!!Back for advice again!!

Time to put a tender on my C6 for its first winter storage here in Canada. Temps been running around low 32F/0C to high 50F/10C.

Car had been sitting for 2 weeks before putting tender on. She was flat dead. Not even security lights on doors. Had to open trunk and manually open doors. Window won't index.

Applied Ctek 3300 tender and relay immediately began loud, intermittent clicking, inconsistent pattern. Dash gauges only (not DIC or stereo) on/off with relay.

Took off Ctek tender and applied Motomaster charger on 10amp setting - horn began honking at 5 sec intervals. Neighbour did not appreciate.

Switched to 2amp setting. No honk. Accepting charge, walked away. Came back in 2hrs to check and noticed rear left brake/turn and front left turn lamps and ONLY these lamps glowing dim and steady.

Left for another 6hrs, no change.

Not a clue what all this means???

I switch up to 10amp - honking again. I put on Ctek - relay dance. Back to 2amp - dim left lights no change.

...Here's a fun catch...

Discovered when I went to start all this that my garage door keypad AND door remotes would not function. I used the man door. After the adventures with the tender/charger and without re-setting anything on the garage opener - all three devices suddenly work again???

My only other thread here involved a spontaneous and still mysterious de-programming of my key FOB the day I brought her home. Re-programmed cycling key in trunk and haven't had an issue since... now... here I am with the latest head scratcher????

You boys out there were a big help last time... Appreciate anybody who has made it this far and can throw a suggestion at this one!!

 

Huh ?

I'd hook up the 10-amp (or even larger amp) and turn off the alarm via fob. Let it charge for whatever days it needs. Once the battery is back alive, take off the big charger and then hook up the float charger.

 

If it's that bad, just remove the cables and hook up the charger and leave it for a couple of days. Depending on the age it's possible the battery is not salvageable.

 

I would disconnect the battery and hook up the charger for a day and see if it will take a charge. Chances are the battery is bad and will have to be replaced under warranty. If you have a good dealer you should be able to just take the battery in for an exchange. I had to do that on a 2009 Cobalt earlier this year and the dealer just swapped batteries for me.

 

All the electrical drama is typical for a low battery, nothing to worry about. Be aware, that battery may be history after a total discharge. It likely won't ever take a full charge again. I mean it will show a full charge in terms of volts but the actual capacity will be many percent less than 100. And it continues to decrease with every complete discharge. So if you keep it you are playing Russian roulette on what circumstances will cause a no start situation in the future. From now on if you know ahead of time, or later determine, that the car won't be driven for more than a week I suggest you get in the habit of just putting the CTEK on it for safety.

 

Sometimes we find this out the hard way. It's one of those "I'm gonna get in it....I'm gonna get in it and the next thing you know it's 1-2 weeks later and uh oh....no go! I don't get to drive mine much so as soon as it's back in the garage, the Battery Tenders' connected.

 

I have no control over the alarm when the 10amp is hooked up. The FOB is useless.

I'm getting the feeling the Delco battery is bogus, but I'll pull it and put the charger on it.

Assuming this is the culprit... any recommendations for a replacement? Odyssey?

 

Exorcist for the garage door opener?

 

By using the rear hatch to get in essentially the car 'thinks' you broke into it - so when you power up everything using the 10 amp setting, the alarm is going off, or the battery has some kind of internal issue drawing down the voltage going to the car - causing weird computer issues. Sounds like at 2 amps the on-board systems are drawing more out of it than your charger is putting into it - and it's not going to charge like that.

Like others have suggested, unhook the battery (just the negative cable will do) and charge it using 10 amps (or 2 if you have a lot of time). If the battery went dead after 2 weeks, and just went though another complete discharge, I'd be looking at replacing.

 

All sounds reasonable. Will disconnect and charge overnight.

Given the issues I had in the past, I'm thinking the battery may be suspect. She's got a long (too long) hibernation ahead.

 

Educated guess? I'd say your battery is completely shot. I'd pull it out and take it somewhere to have it tested, they'll put it on a quick charge, then test it under load, the whole process takes about an hour. What the car's doing sounds like a classic case of a completely discharged battery, they'll do some really funky things,lol. My previous "toy" didn't have as much electronic wizardry as my new Grand Sport, and in the past I just disconnected the battery and brought it inside, but storage is hard on batteries no matter how you do it. I was using a deep-cycle Optima, and it worked great. For a replacement, I'd say an Optima or Odyssey, either will run you in the $175 neighborhood, get one with as much CCA as you can. For me, from the advice I've got from the guys on the Forum, I bought a CTek and I'll be putting it on the car later this week, they've got a really neat cig lighter adapter that should work great, but I plan on keeping the car "alive" this winter.