I have a C6 ZO6 with an almost new battery. Every time I don't start the car for a week or so the battery goes dead. I just got back from a 15 day trip and of course the battery is stone dead. Had to use the key just to get into it.
Here's my new problem; when I hook my charger to the battery the charger reads 1.4 volts and as soon as I set the charger to any amperage ( 2, 6 or 10 amps) the horn blows a couple of times, the lights flash and my charger goes to OFF. Any idea what is causing this? Need my car tomorrow, so please respond if you have any ideas. Thanks!!

 

Does it have a replacement sound system or aftermarket alarm system? Also, if the battery is at 1.4 volts, it is junk. SLA batteries are designed for shallow discharges.

 

Yes, it has a PAL in it to play my music. I suspect the PAL may be the problem, but this new thing with the horn blowing, lights flashing, and going to OFF has never happened to me before and I have charged this battery several times. Thanks!

 

Sounds like the PAL needs to be sent to Ray to be firmware re-flashed since something corrupted it's firmware, and it not shutting into sleep mode when it gets the command on the GM land bus when you shut the car off.
http://www.kawal.net/pal%20install.htm

Also, might want to unplug it, to verify that its the item causing the parasitic drain in the first place, and not something else in the car instead.


As for battery drained down to 1.4 volts a few times, the battery is trashed. You can take it back to where you got it to allow them to charge and amp test the battery, but with the full drains, such will damage the battery cells to the point that the will never pass the amp draw test.

One last thing, and if your not going to drive the car for say more than three days, get the car on a battery tender. Hence even with no parasitic drain on the batter problems, the car does draw enough power with it shut down to fully drain the battery in about 3 weeks.
If you looking for a good battery tender, then the Ctek 3300.

One last thing, and if you need to hook the battery up to a battery charger (not tender) then disconnect the battery from the car. Hence battery chargers with start modes can push up to 18 volts, and it not wise to shove this much voltage through the electrical system long term isntead (other than a quick jump to start the car). Plus the power from chargers is not the cleanest of power to begin with, so it can glitch the modules in the car; requiring that the battery be disconnected for some time, to allow all the modules to bleed of the power they may be retaining, and the entire system reset by connecting up a fully charged battery again.
Note, the fast way to bleed the power off the modules with the battery disconnector, it to hold the positive and negative cable connectors together for a few seconds themselves, and again, without the connectors connected to the battery.

 

 

New member here. If there's any chance in saving the battery, you'll need to charge it with a standalone device which has desulfation mode. Right now, there's most likely a buildup of lead sulfate inside the battery (which is a bad thing) and this greatly reduces the battery's ability to take a charge. If the battery won't perform after the desulfation operation is tried, it is definitely no good.

Maybe look into a lithium-ion battery with over-discharge protection. These batteries don't drain themselves as fast as lead-acid, are a fraction of the weight, and crank the engine faster.

 

SLA batteries are designed for shallow discharge rates. When you run them down to 1.4 volts seversal times, they are junk. Lithium batteries are lighter and do have a bunch of power for their size, but if you don't keep the cells balanced they have thermo runaway and blow up. I have them in my bikes and keep them plugged into a charger made keep the cells balanced.

I retired from the largest automotive battery manufacturer in the world, we made 140M car batteries a year and I had several engineers that designed batteries for BMW, Mercedes, Chrysler and Mitsubishi that reported to me and we tested tons of batteries and deep discharges always had the same result. AGM batteries like OPTIMA are a different story. They will take deep discharges and come back.

 

^^^ Take tim's word for it. He's probably seen more batteries than any Corvette-meeting owners have seen. All of them, combined.

 

So the Optima battery is worth the price? I'm getting tired of dead batteries! Thanks.

 

Thanks for your detailed response. You, and a few others seem like experts so I have pulled the battery and will replace it with a new one. As much as I hate to admit, the PAL must be causing the constant drain. I have already contacted Ray about testing it for me. I am not looking forward to re-installing the battery. There is no way to move the Positive connector out of the way to get it in and out. Thanks for your help.

 

Understood on cell balancing. I only get LFP batteries with a balancing board and over-discharge protection. I'd rather keep worries about cell balancing myself with my RC stuff.

Anyways, 140M car batteries...I bet you have some great outlandish customer claims for battery failures!

 

Is it possible your alternator is not charging the battery during operation? It might be a frayed fusible link or a bad alternator. If its not getting charged while driving, that could be it.