VETTEV

The last couple of times I went out to start the Vette the battery was dead. I had no problem jump starting the car, it drives well throwing no codes. I did notice that when I turn the car off the time on the radio will not go off even when the radio is turned off. I am wondering if this is causing my battery to go dead. I only drive about 2x per month and it has been about 2 weeks since I drove it last, went out this evening and dead again!

I took out the radio fuse, and I am wondering if all of this could be caused by the radio light and malfunctioning radio or a old weak battery. Any ideas?

diverdan

By coincidence, I had the same problem a couple of days ago and am still not sure of the cause. It wasn't totally dead, just not enough juice to crank. I put the battery on a charger for a few hours and it seems to be doing OK now. The car had only sat undriven for 2 days. The battery, an Optima Red Top is only about 6 months old.

My two biggest suspects are the PIAA lights, wired through a stock C-5 switch, and the GM10-AUX converter hooked to the CD changer harness. I don't know at this point how to narrow the focus and am waiting for a recurrence to see if I can figure it out.

I wonder if the car was just acting out because of the GTO I just got and parked next to it.

vettecop1125

I'm going through the same problem too. It's starting to become a PITA!!!

VETTEV

I have charged the battery and pulled the radio fuse. It will be a week before I am back in town to see if the vette will start and the battery held a charge. If you find out anything, please post a response to the thread or post a new one... THX

rickko

Did you notice when you bought the battery that Optima strongly suggests you pull the battery every six months and give it a full 24-hour bench charge? Its in their literature.

..rickko..

3RD-INF

I didn't know FORD made the Red Tops.

cenzo

In my case it WAS the radio. With the radio off (and the clock) the current drain on my battery was 260 milliamps. Battery lasted 4-5 days at most. Swapped out the radio and the draw is now 39 milliamps - which is about normal. I wish someone could tell me what causes this problem in the radio and how to fix it. It works just fine in all other respects.

If you have an ohmeter, connect it in series with the battery and wait a 5-10 minutes till the reading settles down. If its much more than 40 mils, start pulling fuses. I'd start with the radio fuse in the passenger side foot-well.

ronwc

My battery used to go dead after about 3 or 4 days - it was the power seat switch, easy fix -

diverdan

Thats interesting. Mine didn't come with any literature that I can recall.
How is a bench charge different from hooking a battery charger it in the car?
When I just charged mine I set it to 2 amp charge (in the car)and left it on for about 10 hours.

VETTEV

Good advice. I will put an ohmmeter on the battery and see if the number of milliamps drops acter 30 minutes or so.

I just got back in town today. The vette has been sitting for 4 days and when I went to start it, it started fine. Last Sunday I pulled the fuse to the radio to see if the radio was the issue. Your recommendation is much better.

I will put the fuse back, run the car for awhile, turn it off and measure how many milliamps it is pulling with the car off and radio off.

THX Kent