I have a 02 Z06. I just got back from being gone for a month...thank you job. I had my buddy drive her so she would stay nimble. I had been driving her for the last 3 days straight. Today I went to make one trip before driving it up to my new location 1000 miles away and when I came out to my surprise the car wouldn't turnover. The battery had enough juice to open and close the locks, the trunk, etc. Even had the engine hood light on when i popped it up. But the car wouldn't crank. I went ahead and got another battery at the Costco where I was at and as I'm taking off the positive terminal in 2 sec I thought it would be easy, but the negative terminal got frozen on. When I vice gripped the nut it would turn the cable and bolt, so I had to tow her to the dealership tonight after hours.

Anyone else experience a lot of electrical issues or battery related issues? Usually I let batteries go for a long time in my vehicles, but should I be more careful with the Z06 battery life, etc? ? Could this be the beginning of a bigger electrical short or issue?

Car is a bone stock 02 Z06
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I will share some battery issues with my '02 Z and how I resolved it. I hope this will help your situation...


Shortly after I bought my Z06 (about 14 months ago), I noticed occassionally, for no reason, the car would not start as if the battery died. Other times it was fine. After I confirmed that the battery & alternator were good, I determined the problem was with the battery cables. I noticed that the car liked the battery connectors on really snug. As soon as they would get loose (and I am not talking dangling loose, but loose for the car), the problem started. I started keeping in a small wrench in the glove box and every few weeks when the problem occurred (the car behaving as if the battery were dead), I would pop open the trunk and tighten the battery cables.

This ended up being really a band-aid solution. Reading other posts on the forum, I learned that C5's are very fussy about clean electrical contacts and connections. I took the battery cables off, I brushed them with steel brush, cleaned cable connectors and the battery contacts with electrical component cleaner, and finally, applied dielectric grease to the cleaned connectors and contacts. In addition, there is an electrical wire that goes off the negative terminal and attaches to the body of the car. I cleaned that contact area also. After doing all this, my battery problems completely went away.

(In case you're wondering the electrical component cleaner and dielectric grease can be found at Pep Boys)

 

I had loose terminal non-starts after a new battery install also, I keep them tight now. Be sure not to over tighten or you can crack the side post batteries, then you have a whole new leaked battery nightmare in front of you. I'm purchasing an acid absorptive battery mat for a little insurance.

 

Thanks guys...keep it in mind from now on..

Negative terminal cable frozen (as i had figured) from the dealership today. Gonna take a week because the state of TX decided not to keep one anywhere to replace it with.

I'll be sure to clean the cables often then next time.

The matte sounds like a good investment for it too.

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