Hi guys, I have an '04 Coupe with 39K miles. Last night, my seat would not automatically retract and reset to it's memory position, and it appears that
a DTC flashed on my cluster quickly as I accelerated through the gears after getting gas. I noticed that my Voltage meter read 13.5 volts, but then slowly worked back to 14 volts (where it usually runs) and once again all was fine. I tried my seat and it retracted. Last week when I started the car, I got a quick message flashed on the DIC that said "CHARGE FAULT". My guess was the car had sat for a couple of weeks, the battery was low, and therefore did not provide good initial field current to the alternator. My gut feeling is to replace the battery, the last brand new GM vehicle I owned, the battery crapped out before 4 years old, I'm in that window now, what do Y'all think?

John

 

I was recently getting odd electrical things hapening to my '04, suh as the HUD resetting to a different page and the volt meter changing constantly. I replaced the battery and everything is back to normal. Sounds like you are in the same place I was a couple weeks ago.

 

I'm not so sure you need to replace the battery as you need to charge it. A Battery left sitting for 2 weeks in a C5 is bound to be close to dead if not dead. I never leave mine off the charge for more than one week. If you let it get too dead, it won't recover and you will have issues. I'd try to charge it fully and see how it perfroms. If it's still goofy, replace the battery and you'll be fine. Just make sure you throw a tender on it if you are going to leave it sitting for more than a week.

 

A battery in any car or motorcycle is the weak link these days. Take it out for a good drive and then check it in a week, or just throw in a new one now.

 

Is that 2nd-hand knowledge or your own experience?

I have three cars. Their batteries (2 Delco's, 1 Interstate) range in age from 2 1/2 yrs to over 4+ yrs old. None are put on chargers. None are a problem after sitting up to 15 days.

The one in the '04 Vette is from the factory. It has yet to show signs of weakness when the car sits unused for two weeks.

The nature of my work use to have me out of town for long periods often. Battery draining was never an issue on my various autos over the years. Storage temperature most likely played a part in that as they mostly stayed around 55 to 75 degrees while the vehicles were unused.

I suggest you might have your electrical system checked if battery in your C5 "is close to dead if not dead" after two weeks.

 

Personal experience Rickko...

Plus I've also read the same information MANY times (As I'm sure you have too) on the forum here of others having the exact same problem... It does seem that there are a few out there that are the exception, not the rule. It's just that I sure seem to read alot of threads where guys can't hold a charge for more than 2 weeks on their C5's either.

When you said you had three cars, are all of them C5's? I mean shoot, I've had non-high end electrical vehicles go 6 months without charging and they'll start, that's not the issue. The C5 is a power sucking beast... whether it's running or not...

Oh yeah, any battery guy will tell you that hot and cold extremes are what kills a battery but so will a power sucking Corvette!!


That's my story...

 

Interesting though, the car always starts fine. My feeling is it is a VOLTAGE issue. I believe the electrics in the Corvette are very sensitive to voltage fluctuations. A car battery with plenty of CCA's and 10.5 volts will start up fine, but it generally will raise havoc with electronic gear. I had a T-bird Turbo years ago with an 8 year old original battery, it kept starting fine, but I would lose my radio presets between starts and generate all kinds of goofy codes. Like the corvette, the '87 Turbo coupe was very electronically advanced in it's day, adjustable ride/suspension, climate control, ABS, speed sensitive steering. Voltage problems drove the car crazy.

BTW, I"M SURE GLAD I INSTALLED A CLB, THIS SCENARIO COULD HAVE GONE HORRIBLY BAD WITHOUT A CLB, THERE IS AN EXCELLENT CHANCE MY COLUMN LOCK WOULD HAVE HUNG IF STILL CONNECTED!!

John

 

Rickko - you are one of the lucky ones. My '04 started showing signs of a bad battery 8 months ago. I finally had to replace it last week. I was continually charging it after only a week sometimes. I'm sure that charging it again and again wasn't good for it either, but the fact is that when this started happening it was after only 10 days or so. There wouldn't be enough power to start the car. After three weeks the whole car was dead. Electrical system testing showed nothing unusual. I'm just not convinced that the '04 batteries are that good...

 

...My '04 battery seemed good but I decided that one week before my GM warranty ran out I'd ask my mechanic if he would replace it under warranty and he said..."hell yes"

 

My other two are Cadillacs; a '97 STS and '93 Allante.

The Allantes are notorious for draining batteries because of all the circuits that seem to stay alive after the key is turned off.

But after years of ownership, I've never experience that problem although I know many on the Allante Forum that do, ...all the time! In fact it becomes so frustrating that their fix is to buy a battery by-pass device that disconnects the battery from the car when its voltage drops too much.

What I have found, is when a car drains a battery pretty quickly there is an electrical problem, that when fixed, the problem goes away.

I have not found the electricals were designed from the factory to drain batteries in two weeks.

How do you explain your experience with your C5 as compared to mine? A design feature?

Do you know from all the postings you've read of other C5 owners whether or not there had been any modifications to their electricals? Have they changed speakers, added amps, modified their headlights, tailights, center console equipment, changed their alternator, installed a window valet and on and on....

The owner's manual says making mods to your electrical system may cause unexpected consequences.

I'm leary of all those postings you refer to because they usually aren't comprehensive enough to draw the conclusion that stock C5s will drain batteries.

So, I can only speak from my personal experience.

I'd say something is wrong with the car if its battery isn't holding a charge after two weeks (on ANY car). Unless its a 48 mo. battery and the battery is reaching the end of its 48 mo lifespan.

Here's something that is ALWAYS overlooked by those who buy Red Top batteries. The warranty! It states its only valid if the battery is bench charged for 24 hours every 6 months.

How many people do you think do that?

How many of them later have battery problems. I've read of some on this forum.

My point. For me, there are too many variables to conclude from reading posts here that stock C5's drain batteries.

Good luck!

 

WOW!...ownage applied by rickko

 

All good points, but a lot of assumptions as well. I just had a bad cell in mine. Just maybe some of the '04 batteries weren't as good as others? Bottom line, the original question was whether or not Black should replace the battery, and my answer is Yes.

 

This is an imprecise art rather than a science

I think from what I've read here that AC Delco had fixed the problems with the battery posts by 04 so you shouldn't face the problems with leaking. One of my older AC Delcos leaked after 6 years. That would be the big reason to change it IMHO.

My OEM AC Delco quit after 8k miles without warning and that was when the car was still stock. I drove into the garage, shut down and 20 mins later it was stone dead. If you could live with that risk you could run it on until it dies on you. There's no doubt in my mind that a C5 drains the battery if it sits idle. Mine was in transit to UK for 8 weeks and the Red Top died. The same battery in my sons Camaro is still going strong.

I've seen the odd charging fault caption over the years but its been fleeting so I wouldn't worry about that unless it occurs more regularly.

After nearly 4 years though a new battery may be a sensible idea anyway. For what its worth I have Yellow Top and a battery tender.

 

I gotta respond to this Rickko.. see my bold type answers mixed in with your questions...

Thanks, good luck is how I made it this far in life, I don't want to stop just yet!!

Sorry for the hi-jack Black 'n Tan!! By the way, I still stand by my original post but yeah, it's just my opinion.

 

Here's the bottom line and my conclusions. From what I've learned on the forum (and a former new GM vehicle I've owned), (1) AC Delco batteries seem to have spotty quality. Some people have good luck, some bad with battery life (2) Battery failure in a Corvette seems to be preceded by all kinds of strange anomalies presented by the electronic equipment in the car (3) considering what I've seen, the easiest thing to do is just replace the battery

I'll go to AutoZone tonight and pick up one of their Duralast gold top batteries with the 8 year warranty, for $65. Done Deal! The Duralast is made by Johnson Controls, who makes the Motorcraft battery. I've had 6 Ford vehicles that have gotten 8+ years out of their original batteries. I haven't scored that well with AC Delco.

John

 

Sounds like a plan to me

 

Interesting article ....

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2...86-9926466_ITM

 

I read the same things. The only difference between you and me is, I don't come to the same conclusions because I'm not sure the person posting their experience is providing all the information that might be needed to help them. The easy answer is, replace the battery. Especially if its pretty much run its course on its warranty.

But here's a story of someone wasting their money buying a new battery after there original battery drained on two different occasions within a month.

The car had the twilight sensor and auto headlights off after 30 secs. options.

About 9 years into ownership the owner would park the car in the evening after substantial driving, then find the battery dead the next morning. AAA would come out and charge it and it would work again for weeks or months, then that cycle would repeat.

The AAA guy finally said, get a new battery! (It still had about 2 years on the warranty period) She did.

Then, at some random time the new battery went dead again! Cycle repeats.

Then one morning she finds her keys in the dining room and asks her son why they aren't where she normally keeps them.

He says, he was up REAL late the night before when he noticed lights shining through the dining room windows. He looked outside to find the headlights on her car had come on. So he used the key to reset them by pressing the lock button. And they'd go off.

Then, mysteriously awhile later they'd come on again! And he'd repeat turning them off.

End of story.

Turns out the old battery was fine! The new battery was fine! The problem was in the auto light sensor on the car. It seemed for no known reason it would activate the headlights even though the key was off! By morning the battery would be stone dead.

Of course this would only happen at night and rarely. Then too after everyone had gone to bed or when they were in different parts of the house so it went unnoticed.

Another quicker story. The engine hood light would stay on after the hood was closed (bad switch). That would cause the battery to drain, day or night if the car (a C5 Corvette) wasn't driven for a few days after the hood had been closed. The common thread was, it only happened after the hood had been opened, but not every time.

It was only discovered by accident. The person went into their dark garage one evening and saw a crack of light coming through where the hood and front fascia butt each other (had he had the infamous hood seal he might never have found the problem) leading them to find that the hood light was staying on.

Up till then, more $$$ was wasted on the assumption it was a bad AC Delco battery.

Sorry about the lengthy post but point is, its too easy for one to always conclude "bad battery," and discount the fact it may be the car.

Cheers!
..rickko..
PS. Yep, I have personal experience with Red Top. Used 'em in my old CJ5 Jeep. What I said about the warranty is what I read on the warranty that came with the battery.

 

04 here , 46k, my battery went out 2 weeks ago . I debated replacing it at the first of the year , and didnt. I wish I had, was stranded and had to buy a wallyworld battery to get home.....

 

I attended an electrical seminar with a GM rep a couple years ago. He indicated a GOOD battery, in a stock C5, will go dead in 25-28 days.

This has proven to be true in my case, although I didn't count the days exactly.