About a month ago I got into the Vette and received just about every code known to man... Check active handling..Column lock... BLah .. Blahh... Blahh...

So To Costco for the Red top Battery, ( Optima }

Tonight I do the La Bamba on the engine compartment,( Clean it up )

Now for the bad news ... Steering column lock message ,..

Battery voltage reading all of 11.5 volts.

So tomorrow I go back to Costco..

Optima again ... or the goood ol'e wet cell ??

Sometimes newer isn't better..

SO is the battery the problem ?????? I hope that it is ..

PS: The steering lock recall has apparently been done as you can turn the steering wheel with the key out.

Thanks,

Mike

 

If your using your car's voltmeter, you won't get an accurate reading on the battery voltage as there will be a certain amount of voltage drop in the wiring from the battery. The car's voltmeter was mainly designed to measure the output of the alternator and not the battery. To determine the battery's state of charge, you will need to take a reading directly at the battery terminals using an accurate digital volt-ohm meter (DVOM). Too, this will only tell you the battery's state of charge. To further test the battery and determine if it is good, you will also need to do a load test.

Good luck with the battery.

 

Voltage if read with the key off should reflect battery voltage.

And I cant imagine a 2 volt drop with all accs off.

Shouldnt actual battery voltage be about 13.2 Volts ??

Ill have a load test done tonight.

Thanks Mike

 

When my gauges lit up like the 4th of July, it ended up being bad grounds in the engine compartment. After a proper cleaning, my car started right up again. It happend right out of the blue, BTW. Good luck!

 

When you said "Red Top" you said it all. I've try the top 4 times on 2 different vettes and finally said never again. ..biggest POS excuse for a battery I've ever had. Went back to the Advance store battery and now all is good in my kingdom.

 

Hi Mike, The only way to get a true reading of the battery voltage is to unhook the cable and put a voltage tester acros the terminals. And that reading doesn't truly tell you if the battery can sustain a full charge. Only a load test can help determine that. A 12 volt battery is 6 cells each producing 2.1 volts at full charge at 70 degrees ambient temp. therefore a fully charged battery on a mild day should read about 12.65 volts on a volt tester with no load and the static charge dissapated. Sometimes it can read higher to about 14 volts, but that is static charge from recent use and or charging, and shouldn't be considered a true reading. To dissapate the static charge, stop charging, turn on the lights for about 30 seconds and then let the battery sit for an 4 to 8 hours unhooked, the resulting reading will be a true reading.
The 13.2 you are thinking may be the charge rate. to fully charge a battery you have to put in more volts than the fully charged battery can output. The optimum charging rates are usually engineered to be about 13.2 to 14.5 volts to keep a battery at best charge level.This depends on load, and temps.
As for Redtops, many have had good luck with them, and many have had many bad ones. I personally prefer the AC Delco that is made for the car. Either way no matter what battery you use, if you don't drive often,(every day or two), the only way to get the full battery life out of the battery that was designed into it is to use a proper Battery Maintainer for the battery you are using, and plug it in whenever you are not using the car for a few days. AGM's ,(Redtop and others), are especially subject to early demise if allowed to discharge to even 90% on an often basis. Wet cells do better with this scenario, but they still need care to get their full lifespan.
Good Luck
SEE BELOW for chart of battery voltage=charge level.

Test the battery at room temperature. Allow 4-8 hour of rest after charge or discharge.

12.65V 100%
12.45V 75%
12.24V 50%
12.06V 25%
11.89V or less Discharged

 

Mike,

The response by Bestvettever above contains some excellent info and probably says it better than I can.

Are you taking the voltage reading using a DVOM directly at the battery terminals or using the car's voltmeter?

With the ignition switch turned to the "ON" position and the engine not running, the voltage reading you're seeing on the car's voltmeter is from the car's battery. However, once again, you cannot get an accurate reading of your battery's state of charge (SoC) using the car's voltmeter. This is a common misconception shared by many here. With a fully charged battery, most readings that I've seen from the C5's voltmeter is around 11.7v with the highest being around 11.9v. You can check this out for yourself by using a accurate DVOM to take a voltage reading directly at the battery terminals of a battery known to be fully charged and comparing this to the reading on you car's voltmeter.

The SoC of a fully charged 12v car battery, depending on the type, should be somewhere between 12.65v and 12.78v with the electrolyte at 80 degrees F. Too, in addition to the battery type, the temperature of the electrolyte will also have an effect on the voltage reading.

The following link also contains some excellent information on car batteries and the proper ways to test them. (See FAQ #4, How Do I Test a Battery?) It also contains SoC vs Temperature tables for the different types of batteries: i.e., standard wet cell, wet cell maintenance free, AGM, gel etc.

CAR AND DEEP CYCLE BATTERY FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 7.1

Again, good luck with the battery.