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2016 Grand Sport, low mileage. Changed out the battery, went to start the car, everything went dark. Got out of the car, closed the door, everything was in lock down. Opened the trunk with the key fob key, got the drivers side door open. Looked up on line and followed some of the suggestions. Disconnected the negative terminal, jumped it with the positive side, which was still hooked up, hooked up the negative terminal, hit the key fob, nothing. Inserted the key fob into the steering wheel column, waited, nothing. Then disconnected both terminals and connected them to one another. Hooked them back up, hit the fob, nothing. Put the fob in the steering column, nothing.
Here are some fuses powered by the battery…if you have a 12 volt test light start checking the fuses…if this checking is over your head seek out an auto electrical shop…unfortunately we can’t diagnose this for you !!
Go back over the battery installation. You may have a bad or loose connection or a blown 350 amp fuse.
Make sure the battery cable clamps are pushed down, horizontal, and tight. Make sure the red cable ring lug is firmly attached to the 350 amp fuse - good mechanical contact, flat, and tight (see pic below). There have been lots of frustration with these connections when changing a battery - something may have come loose. Again, the ring lug on the red cable attached to the 350 amp fuse must make good mechanical contact with the fuse tab, then tighten firmly. The cable fits down into a notch in the plastic frame of the fuse assembly. There's also a small black sensing wire on the negative battery cable clamp that can get broken - important for charging, but not your current problem (see pic - bolt is painted blue).
Check the fuses on top of the battery. I would measure voltage from ground to positive battery terminal, then to downstream side of each fuse for comparison. Obviously the voltages should be the same. If all is good, measure at the front fuse box input terminal on the rear side of the fuse box to ground. There is some kind of small panel below the fuse box with fusible links for the starter and power steering - but if you have no lights, dash, or anything I doubt you have power to the front of the car.
There is also a fuse panel under the rear deck where you can check for power if there is power at the battery fuse.
Fob batteries are good for about 3 yr. A new 2032 battery should read 3.25+ volts.
Small black sensing wire connected to negative battery cable. See blue paint spot.
GL
Ron
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2019 GS Long Beach Red 2LT M7 PDR (current)
2014 Z51 Lime Rock Green 2LT M7 NPP MagRide (previous)
2006 Daytona Sunset Orange 3LT M6 (previous)
To all, thank you for your responses. Now like many of you I have changed many batteries out. C5 Diag got me thinking, everything was tight, so I removed the connections to both terminals, hit them both with some sand cloth to scuff the battery terminals surface, similar to what a plumber would use to clean copper prior to soldering. Reconnected the leads to the terminals, bingo, the rear hatch area lights came on and the dash lit up. Simple as that.
Same thing happened to me after i changed the battery in my first Stingray but i was at work when it happened. I had no tools and my wife had to bring a tool bag to me. All i did was disconnect the battery cables for 15 minutes and then reconnect. I made sure all was tight. The problem stemmed from the NAPA battery that I had installed. It was shorter than the ACDelco.
To all, thank you for your responses. Now like many of you I have changed many batteries out. C5 Diag got me thinking, everything was tight, so I removed the connections to both terminals, hit them both with some sand cloth to scuff the battery terminals surface, similar to what a plumber would use to clean copper prior to soldering. Reconnected the leads to the terminals, bingo, the rear hatch area lights came on and the dash lit up. Simple as that.
All is well. Thank you again.
You are just the latest to discover how finicky the C7 positive battery bus bar can be when reassembled after a battery replacement. I knew such two years ago from forum comments but it still bit me on the a$$ anyhow. Common error is the slight misalignment of the main red cable lug past the 350A fuse. Just a little off and you get a very poor connection and pretty much an electrically dead car. Been there and done that. Another piece of advice for the bus bar is take as little apart as possible to do the replacement.
I cleaned my new battery terminals with DeoxitD5 electrical cleaner. Also the connecting cable lugs. I was amazed how dirty the new battery terminals were. And yes many take too much apart. Not necessary and causes trouble. That red cable is very import to get started perfect. Start by hand holding the cable to keep the nut perfectly flat and turn by hand as far as you can. Should thread on quite a way very low effort. Then finish with the wrench. Then there's that little black wire. Vent hose fittings. All sorts of things can go wrong. Can't imagine letting a dealer do this.
2016 Battery Issue
