I went for about a 5 min drive today, came back home, and turned off the start, then i tried to turn on the head lights to check something out, imediately i heard a clicking sound, and the power in the car went dead.
I put a charger on the battery and power is back, but it is still making the clicking noise and the lights in the car are flashing with the clicking sound.

Any help here guys?

 

took the charger off, the battery, doesnt seem tobe holding a charge

new battery or?

Any tips on actually getting to the existing battery and getting it unooked its pretty tight

 

Take the battery out and take it to an auto parts store. Many of them will test a battery for free. You probably have a bad cell in it and it won't take a charge.

 

any tips on getting it unhooked?

 

Not sure what size open end wrench you will need, but use it to remove the bolt from each of the two cables and lift the battery out of the compartment. Better yet, jump start the car and drive it to a battery shop and let them test it and replace it for you.

 

i got the two cables unhooked, but the battery is still held down by something?

Any idea?

 

Im just going to try and leave the charger on the battery with the connections unplugged and see if it takes a charge, atleast this way, its not working the car, by sitting there.

Still cant get the battery removed.
tight as hell in there

 

thanks thats what i saw, hard as hell get to.

Do you think anything was damaged by leaving the charger on for an hour, with the clicking noise, were is sounds like solenoids didnt have enough juice to start?

 

No there was no key in the ignition, only the light on was the hood light.
But i heard possibly the fuel pump in the back trying to start as well?

I just want to make sure that didnt do any long term damage?

I have heard hearing a clicking on the right side engine bay is normal

what do you think?
Thanks for the advice on the size

 

well i didnt mean normal, i meant an indication the battery is drained

any advice, or well wishes, i didnt do any damage would be great

 

no there, was nothing open besides the hood, that is what i found weird.
i hear the clicking from the front, and something to try to run in the rear.
probably shouldnt of let it try and charge that long, but i saw i had some type of power so figured, it was alright.

probably wont sleep tonight

thanks

 

You've had great advice from 8vette7. Out of interest what type of battery do you have?

The relay chatetring is perfectly normal with a (nearly) dead battery

My input would be take the battery out of the car and charge it overnight. An hour on charge doesn't recharge the battery fully.

If it dies again you have two possibilities. If there really is something running with the key out (which sounds weird), you need to work out why. I just can't imagine what would cause that so you might want to take it to an auto electrician. If the battery still dies have it checked under load at Autozone. If it wont hold charge it may be dead.

When you look for a replacement the shop manual quotes the GM spec for the Vette which requires a Cold Cranking Ampage (CCA) of 500A and a reserve capacity of 80 minutes.

There are plenty of choices that meet that spec.

Changing the battery is straight forward.

Disconnect the negative cable first
Disconnect the positive cable
Remove the battery hold down retainer bolt (13mm IIRC)
Lift out the battery
Clean the terminals before reconnecting
Reattach the positive cable and torque to 15 N-m (11 lb ft)
Reattach the negative cable and torque to 16 N-m (12 lb ft)
Reinsert the battery hold down retainer bolt and torque to 18 N-m (13 lb ft)
Don’t forget that if you have a stock radio, turn the security feature off before you disconnect or the radio will lock up.

Just beware of putting in a new battery and killing that too if theres a deeper issue.

Just my 0.02c

 

after charging all night, the battery showed a 75 percent charge
connected it and car started fine , everything normal
I did notice one thing, even with the connections, firmly in place, there seems tobe atleast a loose connection on the positive side, simply brushing past it, can cause the power to go out.

Bad ground?
Any ideas on this one, possibly do to some loose wiring, it saps the battery dead and will recurr?

 

can't tell what year you have, but the batteries in the early years (97 - mid 01s) had a design flaw - the positive post would crack and sometimes leak. Many times the amount of leakage would be small, but the cable is what would take the brunt of it. Over the years those cables became damaged from the acid, but you might not be able to see the damage as it was inside the insulation. You may want to look the cable over for something like this, and replace it if you see signs of damage

 

If the connection to the battery is loose pull it out and get a new battery. If it is one of the early AC Delcos they are renowned for leaking. Over torquing the connection causes the case to split and leak acid on the tray. The PCM sits under there so it can cause major damage. Its just not worth the risk.