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Another battery question?

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Old Dec 12, 2004 | 08:49 PM
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Default Another battery question?

This is probably another stupid question about batteries. I know from reading on here that there is a “Good” AC battery and a “Bad” AC battery. How do I tell them apart? My car is an 01 Coupe with an AC battery but I can’t find any distinguishing marks on it. My son-in-law has already had to replace the one in his 01 Zo6. BUT, his car might not move for several weeks due to him traveling a lot. Any help would be appreciated.
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Old Dec 12, 2004 | 09:28 PM
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get piece of mind and get a AGM battery or an optima red top. Acid batteries leak, and they leak all over your computer.
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Old Dec 12, 2004 | 09:31 PM
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Get the GM battery out of the car, go get an Optima or equivlent. I'm sorry i can't help you identify your current battery, but if it's an acid battery with side terminals, it's trash and you should get it off of your wiring harness as quickly as possible. There was apost on her a few days ago about 5,000 dollars damage because of a leaking battery
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Old Dec 12, 2004 | 11:10 PM
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I agree with the above. It would be interesting to hear how it turned out with the 5000 repair.
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Old Dec 12, 2004 | 11:18 PM
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Here's the definitve battery situation:

97-00 cars used lead-acid batteries that had a tendency to leak from the side posts. They should be closely monitored for any signs of leakage, or better yet, just replaced.

01-03 cars used AGM side post batteries. These have no free liquid acid in them and do not leak, but the fault with these is the cells have a tendency to short out internally and just die at any given moment. You will have no warning when it happens....you could stop for gas, try to restart, and nothing. For this reason (high failure rate) they were discontinued in 03. They won't cause you any damage or other problems down the road like a leaky battery can, but be aware that it could die at any moment.

In 04, they went back to a lead-acid battery, but with top posts. It remains to be seen how reliable and trouble-free these batteries will be, since they are relatively new yet.

The replacement battery of choise for any C5 owner is the Optima red top. It is an AGM type battery and is guaranteed to be leakproof. it is also generally regarded to be a quality, trouble-free battery.

Hope that helps.

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Old Dec 12, 2004 | 11:42 PM
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Originally Posted by PaPaChoc
This is probably another stupid question about batteries. I know from reading on here that there is a “Good” AC battery and a “Bad” AC battery. How do I tell them apart? My car is an 01 Coupe with an AC battery but I can’t find any distinguishing marks on it. My son-in-law has already had to replace the one in his 01 Zo6. BUT, his car might not move for several weeks due to him traveling a lot. Any help would be appreciated.
The following is from C5 Tech Tips: 1997 - early 2001 Battery Acid Leakage Issue

If yours is an AGM battery, you should be fine as far as leaking is concerned. The AC-Delco batteries should also have "AGM" printed on one of the labels. My understanding is that AC-Delco has now discontinued their line of AGM batteries, not because of leaking, but because some were quickly going bad.

Hope this helps.

Last edited by GrayC5; Dec 12, 2004 at 11:44 PM.
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Old Dec 13, 2004 | 11:51 AM
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Originally Posted by stangkiller18
Get the GM battery out of the car, go get an Optima or equivlent.
Can you tell me which Optima Red Top model/serie would work on a 98? Thanks.
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Old Dec 13, 2004 | 11:57 AM
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Originally Posted by Reuvn8r
Can you tell me which Optima Red Top model/serie would work on a 98? Thanks.
The one that is the perfect fit is the 75/35 Red Top. It's 720 cold cranking amps - the stock Delco is 600 CCA. It has both side and top terminals.

The 34/78 is slightly larger, but will fit. It's 800 CCA.
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Old Dec 13, 2004 | 12:22 PM
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Originally Posted by blacksedan87
The one that is the perfect fit is the 75/35 Red Top. It's 720 cold cranking amps - the stock Delco is 600 CCA. It has both side and top terminals.

The 34/78 is slightly larger, but will fit. It's 800 CCA.

Thank you blacksedan87.
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Old Dec 13, 2004 | 01:38 PM
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With Red Top having dual posts, can you clamp your Battery Tender to the top posts while the battery is installed?
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Old Dec 13, 2004 | 03:10 PM
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If your battery looks like this:



it is leak and vibration-proof. My 01 AC Delco AGM is now 3.5 years old and continues to start like the day it was new. It seems as if as long as you charge em up adequately by not taking 5 minute drives, they do last - at least my battery has. I am very happy with it so far.
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