Dead C6
Melting Slicks
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 2,720
Likes: 1,061
If you research my threads, you'll find that I had the same problem. A charge got me going the first time the battery died. The second time (a few eeks later) the car had to leave home on a rollback. The battery was replaced and I have had no problems since. But both occassions were after the car set for five days and seven days, respectively. And I have a six-speed. VIN 01338.
Pro
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 662
Likes: 41
From: LI NY
St. Jude Donor '06
Does the C6 have 12V plugs (ie cigarette lighter plugs) that stay on after the car is switched off? If so, you can use a maintainer like I use in my 911 which plugs right into the 12V socket. Very simple.
Safety Car
Joined: Feb 1999
Posts: 4,977
Likes: 10
From: Reno NV
I have had very good luck with Delco batteries and the worst luck with Optimas. The C5 bat died at 3 years or so. 3 Optimas later, I bought the best Delco I could find. All was good. I hear that the Odyssey battery is the ticket.
Instructor
Joined: Sep 1999
Posts: 246
Likes: 0
From: St. Louis, MO, USA
Last week when my battery was dead after four days at the airport I posted that I had apparently not gotten it all the way into reverse. That thread developed a lot of discussion on the topic. But since the car had not honk at me when I had gotten out, and the stick appeared to be all the way in reverse when I found it dead, I just don't know what went wrong.
Interesting that others are having similar problems. NextOne owns VIN 1338 and mine is 1201. Could this be a bad batch of batteries? Hmmmmmmmm...
Interesting that others are having similar problems. NextOne owns VIN 1338 and mine is 1201. Could this be a bad batch of batteries? Hmmmmmmmm...
Team Owner
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 82,175
Likes: 1,319
From: McKinney TX
St. Jude Donor '21-'22-'23-'24
Originally Posted by JF244
Interesting that others are having similar problems. NextOne owns VIN 1338 and mine is 1201. Could this be a bad batch of batteries? Hmmmmmmmm...
Melting Slicks
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 2,168
Likes: 16
From: Phoenix AZ
Mine has not been driven since Thanksgiving (I'm in the process of finishing building a house and drive a pickup truck daily) I went out to check it today, and even though almost a month has gone by it fired right up like I just stopped for gas. Mine is a manual and VIN # 2178. Delivered on 9-10 and still less than 1000 miles 
Last edited by vetracer; Dec 22, 2004 at 12:00 AM.
Burning Brakes
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 954
Likes: 1
From: Chandler AZ
Every Single Chevrolet "Dead Battery"
Yup.... 
My 03 C5 Dead within 4 Weeks.
My 00 C5 Dead within 3 Months
My Blazer Xtreme Dead within 3 Months
My S10 Pickup Dead within 6 Months.
All Purchased New.....
I just thought it was Arizona's Brutal Hot Summers....
At any rate, just picked up my C6 Tonight........
My 03 C5 Dead within 4 Weeks.
My 00 C5 Dead within 3 Months
My Blazer Xtreme Dead within 3 Months
My S10 Pickup Dead within 6 Months.
All Purchased New.....
I just thought it was Arizona's Brutal Hot Summers....
At any rate, just picked up my C6 Tonight........
Race Director
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 10,089
Likes: 14
Originally Posted by CudjoeScott
Same here. I left town for three weeks and came back to a dead battery. I charged it up and drove to town (45 minutes). Gauge read 14.4 amps so I know it was charging during the drive. Turned it off for 10 minutes. Dead as a doornail. I got to try out the roadside assistance. 
So it's been charging since last night. I'll take it out later for a spin and see if it starts. Since my dealer sucks, I guess I'll end up running up to Sears. Never had any problems with DieHards in my cars or my boats.
My suggestion is to go to a good independent industrial battery distributor who handles a number of high quality brands. My personal favorite brand is Deka, 100% USA made in an ISO9001 qualified facility located in Pennsylvania. Their new Intimidator AGM will fit the Corvette.
I've been using Deka batteries in farm equipment for decades. Some of that equipment sits idle for months at a time, but with Deka batteries I can count on it starting right up when I need to use it.
Corvette Stories
The Best of Corvette for Corvette Enthusiasts
How Much Horsepower Every Corvette Engine "LOST" in 1972
Joe Kucinski
Top 10 DOs and DON'Ts for Protecting Your Convertible Top!
Michael S. Palmer
Top 10 Most Explosive Corvettes Ever Made: Power-to-Weight Ratio Ranked!
Joe Kucinski
150 hp to 1,250 hp: Every Corvette Generation Compared by the Specs That Matter
Joe Kucinski
8 Coolest Corvette Pace Cars (and Replicas) of All Time
Verdad Gallardo
Top 10 Corvette Engines RANKED by Peak Torque (70+ Years of Muscle!)
Joe Kucinski
Corvette ZR1X Will Be Pacing the Indy 500, And Could Probably Race, Too!
Verdad Gallardo
Top 10 Corvettes Coming to Mecum Indy 2026!
Brett Foote
Top 10 C9 Corvette MUST-HAVES to Fix These C8 Generation Flaws!
Michael S. Palmer
Instructor
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 148
Likes: 0
From: New Canaan CT
Originally Posted by MikeySoft
Yup....
My 03 C5 Dead within 4 Weeks.
My 00 C5 Dead within 3 Months
My Blazer Xtreme Dead within 3 Months
My S10 Pickup Dead within 6 Months.
All Purchased New.....
I just thought it was Arizona's Brutal Hot Summers....
At any rate, just picked up my C6 Tonight........
My 03 C5 Dead within 4 Weeks.
My 00 C5 Dead within 3 Months
My Blazer Xtreme Dead within 3 Months
My S10 Pickup Dead within 6 Months.
All Purchased New.....
I just thought it was Arizona's Brutal Hot Summers....
At any rate, just picked up my C6 Tonight........
Race Director
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 10,516
Likes: 2
From: Virginia Bch VA
Cruise-In VI Veteran
Cruise-In VII Veteran
St. Jude Donor '06
No Battery Tenders
You have a $55,000, top of the line, sports car. Having to deal with a battery tender should not be “Normal Operations”. If you have a bad battery – have the dealer replace it. If you continue to have problems there must be a short somewhere that causes the battery drain. Take it to the dealer and have him find and fix it. I will not accept a Mickey Mouse fix nor will I ever require a battery tender. It’s a different story for those who lay up their cars for long periods. A battery should start a car after a 2-3 week lay up with NO problem. I have a 2 yr old battery in my motorcycle – starts right up after 6 weeks. 
Make GM stand by their products
Make GM stand by their products
Le Mans Master
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 6,412
Likes: 1,295
From: Bluffton, SC
Originally Posted by JFTaylor
You have a $55,000, top of the line, sports car. Having to deal with a battery tender should not be “Normal Operations”. If you have a bad battery – have the dealer replace it. If you continue to have problems there must be a short somewhere that causes the battery drain. Take it to the dealer and have him find and fix it. I will not accept a Mickey Mouse fix nor will I ever require a battery tender. It’s a different story for those who lay up their cars for long periods. A battery should start a car after a 2-3 week lay up with NO problem. I have a 2 yr old battery in my motorcycle – starts right up after 6 weeks. Make GM stand by their products
Make GM stand by their products
Even with the miserable cold winters we endure up here, I've only had to put a battery tender on one car over the years. That was Mazda Miata that had a battery about the size of my thumb. It went dead every two weeks if I just left it. So far, the C6 has been fine with weekly starts in the garage, in spite of the extreme cold. If the Delco OEM battery doesn't last the winter, you can be sure I'll replace it with a higher capacity unit as soon as I can.
Burning Brakes
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 1,161
Likes: 1
From: North Carolina
St. Jude Donor '06-'07-'08
Mine died for the second time over this past "cold" southeastern USA weekend. It sat for 4 days. THIS TIME IT WAS IN REVERSE. Maybe not fully charged before sitting as I have been unable to drive it very often recently? Vin 6149. I am reporting to dealer, but the Corvette techs there scare me.
Jim
Jim
CF Community Team
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 19,363
Likes: 5,243
From: Cape Cod, Mass.
2025 C6 of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
2025 C8 Z06/7/E-Ray of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
2023 C3 of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
2021 C8 of the Year Finalist Unmodified
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (performance mods)
2019 C1 of Year Winner (performance mods)
2017 Corvette of the Year Finalist
2016 C2 of Year
2015 C3 of Year Finalist
battery problem
I have posted previously on this battery rundown problem I experienced. The dealer replaced the original 595 CCA battery with a 695 CCA battery and I have not had a problem since. I did purchase three battery butlers from Lectric Limited. At $15 per unit it's a great deal. I have one hooked to the 05, the 65 and the 61 now. The unit shuts down automatically when it senses a full state of charge. There is an indicator light which lets you know when it's charging. I waited to hook the battery butler up to the C6 to assure that the problem had been corrected.
Advanced
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 50
Likes: 0
From: Ojai CA
Ted, since your battery is now recharged, try this: Get in the car with your fob and press and hold the accessory switch down for 5 seconds, then move your finger up an inch and hit the start button. The same thing happened to me (my son left the radio on all night with the car not in park) and the car wouldn't start even with the battery fully charged again. Had it towed to a dealership and this was the trick the service manager used to get it to start it. This won't help with the original cause of the discharge, but will at least get you going again.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Feb 1999
Posts: 6,269
Likes: 1
From: Richmond Ca
Originally Posted by Wolfbane
It has been cold here in maryland recently so I have not driven the vette in a few days. I go out to get something out of the car and it is stone cold dead. Battery appears to be totally drained. I thought I might have left out of reverse but when I got the door opened I noticed that the seat was all the way back. I have the auto exit feature on so it only does that when the car is in reverse and the parking brake is on. This means I didn't have it in the wrong gear and when I checked the gear shift handle it was indeed in reverse. I tried hooking up my battery charger. The car just sits there and makes a strange clicking noise. (Sounds like a couple of relays and perhaps a solenoid.) After about 15 minutes I took the charger off. I'll call the dealer in the morning to get them to check it out. Anyone else have any electrical problems? 
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 264
Likes: 0
From: Stevensville MD
I stopped the charge because of the way the car was reacting. I just didn't think all that activity was normal for a charge. At any rate it is with the dealer now and they are gonna check it over thoroughly. Here's a thought though.....the tow truck driver was able to steer the car without doing anything to remove the column lock. Does the column lock disengage when the power is gone? If not I wonder if it didn't get fully engaged and as a result kept running juice through the solenoid? I mentioned this to the dealer and they said they would look into it. I guess it's just one of those things that make you go hmm......
Thanks to everyone for all the relplies and suggestions. I will let them replace the battery and then go buy a replacement. I figure GM needs to at least get this on the books.
Thanks to everyone for all the relplies and suggestions. I will let them replace the battery and then go buy a replacement. I figure GM needs to at least get this on the books.
Drifting
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 1,396
Likes: 0
From: Las Vegas NV
St. Jude Donor '09-'10-'11-'12
Originally Posted by shopdog
The gauge reads volts, not amps.
Most Sears batteries are made in Turkey now, some are made in India. Delco batteries are made in either Korea or China depending on the particular model.
My suggestion is to go to a good independent industrial battery distributor who handles a number of high quality brands. My personal favorite brand is Deka, 100% USA made in an ISO9001 qualified facility located in Pennsylvania. Their new Intimidator AGM will fit the Corvette.
I've been using Deka batteries in farm equipment for decades. Some of that equipment sits idle for months at a time, but with Deka batteries I can count on it starting right up when I need to use it.
Most Sears batteries are made in Turkey now, some are made in India. Delco batteries are made in either Korea or China depending on the particular model.
My suggestion is to go to a good independent industrial battery distributor who handles a number of high quality brands. My personal favorite brand is Deka, 100% USA made in an ISO9001 qualified facility located in Pennsylvania. Their new Intimidator AGM will fit the Corvette.
I've been using Deka batteries in farm equipment for decades. Some of that equipment sits idle for months at a time, but with Deka batteries I can count on it starting right up when I need to use it.
Well, after charging the stock battery all night I drove it to the dealer (45 minutes away) to have it checked out. Dead as a doornail. VIN# 2511 just for the record. They checked out the car and confirmed the battery was crud. They replaced it reluctantly, but would not upgrade it.
So I then drove down the road to Sears and bought a DieHard. I will definitely check out Deka next time, but I have very limited choices down here and did not want to wait.
Thanks for the info!
Team Owner
Joined: Sep 1999
Posts: 41,732
Likes: 1,718
From: Springfield MO
Originally Posted by Wolfbane
I stopped the charge because of the way the car was reacting. I just didn't think all that activity was normal for a charge. At any rate it is with the dealer now and they are gonna check it over thoroughly. Here's a thought though.....the tow truck driver was able to steer the car without doing anything to remove the column lock. Does the column lock disengage when the power is gone? If not I wonder if it didn't get fully engaged and as a result kept running juice through the solenoid? I mentioned this to the dealer and they said they would look into it. I guess it's just one of those things that make you go hmm......
Thanks to everyone for all the relplies and suggestions. I will let them replace the battery and then go buy a replacement. I figure GM needs to at least get this on the books.
Thanks to everyone for all the relplies and suggestions. I will let them replace the battery and then go buy a replacement. I figure GM needs to at least get this on the books.