So I just bought my first vette, it’s a 2001. After reading a lot of the great posts in this forum, I learned about the leaky battery problem. Wish I knew about this forum before I went shopping.

So I know 2001 introduced a lot of changes/upgrades, and I was wondering if the leaky battery problem was corrected? Did 01s come stock with the gel batteries? Thanks!

 

Welcome to the Forum and also on your purchase !!...the OEM battery back then was an AGM and they had some leakage issues...I have an '01 too and I use the AC Delco Professional with a 120 RC... and remember RC is more important than CCA !!

 

Was the first thing I checked when buying my car 2.5 yrs ago. It was all good and had an Auto Zone Duralast in it. Just changed it out with another one last January as the old 5 yrs old one was going bad. No problems with leakage.

 

The only batteries that I've heard of leaking and causing C5 damage over the years were wet-cell batteries. It is possible for an AGM to leak, but highly unlikely. I have personally never had one leak and I've been using them in all my vehicles for almost 20 years now.

I did purchase a couple of AC Delco's batteries for my other Corvettes some years back, both before and after their problem with leaking acid was identified and supposedly corrected. These were side terminal batteries and both had leaking issues. Fortunately not in my C5. When I purchased the C5 it in 2004, it had an Interstate wet-cell battery in it and I immediately changed it to an Exide AGM as a preventive measure. After 10 years I replaced it with an Interstate AGM (Exide had stopped making the AGM for a few years, but now offers an AGM called the Edge). The Interstate is still performing fine.

Our 2006 Z06 came with a AC Delco that would not hold a charge after just 2 years. Chevrolet replaced it with another Delco under warranty and it failed for the same reason 3 years later (within the normal battery warranty life). However since it was a warranty replacement, they did not rewind the warranty and refused to replace since the original warranty had now expired... I don't do Delco batteries any longer and replaced it with an Odyssey (AGM) battery.

Bottom line is that since the battery in the C5 sits atop the PCM (along with a plethora of vacuum lines and wiring harness) it is only prudent to run an AGM or Gel battery.
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None of the Corvettes came with a Gel battery, but the 2001 did come with an AGM battery. In 2002 or 2003 they changed to a top terminal battery and I may be wrong, but I don't believe they were AGM's.

Good luck... GUSTO

 

I JUST,,,,,,,,,,,,, Purchased a new Battery for the 02 ZO6.

As stated, the battery RESERVE CAPACITY is VERY IMPORTANT. The closer that you can get to the recommended 120 Reserve Capicity rating, the better off that you will be. In an effort to find a group 75 battery that had the correct specs, the only thing that I could find that fit the need was an EXPENSIVE AGM. Didn't want an AGM so, I was able to find an O' Riley's group 78 flooded acid battery with the correct foot print and it fit right in and is doing it job PERFECT! If I remember it had 115 amp/hour reserve capacity.

The only thing that I had to modify was the little black plastic hold down clamp so it could fit a little further back in the battery try. 5 Min Job.
Yes, the battery is a bit larger than a group 75 but it does fit.