I am one of several C6 owners that have indicated in this forum that they have experienced a randon dead battery problem since purchasing this vehicle. I have since been contacted by an engineer 'in high places' that is willing to work with us to solve this problem. If you, or any C6 owner that you know, has experienced a random dead battery problem, please send me an e-mail at dffej51@aol.com and provide your name, VIN number, mileage and telephone number so that I may pass the information on to this engineer. The more C6 owners he can talk to, the better the chance have having this problem solved.

Let's work together to get this issue reolved once and for all. Thanks.

 

You should also post this in the General section so it gets maximum exposure.

 

It would be really nice to have a reliable car. I would be so grateful if you friend in high places would PM me through this forum so we could dialog. Don't think I would give additional details to someone making their first post, thanks!

 

I see this is your first post with this forum. Are you aware that the DBS has affected maybe 100 or more members? You are the first member that has gotten through to GM with this issue. I have not had it yet but I am sure I will sooner or later. I have been following this issue since the C6 first came out. If I can help with anything let me know.
Please post your request in the general section because that is where most complaint's are posted.

 

See if you can pick the techs brain about how the computer controls the power of the car be it via torque management, or even mileage.

 

If this guy is legit, he should come on the forum an deal with it directly. No disrespect, but I also would not give out private info on an internet forum. You sure this guy isn't fron Nigeria?

 

Something smells fishy here. His first post, and an engineer contacted him and we're supposed to send our VIN numbers to him along with our phone numbers?

Sorry, I need more proof that this guy is on the up and up. He could be collecting VIN numbers and determining where you live by your phone number, or maybe he's building a target list to sell you some type of battery protector.

I think one of the mod's needs to check this out. Also, he should show proof of his contact with the engineer.

Sorry if I'm being a little skeptical, but until I see some better info, I'm not sending my info.

 

 

I went ahead and bought the Priority Start Pro today just to be on the safe side until this all shakes out.

 

Should we include our SSN, credit card #, and birth date to prove who we are?

 

This was first posted on the C5/C6 Registry a week or so ago.

 

Virtually no information under the poster's profile. The poster will have to be more forthcoming for me to give any info. 1st post and now we're getting DBS solved? Sounds too good to be true.

 

I know of this person. He is a long time member of another Corvette group I belong to.
I gave him my information last week. I believe what he is saying...
If anyone thinks I’m not serious about fixing this problem just do a post search under my name (6spdC6) (you will find plenty)
The more information we can get to the right people, the better our chances are. If GM is willing to look into this, we had better drown them with information,
Dave

 

Priority Start works just fine with me. Installed after my first DBS - had a valet manually turn the lights on and didn't catch it - Priority Start worked like a charm.

 

If this is on the "up & up", the "engineer" will want as much info as possible. I was an electrical engineer for 11 yrs with another company and occasionally dealt with these types of issues. They boil down to finding the system that is creating a "quiescent current" or sometimes called "dark current". One typical approach is to put a hall effect sensor on the negative cable and check current draw. If there exists a drain on the system (can be very small...milliamps) then start pulling fuses and see which one drops the current out.

If this is truelly an intermittent situation and the vehicle doesn't always exhibit the situation, then troubleshooting becomes very frustrating...

The engineer would want to know...
1) What were the conditions when the battery died.
2) What was done in the vehicle prior to the occurrence...this includes any aftermarket installations, etc.

Basically, there is not such thing as too much information at this point...

Years ago, a car mfg got the bright idea to use mercury swithes for their hood light. Long story short, if the vehicle was parked on an incline, the hood light would turn on and batteries would die.

Anyway, I would be more than happy to look into this if any of you want to send me the info. Remember, send all the info you can about the vehicle (vin's, etc not needed...personal info not needed). just PM me with the info and I will check things out with my C6.

The reason the engineer would want the vin's would be to track what modules went into the vehicle and this would lead me to believe there was a known issue...this is not uncommon in the automovtive world. Not saying this is the case, just believe me when I tell you that crazy scenarios can occur.

Jz

 

Thanks i will feed you my own information tomorrow. All help is appreciated. Finding a "off&on" problem is at the best frustrating.

I have also sent my contact info to the person working with the GM engineer. This person is reliable, and must at this time protect the engineer involved as this is sortakinda a unofficial undertaking.

 

years ago, back when hector was still a pup, I worked as a tire buster/battery transfer technician for sears & roebuck. (what ever happened to roebuck, I wonder)
anyways, in our battery room we'd take the batteries and put them on a rack and trickle charge them for 8-10 hours. the idea being that the battery was chemicaly charged when we put the acid in them, but needed to be electrically charged.
I was doubtful at first, so we took a battery that had not been charged yet and gave it a load test. it failed, miserably. we then charged it, and wha-la, it passed. made a believer out of me.
so anyways, reading this post got me to wondering what condition my battery was in, in the new car two weeks out of the dealership. I put my battery charger on it and it was just a hair above the red zone, so I'm giving it a trickle charge as I write this.
I'm guessing GM just takes the battery off the shelf and drops it into the car betting it'll start, and then parking it.
charging systems on cars today only generate enough voltage to run the vehicle with little, if any left over to charge the battery.
so my advice to anyone buying a new car, or a new battery, would be to spend fifty bucks on battery charger, one with a little analog meter on the front of it and capable of 2-10 amp charging, and throw it on your battery to ensure that it is electrically charged.
vettes tend to drain your battery anyways when sitting idle. so if you only drive it on weekends, or less than twice a month or so you will wind up with a dead battery.

 

Why can't this engineer just get on here and do a search for "DBS" in General and Tech? We've all done a brain dump of everything we can think of here on the forums and have already done all the legwork we can. All the info is here. Personally, I think the problem is caused by column locks that continually keep trying to engage because when I had my DBS episode, my battery was drained all the way down to 2.4 volts. I doubt anything electronic would "stay alive" that long (the computer dies at about 10 volts and goes brain dead so would probably stop the draw earlier), so it is probably a mechanical failure and the only thing mechanical not shared by automatics is the column lock or maybe the back-up lights.

My own personal solution if I were in the loop would be to devise a simple column lock bypass and install it on EVERY car that has had the problem as a TSB for those who complain, then see if the problem recurs on the cars with the column lock bypassed. Of course, an even better solution would be to install a column lock bypass AND reprogram the computer so that shutdown in reverse is no longer necessary.

Mike

 

I agree. Mine has aways gone dead on day 2 or not at all. I have found nothing in these posts to contradict this, and have seen some agreement. At this point I am pretty sure the column lock motor runs to end of travel and releases the lock pin. At this point it must run up against a limit switch near the end of travel which breaks the current path and stops the motor. My thereoy is, occasionally, the limit switch doesn't open and the motor hits its mechcanical limit and just continues to draw current until it drains the battery. The car dies on about day 2 as the battery goes below 10.5 volts. This might release the run signal to the motor when the computer and steering lock control module die or the signal might stay locked in until the battery eventually goes to 0 volts. I need more DBS episodes to analize.

Gary

 

I think the 100 plus amp alternator with a output voltage of 14.4 Volts should do the trick in pretty short order.