. If the manual is correct DCmA is #11 @ 7:00 on dial.

Your 1st test was appropriate I'd think to establish the fact that setting it to a lesser value isn't going to "blow the fuse" if in fact it's a fused meter. It was less than the 200 mA it seems so you can use the lesser scale.

Vol95

What I did was set the dial at DC10A which is #10 in the document that you attached. Thank you BTW. That is the document that I used. I called their tech support and said that I should use that setting. I had DC10A on the dial, then had the red probe on the DC10A socket which is #9 on the figure in the document. That gave me the .11 amp reading. On the other post (thank you), yes I gave it some time to come to a rest before doing the reading.

Should I retest using the mA setting? As I understand it, I would also need to move the red probe back to the other red socket, #7 in the figure

WVZR-1

With less than a 200 mA draw I'd say yes using the 200 mA DC select and the probe in the appropriate terminal. The tech you spoke to was trying to protect his instrument.

It was good that ROY caught that .11 and mentioned it.

Hot Rod Roy

Yes, the tech is right. Since you'll reset the timing devices every time you disconnect the battery, you need to protect the multimeter during this delay time. The initial higher current during the delay time will blow the multimeter internal fuse, when the meter is in the milliamp position. To prevent this problem, put a jumper wire between the battery post and the battery cable, at the same time that the multimeter is connected to these same spots. After the delay time, remove the jumper wire without disconnecting the multimeter leads from the battery and cable.

The parasitic drain in my '84 is 0.010 A (10 milliAmps)

Vol95

My question. In doing the test as I did, using DC10A and getting a reading of .11, would that not translate into 110mA?