Well its official, I finally had the DBS reflash done. My car is a 05 Vert 6spd manual.
Do to unusual circumstances I could not get it done last fall as my car went away for winter in early Oct.

Brought the car in today and let the tech do his thing. Hope this clears it up. I now have the car parked and did not hook up the tender to the battery. I’m prepared as the top and windows are down and the hood is unlatched, but hopefully all will be well.

I have noticed since the flash came out there have been less and less posts about DBS...


I had the battery checked again today as I have had 4 DBS attacks since I purchased the car in June of 05. The tech and the service manger said my battery was fine, no need to replace. I know other here have had attacks and still have their original battery. I would think with 4 pull downs it would be toast, but apparently not.
They were all classic attacks, occurring in my garage after CAREFULLY shutting down the car. They happened 2-3 days after parking...

Now all I can do is wait and see what happens & hope for the best. I know this has helped a lot of the 05 owners out there and I expect my results will be satisfactory.
The weather up here is getting nicer by the day so I should be using the car on reasonably constant occurrences


If I have any DBS type problems I will report it here promptly, if not I will give out a posting in late Nov. stating the fact that all is well. I will continue monitoring this forum and will try to answer any thing I can to DBS suffers.

 

I had the reflash done a few months ago and was also told that there was no need to replace the battery. The car subsequently refused to start on two different occasions, both times because the battery went dead after sitting just several days in the garage.

One call to the dealer led to a new battery under warranty. Since then, the car has endured sub zero temperatures and up to 15 days sitting idle in the garage. It's fired right up every time since I had the new battery installed.

The reflash does work, but I would really question the dealer's call that you don't need a new battery after multiple hits of DBS. I had only two DBS hits prior to the reflash, and even had a Priority Start installed after the first one. Still, my battery was obviously compromised from that first drain even though it tested out just fine. My guess is that, even though it may work fine now, your battery will fail prematurely because of the DBS hits.

 

I'd have to agree with this guy, Dave.Make them warranty you a new battery.Good luck with the fix!!!So far,never had dbs on mine.....yet? I think there has been a few reports of dead battery's after the reflash....

 

Thanks Stan
I would think that 4 outs would do bad damage also,but Hoonose still has his original battery. They did load test, so as for now at least I will watch it. I do have VOM at the house, and the hood is unlatched so its easy to do a test (non load of course) I only use my car in the realatively warm months,that will help. I think for any planned non use period, say a week or more will still put on the tender.

 

Shopdog posted some voltage numbers to check in your DIC to estimate remaining battery strength, and mine came out about 50%, as I recall. So I'll probably let it go 3 years, which is mostly what any battery will last in our heat. Sorry I don't have the reference on those numbers.

 

I too had the reflash performed and no problem so far. One thing I did observe was that the clock time is now 24 hour/military vs the prior am/pm. Not sure how to resolve this issue. The owner's manual does not mention this as it was not available on the '05 model. The radio is the Bose, 6 CD changer model, no Nav
Any thoughts?

 

I will watch this close Jess. As I only warm weather drive things should be all right. Hell I got 8 years out of the battery in my 91 454SS PU because it was only used 7 months a year and the battery unhooked for the bad months.

I'm not going to make a issue out of the battery UNLESS there are more problems. The SAs there are good but they have a boss (SM) that is right off the wall. We got into it heavy the first time my car came in with DBS problems. If it had gone any farther its possible fists migh have been involved. I feel sorry for the SAs having to work under this pri**, but if the battery acts up any more I will push this as far as I have to.
After reading Hoonose reply I will PM Shopdog and get the #s to watch out for. (thanks Hoonose)
FWIW I think GMs batterys are junk for the most part, and will probally replace on my own if need be in the future. (have done that on a lot of my rides)
Catch U later, Dave


EXTRA

I have mentioned this service manager in a couple other posts. He was the one that said the forum people knew nothing, and not to believe anything on the internet that only the GM shops knew anything. This was early in the life cycle of DBS and his statement was ludicrous as the people here new much more about the DBS issue than the honchos at GM & the dealerships did did. GM did there best to deny there was a problem with the 05s manual cars and I really believe that with the forum people & the C5/6 registry making a lot of noise the problem finely got some attention. Some dealers up to a few months ago acted like there was no problem at all, like your dead battery car was your fault because you were too dumb to shut it off in reverse (the Company line)
Attention it would not have got expect for the noise we kicked

 

I'll be out cruising today!

 

I think this will help to 'correct' all that '0-dark-30' time-keeping:

To change the time default setting from 12 hour to
24 hour, press either the H or the M button for
two seconds to enter the clock mode. Press the radio tune
**** for base/treble/etc. to select between the 12 or 24 hour display format.
The clock mode will automatically time out with the
changed display format set as the current default setting.

 

What Stan left out was that he fills his batteries with Kettle One

Each time a battery dies it loses about 20% of it's CCA rating. SO after 3 failures you're at 50% give or take even with a full charge. Go to start on a 30 deg morn and you're out of luck. Lower temps affect batt capability.

Happened to me a few weeks back. after 4 DBS episodes - 30 deg AM - NO START. Waited till noon and wammo it started. I'm going OPTIMA.

 

I must admit I refused to go to the dealer (bad experiences) and have been relying on the priority start. But I'm getting tired of dealing. I have decided to take the car in '05 6sd. can someone please provide the bulletin #: I feel I need to baby-sit this trough...thank you

 

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1495433

I think that's it.

One day some distorted '05 MN6 owner with 'reflash-backs' will come barging into the GM offices with guns ablazing!

 

thank you! wish me luck this goes against my better judgement...but you got to do it!

 

I think things will work out fine. I just checked my battery today before I started car and it was at 12.3. Thats after sitting 2 days.

Like I sated in my OP I would have got this done last year, but for a reason to winter park my car real early.

Hell you still have the PS. if all is well you wiill not need to use it in future, but its good protection. any way.

 

Some of you guys are getting better answers than me. I had the flash done and still have had DBS. Took it to the dealer, they checked the battery - it is ok. They checked the flash and it is the most current. Nothing is plugged in ie., IPOD, radar detector, etc..... Their conclusion is I do not drive my car enough (it is an 05 with 3,400 miles). Maybe the fact that the car is sitting around a lot is the answer.

 

They're probably right.
Do you have '05 MN6, and are you familiar with the details of true DBS?
DBS strikes in about 48 hours after shutdown of the car. So if your battery dies in 4 or 7 days or 2 weeks it ain't true DBS. You can monitor for DBS by checking the little red light by the radio. If it is still flashing on day 3, no DBS possible, until your next shutdown.

 

Hoonose,

We've chatted before about DBS. Well, I finally got up the nerve to go in for the re-flash on wednesday. Brought a copy of the bulletin with me. Got the first appointment of the day.

About an hour into it, service manager comes over with "bad news". "Car won't start now, computers all locked up, need to order some parts."

They sent me on my way in a battered Enterprise Ford Focus. Today, Friday, its done and I picked it up. They replaced the the PCM and a door control module (don't have the exact part numbers in front of me).

Also claimed to have done the correct reflash for DBS. We shall see.

But I noticed this now:
- Doors do not unlock upon turn off like they used to, even though I think it is set correctly in the preferences.
- Steering column lock no longer engages.
- When you shut the car off, it flashes "accessory mode on" until you open the door.

My advice to all you '05 MN6 owners, leave your priority start on the car and forget getting it flashed!!

I cringe to think what will happen in the next few days..fingers and toes crossed.

Paul

 

AARGH!
Sorry they messed you up. Keep on them to fix it, as I don't hearing that the reflash messed anyone else up on the forum. I could be wrong though.
I do recall that the reflash was temporarily stopped due to some technical reasons, but then reinstated. Maybe your dealer got caught up in that snafu somehow.

There was a separate problem with dead batteries and the door module, maybe they went after that too. As far as losing the SCL, that shouldn't be! The feds won't let them bypass that even with the fix. There must be a starter switch problem where it goes to accessory instead of off. In accessory the SCL would not be engaged.

Take it back to the dealer!

 

The Midtronics battery tester determines if the battery is good or not. If the battery just needs a recharge, that is what the dealer should do. It the Midtronics battery tester determines the battery will not recover (damaged battery) then the dealer is to replace the battery.

The Midtronics battery tool produces a code. The code must be documented on the warranty repair order. GM has a simple program to decipher the code. If the code does not indicate a failed battery, the dealer may receive a debit.

 

Sorry to hear about your problems, I just got mine flashed a few days ago and all seems well. It has not sat more than 48 hours so cannot say that DBS is taken care of. I checked everthing I could think of and all appears to be working. I did check the battery at 48 hours sitting and it showed 12.3. After all my problems I will be watching things close.

Another poster mentoned the battery test and for the 3rd tme mine was tested and they say its fine. Probally is as I doubt I will start it below 40 degrees and when Im away from home it gets driven every day. I have purchased a lot of GMs over the years and usually replace batery at the 3 year point,or am getting rid of the car then . For the most part I consider GM batteries little more than junk.