Battery Caper
Thread Starter
Pro
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 671
Likes: 1
From: Kansas City Missouri
Battery Caper
Yesterday I replaced my factory battery that was 4.5 years old. I replaced it with a Optima yellow top 8040-218. I bought it through Amazon, $143.00 shipped free. It was delivered in excellent condition. My problem was what a pain to remove the battery connections. Some brain at GM decided to have the connections held in place by folding over a tab that is almost impossible to lift. I finally got them both off, and the install went well. The Optima is a little shorter which makes removal/replacement of the cabin filter easier. I fired her up, re-indexed the windows and hooked up the maintainer. I put a charger on before the install, but it was almost completely charged. Hopefully I will get as good of service out of this Optima as the one I had in my 99 FRC.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 5,116
Likes: 5
From: Livonia MI
Biggest advantage of Optimas, is the C5's used side terminal batteries that tended to leak, getting into the engine computer. While most Optimas are dual terminal, they're really top terminal designs with buss bars bent around the side. I don't bother with them myself, with newer cars being top terminals.
Race Director
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 11,367
Likes: 211
From: Edgewood Washington
St. Jude Donor '11-'12-'13-'14-'15
The advantage of the yellow top is it's a 'deep discharge' battery and can tolerate being discharged to lower voltages while still being able to fully recover.
It's popular with drag racers who run their fans between rounds (motor off) to get their temps. down.
I'm still on my OEM Delco in my '06. No complaints.
It's popular with drag racers who run their fans between rounds (motor off) to get their temps. down.
I'm still on my OEM Delco in my '06. No complaints.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 8,514
Likes: 235
From: Currently somewhere in IL,IN,KY,TN,MO,AR,MS,AL, or FL
Both the yellow and red top batteries are specialized designs for special applications. If you don't want to keep the battery on a tender as often or have a race application where you need to run electrical loads without the engine running, then the yellow top is worth the extra money because it won't be damaged as much by the abuse. If you have a large high compression engine that needs more cranking amps, then the red top might be worth it. If you just have a regular C6 without modifications or racing application, then you really don't need the cost of the special designs of the yellow or red tops.
