Went to my garage this morning to take my Vett out for a spin and guess what a dead battery. I got into the car through the trunk, opened the hood and put a battery charger on. I let it charge at 10 amps for about 15 minutes and then moved the charger to 50 amps and it started right up. I ran it for a while and it ran at 14.2 and 13.7 at idle.

I contacted my dealer, but I don't expect much especially if the charge holds. I am expecting my priority start any day now, but I am afraid to go out and stop the car any place. I do have one question. If I add the priority start to my current battery, will it then be reliable or did the fact that DBS occur damage the battery. By the way I have a 2005 Coupe Z51 6-speed.

I sure hope GM comes up with something and that those of you that have not experienced DBS will not be burdened with it.

 

Most likely the battery will be fine. Maybe will be a smidge low for the rest of it's life, but probably adequate. I have had at least 6 dead battery episodes in 17 months, and yet still have my original Delco battery. It's generally warm here, but I suspect that I would have replaced it if I lived in Minnesota!

 

I have read on some dbs threads that people have changed the battery and NOT HAD DBS ANYMORE...

 

 

After my first two DBS events I put in a PriorityStart and a new Optima redtop, have had three more since but the PS saved my day.

 

That means nothing. I pulled relay 46 and haven't had a dead battery again. Others have either made sure their steering column locks were or weren't locked and had no more problems. I'm sure someone out there is throwing salt over their shoulder and found that solved the problem too.

My own car is a 10/04 production C6, its only DBS 11/05, still has the OEM Delco battery, and has never had another problem. Unfortunately, as long as the cause or causes of what we call DBS are unknown, no theory carries too much weight.

 

I have had the dead battery three times. Battery was changed after the first. According to dealer I am the idiot to blame for having dead batteries because I either "don't put it in reverse, only drive short trips, and don't disconnect the negative cable if the car is going to be idle for three days or more." "Unable to duplicate" and "I never heard of DBS, must be happening in other parts of the country."

Yes, I am frustrated and a little sarcastic!

 

Dealer or service rep tells you that the dead battery is your fault because you failed to disconnect the negative cable if the car is going to be idle for three days or more??? That's absolute 24K

 

bump for dad.

I don't understand why GM can't figure out how to fix this issue. It's happened on a lot of cars and numerous times at that. There should be some sort of recall. I don't see how this would be hard to pinpoint.

 

It's hard to pinpoint because it is not very frequent or reproducible in any one car, generally. You not only have to have a susceptible car, but something or things must happen to start the DBS process. Then the car has to sit long enough to drain the battery to zero, one or two days. If your battery is strong, and you drive the car tomorrow, you'd never know that DBS was in progress.
(Unless you've been checking for the DIC 'shift to reverse' warning like I have)

 

I have had DBS on 2 seperate batteries...

 

About 25% (guesstimate) of 05 6speed cars are affected... What, maybe 5000 cars? In GM's book, thats nothing compared to other issues... Also, all Vettes sell so again, not a high priority...

 

Ditto. Optima battery here with priority start. Still get DBS.

Although I do wonder if the PS module is cutting in too soon, and its not "really dead". But the PS is worth every penny.

Paul

 

Bummer

Hope it works out

 

You're saying that the PS cuts in so you don't end up with total DBS right?

 

They are just lucky.

 

Hmmm. interesting. I had one maybe DBS/maybe bad battery. Put in a Red Top & Priority start... suddenly have had three or four more since. After the car sits for three days. Then nada. I started a thread asking if anyone thinks Priority Start is kicking in way too soon. I'm going to watch my voltage and see. But I strongly suspect...

 

Yeah? I chatted with the PS people today about cutting in too soon, they think it's the battery. Well, as I said, I'm going to watch voltage here's their email to me.


We do not typically see this as a common problem (i.e. device cutting off before the stated 11.7 Volts). The only reason why this would be occurring is if your voltage is actually dropping to the disconnect threshold. The best way you can see this is by monitoring the voltage with a volt meter in the morning and seeing if the battery voltage is dropping over night. Then monitor it every so often. Once you establish that your battery is indeed dropping to 11.7 Volts every four days or so - and the PriorityStart is thus disconnecting everytime - the next step is to isolate the electrical draw and then go from there.

Our unit itself does not have a significant draw that can be causing this problem.

Also, keep in mind that after our unit disconnects (or cuts of the electrical load), the voltage naturally jumps back up over 12V. So ideally, you would need to check on the voltage status BEFORE our unit kicks in.

Ed Roseberry,
BLI International,

 

I have had a number of DBS's. Had the car to the dealer 3 times, battery replaced once. I read a post by Hoonose where he said once the car was turned off and the parking brake set he would move the shifter to neutral. If the "shift to reverse" message didn't come on the car was properly asleep and would not have a DBS. If it says shift to reverse it would need to be shut down again. I have been doing this. I have never had it ask me to shift to reverse when I shift to neutral. But, I have not had dead battery since going through this procedure. Give it a try. Good luck.

 

It may be that simply doing more stuff and taking more time before exiting is allowing the reverse to register and avoiding DBS. It's working for me too.