Boucherman

Just tried to start the car after a winter of being on the Chevy battery charger. Green light on etc. Still dead. Put an old shool charger on it and had a lot of light blinking, strange sounds, etc. Will try and start it later. UGH!!

2015 Z51 M7

kenownr

Sounds like time for a new battery. Mines a 2015 also and I plan on a new battery very soon. There has been several threads on batteries going bad on the 3rd or 4th year. Sorry it's not firing up -- get it going, finally a descent weekend coming up for us MI snowbirds

tom

Flame Red

My '15 battery only lasted a little over a year, even though it was on the trickle charger too. Dead cell. Replaced with a AGM direct fit. Get the one with handles. You will need the strap tool to get the dead one out. Don't forget to hook up the vent tube. Many threads here. Search is your friend.

dbirdhouse1

....when I bought my '14 (used) about a year and a half ago I immediately replaced the battery (some previous examples like the red/yellow top Optimas no longer fit) as a preemptive move.....especially since they're a pain to do with the trunk location.

Boucherman

Put a new battery in. Not a simple job. Three hands are needed. I ripped a wire in the process. Don't know what it did, but it doesn't do it now. The Negative battery cable had a sticky wire group wrapped around it and it went into the trim of the inner fender well. A bunch of two or more with one splitting of to go elsewhere. ??? very thin copper wire with a sticky tape type wrap. NO MODS were ever done to the car. Looks like it might go to the 12volt port in the trunk.

Thanks again for all your positive comments.

Anyway I almost shattered the side window as the car lost its index with the power down.

I had no radio presets when I started my test drive. They all returned by the time I got home???

Thanks for your input! I did connect the vent. I did disconnect the negative first. All seems well now. Still I need to figure out what that wire used to do.

Boucherman

FOUND where the wire belongs. It is held under the nut on the negative terminal. The wire pulled out of the crimp fastener. Put it back and crimped. All good now, I hope.

JerryU

Yep, that is the negative wire that goes to the 12 volt receptacle in the right rear.

Too bad you had not seen my 1 1/2 year old PDF on changing batteries. Been in many battery Threads. Makes it easier.

For others who have not done it yet, lots of pics and some tricks like how not to rip the unbound carpet when pulling iy out from under the plastic wheel well cover (even a Dealer Tech did that!)

http://netwelding.com/Battery_Issues.pdf

Boucherman

Wow, nice info. Thanks. I used two big vice grips on the terminals to lift the battery out. Strap would be nice. The new battery has a nice handle built into the center of the top.

stingraymyway

Battery probably went bad. They don't have a long life expectancy on the new Vettes.
​​​​​​Same thing happened with a motorcycle I owned. Battery tender said it was full charge but when I went to start it, nothing. Got a new battery and all was good.

orca1946

My c6 battery lasted 5 years ! So the new ones are not as good as the old ones?

After reading ALL the info from your pdf --- WOW what a pain in the A$$ that is from the old battery placement to change a battery now!

mschuyler

What kind of "charger" did you use? Was it a trickle charger, or was it a maintainer?

Foosh

He said in the OP, "after a winter of being on the Chevy battery charger. Green light on etc." That clearly indicated to me it was talking about the CTEK 3300 maintainer, AKA, the optional "Battery Protection Package."

I'm pretty sure the maintainer had nothing to do with anything. The battery has at least one dead cell, and the maintainer will still show a full charge on that faulty battery. It is at full charge for that particular failed battery, but it's no longer capable enough "juice" to power the car.

Allen_B

Keeping batteries healthy takes a little more work than just a tender. This is especially true with ones that sit and don't get cycled much as they tend to self-discharge (bad) and sulfide (most times fatal). I've had pretty good results from Deltran battery tenders and Schumacher full chargers. For stuff that doesn't get used much a tender works OK assuming the battery is healthy, but a solid charge periodically helps more if used as part of routine maintenance.

My truck is the best example- The truck has the OEM battery, now 8 years old and is rock solid (knock on wood). It really doesn't get driven much and can go a couple of weeks or more without being driven and I don't use a tender. Every few months, I'll put the full charger on it to bring it to 100% which usually only takes about 10 minutes or so. Next, turn on the ignition, HVAC fan and lights (without starting) and let it sit for 5 minutes to knock off the surface charge, then shut everything off and sit for 20 minutes to let the battery stabilize. Back on the charger (it's usually reading about 70%) and will take several hours to bring back up to 100%.

Will do the same routine maintenance cycle on the other cars, the bikes and boat during the summer, but I pull the batteries from the bikes and boat and onto a tender (just after a full charge cycle) in the winter. Only time I use a tender on the Vette is when I know it will sit for several weeks but use the same maintenance routine and did the same with the previous C6.

For the OP, may want to try out the routine above. Would be cheaper than buying a new battery and will likely resurrect the old one assuming it's not badly sulfided...


Allen

Foosh

Battery failures can be rather random. They can fail when nearly new and sometimes they last up to a decade.

One sure fire way to kill them prematurely is letting them deeply discharge. That's why a maintainer improves the odds that a battery will live a relatively long service life, but it's not going to help a battery that has a hidden flaw in one or more cells.

The other way to to drive the vehicle routinely.

Boucherman

Chevrolet Corvette trickle charger. Had a merchandise credit for it from my dealer. I believe that it works well, just had a bad battery. I have no facts to back that up. Original battery on a smart charger now. It's been several hours at just over two amps and still charging.

TEXHAWK0

Once the battery goes completely dead, I would not even try yo save it.

hiperfman

That's why I like to disconnect the battery terminal rather than hook up a battery charger or a float style as they can & do fail.

Foosh

Maintainers rarely fail, and that was not the problem here. The battery failed. But sure, anything can fail.

thrilled

Mine is nearly 4 years now.Need to get A new one.No matter what charging system you use.Nothing last forever.

rsvette12

Got to work the other day and decided to move my car to another spot - yup would not start - new that was coming

After widebody conversion body shop beat the hell out of my battery - I replaced it only took a ratchet with a 10mm and 13mm socket and extension, was a real pia getting it out without a strap but go it done - new battery has a strap - all in all was pretty easy other than removing it