Electrical gremlin
Thread Starter
Le Mans Master
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 5,538
Likes: 536
From: SE Pa
Electrical gremlin
anybody ever have a side terminal connection go bad on their battery ?
Went out to lunch today car started, ran fine, leave the restaurant and nothing won't start, no interior lights, nothing. After fiddling around with jumper cables finally jumped and started, again ran fine all the way home. Turned if off and again, nothing ? got the volt meter out and took a reading, on the terminal bolts, 5.67 volts ! removed positive cable, took another reading, positive battery socket to negative battery terminal bolt, 12.6 volts. Removed battery , cleaned both male/female positive, reinstalled, reading became intermittent which made me think there might be an issue with the positive battery connection ?
Thoughts or suggestions ?? car, 2002 Z06
Went out to lunch today car started, ran fine, leave the restaurant and nothing won't start, no interior lights, nothing. After fiddling around with jumper cables finally jumped and started, again ran fine all the way home. Turned if off and again, nothing ? got the volt meter out and took a reading, on the terminal bolts, 5.67 volts ! removed positive cable, took another reading, positive battery socket to negative battery terminal bolt, 12.6 volts. Removed battery , cleaned both male/female positive, reinstalled, reading became intermittent which made me think there might be an issue with the positive battery connection ?
Thoughts or suggestions ?? car, 2002 Z06
Last edited by Mikado463; Jun 20, 2022 at 03:46 PM.
Thread Starter
Le Mans Master
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 5,538
Likes: 536
From: SE Pa
Thread Starter
Le Mans Master
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 5,538
Likes: 536
From: SE Pa
Race Director
Joined: Oct 2004
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Sometimes the bolts bottom out inside the female threads, and just barely clamp the terminal against the battery "post". One way to check if this is happening is to tighten the terminal bolt, then try to twist the cable up and down, say from 2:00 to 5:00. If it moves, you obviously have an issue. Some guys remove the bolt, then carefully grind off a thread or 2, and run a thread die on the bolt to ensure the thread has no burrs from grinding it shorter. Remember, you're threading the bolt into soft lead, so any burrs on the bolt thread will quickly destroy the soft lead. This should fix the bolt bottoming due too being too long. I also kind of think C5Arlen has a point. C5s seem to eat batteries like the cookie monster empties a cookie jar!!! It does seem 2 years is a bit on the low side for battery life, unless it's been in desert heat, like Las Vegas, or subjected to Florida's heat.....
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Thread Starter
Le Mans Master
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 5,538
Likes: 536
From: SE Pa
Thanks for the replies gents, this is my first experience with an AGM battery so I suspect there is a learning curve. I'm guessing that while the battery reads 12.6 (static), once connected and the cars parasitic draw is enabled a reading of 5.6 indicates a bad battery ?
Melting Slicks
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 3,290
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From: Brea CA
Check the condition of the battery cables at the bolt that goes into the terminal. You may have both the positive and negative cable bolts with a bit of corrosion.
My brothers truck had one of these bolts that had corrosion on them. Went and got replacements and all is good. His originals not only had the corrosion but were a bit long, the terminal did not clamp to the battery tightly.
I have been running a AGM battery in my C5 for years without an issue.
Gary
My brothers truck had one of these bolts that had corrosion on them. Went and got replacements and all is good. His originals not only had the corrosion but were a bit long, the terminal did not clamp to the battery tightly.
I have been running a AGM battery in my C5 for years without an issue.
Gary
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Thread Starter
Le Mans Master
Joined: Feb 2012
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From: SE Pa
