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I have seen in several places now that it is a good idea to replace the battery more often than perhaps other cars require. Some say keep a battery no more than 3 years in a Corvette. The proper ACDelco 90PS battery in my 2007 C6 does not look new, and there is no installation date on it. I just recently replaced the battery in my 2011 Silverado truck with no problems at all.
Should I do the work myself to replace the battery in my Corvette? Should I get the DiabloSport InTune i3 before doing the battery replacement?
I would like to think that I will be able to do a lot of the work on this car. Looking closely under the hood, everything seems to be easy to get at for maintenance. It's not going to be economical to have my excellent dealer do everything ... even though that's how we treat my truck. I am simply much more motivated to work on this Hot Rod car than I am to work on my truck.
Last edited by vezePilot; Jun 19, 2018 at 01:14 AM.
It's very easy. Protip: DO NOT REMOVE THE 10MM NUTS ON TOP, ONLY LOOSEN. They are very easy to lose, and very hard to replace. Just loosen them and leave them on their post.
1. LOOSEN (do not completely remove) the two 10mm nuts at the terminals.
2. Lift/remove the connections and put them to the side.
3. Remove the battery tie down. It is between the battery and fuse box, and is 1 bolt. You will want to use a long extension.
4. Pulling the battery out can be slightly challenging. I personally scoot the battery toward the engine a little, which requires slightly lifting it over the lip of the tray. Then I get my fingers underneath it, angle it a bit, and lift it out.
Then just repeat these steps backwards.
As for the diablotune, I don't see why it would matter whether you do it before or after. I'm not very familiar with them, but the only way the battery will affect it I think is that if your battery died while it was flashing the tune then it may cause issues. Can always throw a battery tender on the battery while you do that. When it comes to tuning, I've always felt that the money is better spent using a reputable shop/tuner to do a street/dyno tune, but it is of course more expensive.
Just do it yourself.
Easy.
Don't remove the nut on the terminal, just loosen.
Remove negative cable first.
Don't forget to re-index your windows and check your stereo/Nav settings.
Every 3 yrs is not a bad idea for preventative maintenance, yet sometimes batteries will last longer.
As for tuner, I would do once the new battery is installed.
Just do it yourself.
Easy.
Don't remove the nut on the terminal, just loosen.
Remove negative cable first.
Don't forget to re-index your windows and check your stereo/Nav settings.
Every 3 yrs is not a bad idea for preventative maintenance, yet sometimes batteries will last longer.
As for tuner, I would do once the new battery is installed.
Have fun, easy job.
What causes the need to re-index windows? Ive had my battery out/swapped it probably 5+ times now and I've never done it. Haven't had any issues with the windows.
What causes the need to re-index windows? Ive had my battery out/swapped it probably 5+ times now and I've never done it. Haven't had any issues with the windows.
Have you washed your car??
I forgot one time (Indexing) and noticed water running inside my Corvette. After that I indexed them..
Not a fan of a maintenance free battery that you have no way of checking the water level.
Hence a battery is going to die for one of two two reasons.
The cells on the battery have sulfated to the level that they can no longer get pull at charge,
Or,
the cells have freeze or heat warped instead.
Now in regards to sulfated batteries from normal use, granted that some tenders do have a desulfator cycle to them them, but it not going to save a battery that is already to the point that you lost a cell, and really may be only buying a year of life out of the battery. Hence the more the battery is drained down, and has to be recharged up again, the faster the battery cells will sulfate.
So lets move on to battery freezing, or heat warping next.
Here, battery left in a drain state, and it going to freeze out in the cold, warping the cells, and destroying the battery. Hence charging system on the car not maintained, and why the battery is not fully charging to begin with.
Now the huge one, and that is water level in a battery and if the water level gets too low, then this causes the cells to over heat and warp to take a cell out instead. So yes, even a maintenance free battery has vent ports, does end up with the water evaporating over time (even if just mostly on the tender), and true be told, the reason reason for the limited life on a maintenance free battery to start with.
So with all the above in mind, did a write up on not only checking the charging system to make sure it's up to snuff/working correctly, but how to check the water level on some maintenance free batteries to make sure that water level in them is still correctly.
Note, distilled water add level should be 1/8" below the bottom lip of the ports plastic bottom check edge, not to or above that bottom check lip instead!!!!! If the battery is filled too high with added distilled water, then it will be water/acid that is puked out of the port, and not just water evaporation instead.
My ACDelco battery lasted 4 years and 10 months, a little shorter time than I was expecting but I don't run a battery more than 5 years anyway so not a big deal. The battery actually had a little more life left in it but I noticed the starter was starting to drag a little so I went ahead and changed. Chevy dealer wanted $50 labor to do it. I really didn't want to bother with it myself although I've done a lot thru the years on all my cars. At my age I'm content to let someone else do stuff. Anyway, I thought the $50 was excessive and went down the street to the Interstate battery store and they charged $10, which is reasonable for me. Also, got a better battery with a free 3 year exchange policy.
That recommended ACDelco 90PS in my Corvette right now _IS_ a maintenance-free battery, isn't it? Honestly hadn't noticed that ... maybe due to the BRIGHT RED CORVETTE skewing my vision.
In the graphic you included, Dano, the battery opening shown seems to be a Trojan brand battery (it's the color). If there is a type & size from Trojan that will fit and work in my C6 I would MUCH RATHER have one of those than any other brand. I use Trojan 27 size Renewable Energy/Deep Cycle batteries for the Solar Electric Generator that I built on top of my garage.
So it is apparently not possible to hit the "Thanks" button more than once for any given post. Oh, well ... THANKS! to all you folks who have posted here. It's true that a Trojan would be nice, but I could probably just install the same battery in my C6 as I did in my Silverado ... correct?
It was very convenient to get that Interstate battery (I think from the world-famous McGuckins Hardware store) already filled and charged and guaranteed. Here's the label of that battery in my truck:
I double-checked the size and the terminal orientation, and the Interstate MTP-48 is indeed the right geometry for the C6.
A local O-Reilly Auto parts store also has a battery which fits a 2007 C6 Corvette all filled, charged and ready to go.
Last edited by vezePilot; Jun 19, 2018 at 03:58 PM.
Say what you will but I have experienced excellent results running the Optima Gel Batteries.
Both the Red Top and Yellow Top.
The C6 has one in for 7 years and my 4 Runner has been 9 years. Prior the 4 Runner was 12 years with the Optima and I changed out just thinking it was in long enough. Both in the 4 Runner have had additional 60 amp draw for a CB amp.
Other batteries over the years usually last 4 years max.
Last edited by Boomer111; Jun 20, 2018 at 10:08 AM.
I suggest doing the work on your corvette yourself is a car everybody likes to drive and taking the car for some body to work on it is quite an opportunity for a joy ride, but not only that the pleasure will be all his and so will your money. (Nobody better not touch my car).
If you like your car to be faster start with your battery my car came with a 38 lbs battery was replaced with a Duralast ETX20L Agm recommended by several corvette forum users and I never had any problems with it. Not so with 19 lbs Braille that was always a problem needed to be recharged all the time when the car sat even when disconnected.
Just don't swap cables cause you risk frying the ecm.
Ha!! I've washed it quite a few times. I'll double check but the door shuts and then they raise slightly and seal well. Is re-indexing easy?
That is strange that your windows still raise after the door shuts indicating they remain indexed, mine have never done that. Maybe if you change the battery quickly it retains enough charge in the electrical system to hold the memory of the window indexing. Every time my battery has died either from going bad, or sitting too long in the winter, I have had to re-index. Either way, doing it is not hard and does not require any tools or anything like that. You just hold down on the window switches for a long time even after the windows fully lower, then immediately raise the windows and continue to hold the switch up for some period of time as well. I do not know the exact time needed to trigger the car's computer to register the window position, but I'd say 20 seconds or so each time seems to do the trick.
That is strange that your windows still raise after the door shuts indicating they remain indexed, mine have never done that. Maybe if you change the battery quickly it retains enough charge in the electrical system to hold the memory of the window indexing. Every time my battery has died either from going bad, or sitting too long in the winter, I have had to re-index. Either way, doing it is not hard and does not require any tools or anything like that. You just hold down on the window switches for a long time even after the windows fully lower, then immediately raise the windows and continue to hold the switch up for some period of time as well. I do not know the exact time needed to trigger the car's computer to register the window position, but I'd say 20 seconds or so each time seems to do the trick.
Just need to hold the button still in the window up position for about 3 seconds after the window is all the way up with the car running, and if you listen closely to the door, will hear a slight click as the window regulator re indexes for that window. For this reason, I will reindex each window one at time
As for battery disconnects, I tend to leave the battery not only disconnector for a few mins, but will touch the positive and negative cables together after the battery has been remove from the car. This allows a full power drain of the modules in the car, to hard reset all the modules once the battery is reinstalled.
So with a hard reset of all the modules, all that has to be redone is just to reindex the windows, and reset the time on the clock.
As for the quick way to reset the time of the clock, hold down both the min and hrs buttons until the radio beeps and ask to set to RDS time, release the two buttons, then hold them both back down again until the radio resets it time to RDS time.
Ha!! I've washed it quite a few times. I'll double check but the door shuts and then they raise slightly and seal well. Is re-indexing easy?
Yes, it's in "the Manual".. I think you run the window up and hold the button for ~ 2 sec. then run it down and back up, holding it for another ~ 2 sec. You can confirm indexing by opening the door with the window up and it will drop a little when opening the door and run up when closing..
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Replacing the Battery myself
