DBS is trying to come back but............ I know about the Reflash and I have had 3-1/2 DBS's since July of 05. The one DBS this year put me over the top and I purchased a Priority start system. That happened about a week before the first Reflash posts started to appear on this forum.
I have not officially reported any of my DBS's to my dealer (75 Mi. away) because I expected it, recharged my battery and moved on. There was no fix at the time so I guess I shot myself in the foot for a Reflash!
Anyway the latest DBS occurred over the weekend. My car was parked for 2 weeks. I ventured into my garage for reasons other than
a drive in the Vette and I opened the door just to see if the Priority Start was working. The door unlocked and opened no problem. I closed the door and went about my business. About 3 hours later that day when I was closing things up I tried my door again.
Nothing! Dead! DBS had tried to come back but the Priority Start saved me!
Something triggered the battery drain just from opening and closing the door! This is not consistent with my earlier DBS's but it is nice to know the Priority start works perfectly! I am on the fence whether or not to bother getting a Refash done. What do you think?

Gary


Update: 10-27-06
After sitting an additional 5 days I decided to take the Vette out for a drive. Many of the posts here suggested my battery was dying or below the voltage threshold for the Priority start and that is why it kicked in. Well no problem this time and it is getting much colder out. I did start my car over the weekend after re-setting the Prority Start and I let it run for no more than 2-3 minutes so it did not get much of a charge. I guess I'm not quite ready to have the battery replaced just yet but it is in the back of my mind. Thanks for all the input!

Gary

 

On my 05, I've noticed when I turn the car off, do the usual, reverse, radio, ac, lock the steering wheel, if the odometer is showing when it turns off, all is good, no problems, it can sit for a month. I turn it off and nothing showing on the digital display, it is dead the next day. But I like your idea even better.

 

Reflash can't hurt, but I am not convised that it fixes the problem.

Other will probebly disagree with me.

 

It is not DBS, it is your battery, it is dying! My C6 is about as old as yours, delivered in June, 2005. When we first got the car it could easily sit for two weeks or more without the Priority Start kicking in. I never had DBS but I installed the Priority Start just as a precaution.

I keep a diary of how long the car sits and whether or not Priority Start has shut it all down. The safe idle time is now down to 6 days before Priority Start saves the day. Over the past 17 months this safe idle time has been gradually declining. I have about 10 data points from my diary and the trend of safe idle time is strongly down.

It is my hunch that the Delco is a crap battery. I could never get a Delco to last more than 2 years in my old C4. Changed over to a DieHard and it lasted 6 years by the time I traded the car in on the C6.
I think it is a combination of a poor quality Delco battery that cannot take the heat generated in the Corvette engine compartment.

I am about to changeover to an Optima YellowTop, I think it can better withstand the heat generated in the engine compartment. I have been thinking about putting some thermostrips on the battery just to see how hot it gets. Because the battery sits over that exhaust manifold, I suspect it gets very hot, and heat is a battery killer.

So, I don't think we have DBS, you just have to expect the Delco to start dying at the 1.5 year mark. As I mentioned earlier, my C4 went through 2 Delco batteries. I just checked my old repair receipts and each one lasted about 2 years.

 

FYI, the DieHard and the C6 battery are made by the same guy in the same plant, The C4 and pre 2004 C5 batteries were made by Delphi, but 2004 and up were not.

Also the guy that build the Optima is the same guy. I have a Yellow Top Optima in my car because I beleive it to be the best battery.

 

I agree. DBS happens about 2 days after shut down with a good battery. And your battery is aging and wearing out. Maybe 3 or 4 weeks with a good delco. But yours is older and weaker, so 2 weeks is it. Opening the car door was simply the 'straw that broke the camel's back'!

Now your other dead battery episodes may well have been DBS.
I assume that you have MN6.
Do you recall the circumstances of the other episodes?

 

They can be built in the same plant, but that does not mean the specs and quality are the same. I woud expect that GM wants to get the lowest cost battery, and who knows what short cuts are mandated by GM to reach their targeted cost.

 

I think the real reason you like the yellow top is because it matches your yellow car. That's why I'm getting a red top.

 

Yes it is an MN6
Maybe the battery is wearing but my car started just fine after Priority start kicked back in? I suppose that winter storage should kill my battery if it is dying and I will know for sure in the spring.

Gary

 

I would also suggest you use a battery tender to keep the battery at the right charged level.

I had the BCM reflashed and a new battery installed two weeks ago. I will still keep my car tethered to a battery tender if not being used for a few days. I do not want to re-live another DBS episode where I needed to get the car flatbedded to the Chevy dealership. That was a waste of 1/2 a day.

Hopefully, never a DBS again.

 

The post that stated DBS will occur within 2 days is correct, simple math. As I have posted before if an incorrect or incomplete shutdown code is sent to the BCM/ECM (even if you are in reverse etc and everything looks good in the cockpit) the computer will not shut down. When awake it draws aproximately 1 amp per hour and we have 48 amp hour batteries. If you get passed the two days and the battery fails say after a week or two it is not DBS but instead either a weak or normally exhausted battery or you have left some small draw on like a light.

Mine was a test vehicle for the re-flash and since that was done I have had no problems and I have not only left the car for various lengths of time but I have also taken random and frequent voltage readings on the battery. If you are or have expierenced DBS as stated above, tell your dealer and let him go through the process which includes re-flash as a final operation. Remember this is for 2005 manual transmission vehicles only. Hope this helps

 

This is not bragging, but my 05 Mn6 C6 built on 7/20/04 (#1176) has never had any problem with DBS or the OEM Delco battery. It's still the original and now almost 2.5 years old. The car only has approx 8k miles and sits without a tender or priority device for 1-2 weeks at a time between drives to work, etc. This extended idle period happens maybe twice over a 2 month period when the weather is bad. Otherwise I start it every weekday to drive to work. I seldom use it on the weekend (>48 hours) because of being at the beach and using another vehicle to tow a boat. For the last two winter C6 hibernations, the battery (not disconnected from the C6) was on a battery tender for approx 4 months each of the last two winters. The garage is unheated but under the house and never gets below 32 degrees or above 70. Is this experience with an 05 Mn6 an exception or are there many others not heard from on this forum? By the way, I've had a Delco battery last for 7 years on an 88 Fiero driving and storing it the same way. When the Delco battery finally goes, its a Diehard for me. Never had a problem with them as a replacement for any of my cars or the boat.

 

Actually I have a Yellow Top with a black bottom, just so that it will match my car.

Red Tops have black bottom and Yellow tops have gray bottoms and that is how you can tell if an Optima Marine battery is a starting battery or a deep cycle, just in case you want a Blue top for a blue car.

 

I'll bet it's more typical of most '05 MN6's. Even our dreaded '05 forum polls showed 25-30% cars with DBS, and this may well be the worst case scenario. So most don't get DBS.
If you drive daily you will probably not get DBS with a good battery, as it takes about 2 days to drain to zero with DBS. If you drive daily you will probably interrupt the rare DBS episode.
And long term parking is good for +/- 3 weeks with a good battery, and is unrelated to DBS.

 

It makes a world of difference if you have it on a battery tender while the car is idle. The real question is how long the battery stays good without the tender. Also, because you have it on a battery tender you likely never get a serious discharge, which is very damaging to battery life. It seems to me that you are doing all the right stuff to prolong battery life. I park in a condo garage and there is no way that I can hookup a battery tender, unless I run a 50' cable to the outlet.

 

It's not the battery, it's the car. Keep pestering your dealer to watch for a DBS bulletin or training class. When the fix is out, get it.

 

In this case, it's not. It's the battery. With my original battery, two weeks is about all I could go before my PriorityStart kicked in. It's just from the normal drain of the electronics. Even when "hibernating", the electronics draw enough current to get the battery down below 11.9 volts. It's actually not that difficult to drain the battery below 11.9 volts and the electronics will do that in a couple of weeks on the stock battery. Plus, when you went out and opened the door, that causes a lot higher drain (on the order of several amps). After you close the door, the amp draw is high for another 60 seconds. So... opening the door didn't do anything but help the voltage drop along and if it was close to 12 volts to begin with, just opening the door might have been enough to set off the Priority Start and it may have kicked in after you walked away and before the car went back to sleep. It's happened to me before and it ain't DBS! Without the PS, I'm sure you could go a month or more and still start the car. The PS is just being "safe" and cutting off the battery early in order to save it.

Mike