I purchased this FRC with a replacement Delco in it and thought I'd swap it out for a Red Top....

Read a lot about the NAPA O6 Obital so went that way.......

Dead in two weeks and it will not take a charge now...... over heats either of my Battery Tenders

So I recharged the Delco over night and away I went......

Now I'm torn about evn messing with these Gell Batteries but had one in my late Z06 and not problems.

 

Got a real bad problem today after batt went dead yesterday, the dreaded "service column lock" and pull the key out for ten seconds. Don't mess with OPTIMA red top...you can't get warranty from the guys you buy from unless you keep meticulous records. a whole lot of money to have to go through this. I think they don't work well with their dealerships cause after today i would never think about another red or yellow top for any reason. OPTIMA needs to get their dealer network to honor their warranty because AUTOZONE doesn't. just my .02 cents worth.

good luck but don't let the battery die. it could be expensive.

 

I am also interested in what others recommend for a gel cell battery. I am not trying to to sell your post, just want to keep it going.

 

Hi guys -

The exide Orbitals and the Optimas are not gel batteries - they are spiral wound lead acid batteries -

And the exide site lists some of the "XCD" series batteries as being absorbed glass mat batteries (AGM).

http://www.exide.com/products/automo...bital_XCD.html

They still have good old acid in them.

I run Optima's in my C5's - these cars are very hard on batteries, and most typical cars see a week sitting and then one day a week driving them - or worse.

That alone is hard on a battery.

The OP in this thread needs to take that battery back and get a new one IMO.

I would check it with a multi-tester - then take it in and have it load tested.

best regards -

mqqn

 

What meticulous records are you talking about? A receipt? (That's all you need!)

 

i was being faceitious in my comments about "meticulous" records. yeah, you need a receipt. i bought my vette used and there wasn't a receipt for the battery. Probably happens more than a few times but i was the lucky guy this time.What really po'd me was that the AutoZone staff AND manager did nothing to even research the battery dates or anything. in my op if a manufacturer is putting that many restrictions on a dealer then i don't think it is worth the buy (but frankly here i think it's just AutoZone corporate or maybe regional that's to blame). What happens if you are traveling or have moved and you need to have your battery warranted? Or you buy a used car and then what? AutoZone manager told me specifically that if i hadn't bought the battery through AutoZone and the records had to be in thier computers records then i would still need to get a hold of OPTIMA customer care and get "permission" to do a warranty on the OPTIMA. That's why i went to Sears. IF it says Die Hard then it really doesn't matter which Sears or KMart sold it. By the way Sears has a new "platinum" battery with AGM, four year return policy and some high tech innards. Big cranking power for under $200.

 

It's very easy to get a bad battery, just get ur recceipt and exchange it for another one! I've got both yellow top & red top. They don't disappoint me at all except when I first purchased my yellow top, it was outta juice in a week too, exchanged it and so far so good

 

In my 01, I used the yellow top for about 2 and 1/2 years before selling
the car.
Now I have a 04 and changed the battery just because it was over
3 years old, wasn't having problems and didn't want any. I went with
the NAPA orbital. Only been a month or so, but no problems so far.
I even forgot and left my radar detector plugged in an ran it down.
Recharged and was good to go again.

 

I've had a red top in my 2000 for over 4 years now with no problems. I think any battery brand may have a few bad batteries here and there. It's just luck of the draw. I always keep my battery receipts just in case.

 

C5 BATTERY FACTS


Bitchen about the OPTIMA or any other spiral wound lead acid battery is a good whine! I purchased a OPTIMA RED TOP in May 2003 for my 02 ZO6. Yep, it croaked with in 5 months! Guess what? I had the receipt and got a NEW one "under warranty" and just about 5 YEARS later,,,, it is still kicking and yep, I will need another battery some day.
Will I buy another Red Top????????????? Probably NOT. Cant see spending $190. for a freaking battery when a regular battery from Walmart battery will work just as good for $65. and probably last for 4+ years. Damn OEM FORD battery in my F150 has lasted for 11 years and its STILL working! Oh,,,,, I only drive the truck maybe once a month!

Some people have problems with their battery holding a charge in their C5. If yourC5 battery wont hold a charge for a month, you have an electrical problem. Something is staying on that shouldn't be OR your battery is bad. If your battery current draw current is greater than 0.025 milliamperes, fix the issue.

If your battery is GOOD and you don't have ABNORMAL current draw because of an electrical problem,,,the C5 should be able to sit for a MONTH or more without a battery issue. PLAIN AND SIMPLE! You shouldn't need a battery tender for Normal operation either!

Yep, if your going to STORE the car for 2-3 months, disconnect the damn battery and reconnect it when your ready to drive it again! It WONT hurt anything! Oh,,yes ,,,you will need to reset the clock, radio and memory settings.

Unless you have a mega dollar battery tender that will really monitor the actual battery condition and charge it ONLY when it needs to be charged, keeping a regular battery charger on a lead acid battery is worse than letting it go dead!

Thanks for hearing me vent about C5's and batteries!

BC

 

My OEM AC Delco AGM battery is going on 6.5 years and is still going strong. Check out the latest AC Delco Professional batteries. Although they are lead-acid, their cases have been significantly strengthened, especially around the terminals. Free replacement warranty is 50 months; you can't beat that for a $90-$100 battery. In fact, you can't beat that warranty at ANY price!

 

In review, after reading and reviewing posts here on these batteries it was difficult to believe, understand and give creedence to any one school of thought EXCEPT......

This is the ISSUE:
I don't want to spend MORE than the price of a battery try to fix the electricals of an out-of-warranty Vette due to a battery mishap.

The QA of Optima "Tops" or NAPAs O-6 Orbital is a side to this question.

So after this Orbital went dead after 2 weeks use, I returned it today to Napa and they were just amazed that one of their O-6 was defective..... after they tested it of course.

So with my $139 in hand I stopped at Advanced Auto Parts and purchased a 75 Series Red Top $149 OTD and ask that they test it before I left the store. All Good! I was told.....

So out will come the AC this weekend and in will go the TOPPER with one of Chip's 3300 Battery tenders.

Oh yes, at the Fall Rod Run in the North Georgia Mountains also 9 to 2 of the cars I looked at had Optimas Tops.

THE Saga to continue...............................

 

Take a look at this poll. I've had it running for a long time now and well over 650 members have voted. The significance is that Red Tops don't leak No argument. The older AC Delcos (the opinion is that post 04 they were fixed) definitely do leak.

My advice would be if you have an older AC Delco you may be on borrowed time. It may leak. It may die. It may run on.

Take the risk if you play poker

Interesting read:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1469503