We drive the car as often as possible!!!

 

There technically is a difference between a trickle charger and a maintainer. The former will always output, the latter will check to see what's needed and do the right thing when needed. But that requires circuitry.

I'm a big fan of the CTEK units, and so are the customers on Amazon apparently, most are 5 star. I'd bet the one GM sells does the right thing.

 

Hi Chuck - One way to resolve this issue is to move to Phoenix. But if not I had mine plugged through the back for the last two years and its not a problem.

 

I would suggest that if your car is loosing enough charge/volts in just a few days, and would not start, you may have an electrical problem. Corvettes in general starting as early as C4's have had small batteries (I'm guessing to save weight) and a consistant draw to maintain the electronics at rest. I know of no other vehicle (other than some off road types) that the manufacturer admonishes the owners that regular trickle charging may be required. When they go so far as to provide a dedicated port and make available as an option a maintenance charging device, that pretty much tells the story. My C7 goes easily two weeks without requiring a trickle charge to start. I admittedly, have not taken any voltage readings other than to note the dash guages shortly after starting. However after a few miles or so the guage shows normal voltage and no labored starting was noted. If I'm going to leave the car in the garage for more than a couple of weeks, I do, as a preventitive measure hook the car up to the charger, and do not find it a chore, as it is quite convenient. Just sayin'.

 

This is from another thread in this section, which may explain why you see low readings on the car instrumentation

"This is normal behavior and what you are seeing is designed to increase battery life and marginally increase fuel economy. Overall control of the charging system is now done through vehicle control system. The alternator voltage output and resulting charge rate is controllable by its field excitation so the system can easily be used to optimize battery life and vehicle economy and this will result in you seeing the voltage changing during operation. GM has been doing this for several years although it is disconcerting when you first see it in operation if you are used to traditional systems where the voltage output is only a function of engine speed and electrical load."

 

FDX, I've always wondered why they don't shut the field off during hard acceleration and intensify it during deceleration. Those spikes might even help the battery.

Do you think this is what they mean, or did I just invent it? :-)

If we still ran generators you could run it backwards underload and pick up maybe 1/2 horsepower (no idea what a generator actually takes, though maybe 600W or so).

 

Terrible idea. That would reduce voltage to the fuel pump when you need it the most (maximum engine load).

 

So I hooked up my Porsche maintainer to the outlet in the hatch, but the unit is not lighting up to tell me that it is providing any juice to the battery. Is there any reason why the unit I use to charge my Porsche from the cigarette lighter would not work on my Z? I'm sure the charger is just rebranded with the Porsche logo.

 

It's called "Transplant Organ Rejection" Seriously, all plugs/recepticals are not created equal. As an example Chrysler uses light bulbs that are proprietary and over the counter standard bulbs, will light but, will not turn off the vehicles bulb status system warning lights. It may be your Porsche charger has a proprietary plug that may in fact charge your Vette but fail to light the units indicator. Just a guess.

 

My experience with most of the cars with computers is that at some level they are always working. When I began using battery maintainers "not trickle chargers" I never had problems with batterys loosing there charge again.

I am not saying that a battery doesn't lose its capacity to HOLD a charge. with enough time these batterys will lose there capacity to hold enough charge to start the car. My personal rule is to change the manufactures battery in about two years with a super high capacity battery and keep using the maintainer.

The battery for our cars are in there because the are NOT the highest end products. These are in there because of costs to GM.

While I'm at this..... And please don't flog me... I put a clean rag on my dash to remind me and my wife DO NOT DRIVE THE CAR without pulling the charger off the car. 😆. One time she didn't know I had hooked up the extender and on a nice day while I was at work she drove off with the charger tagging along. It was only for a 100 feet but it was the demise of the tender.

The other thing I like NOT...is a dead battery when you are out and about at the grocery store or on a cruise or car show is kinda tough and sometimes humiliating when the car won't start because of that old batteryThose that say it may take time or its to much work...well wait until it doesn't start when you are out there with no one around. You would have loved to spend that bit of time keeping the charging system TOP NOTCH.

This went long, but just trying to help

 

This is normal. There are multiple computers that will continually run tests on the car even when sitting in the garage. Over time, they will draw off the battery and eventually drain it. This is why you need to keep it on a trickle charger.

 

Is that one of the "always powered" ports? Some are, some are not, per the manual. If you put it in one of the ports when it's not powered, it can't connect to the battery, and will do nothing.

Try it in the console, see if its any different.

 

Um... point taken, but in reality there's an ECM constant for voltage compensation, so as long as the pump is sized [b]large[/i] enough to handle the load at 11-12V, you're fine, and it's not "a terrible idea".

You might be thinking of the olden days when we crutched together forced induction with timing delay boxes and "boost-a-pump" voltage boosters.

Drag cars do this (kill the alternator field) all the time, though if the fuel and ignition hardware isn't selected appropriately, you'll wind up running a 16V battery for the reason you originally stated. But that's still a crutch just because the parts aren't right.

 

I tried it again last night. Left the rear hatch open. Checked this morning, and I can see the lights on the charger. Seems to be working.

 

Parasitic drain from the computers, which do things like keep track of your preferences and where the last song left off from the media USB.

Doug

 

Anyone not comfortable running the CTEK cord out the hatch, I ran mine forward and out the passenger door window. I just dropped the window a smidge so as not to "pinch" the cord. With the unit sitting on the front seat it makes it tougher to forget about it and drive off with it attached. I'm sure I could do it though. ;-)

 

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ry-tender.html

 

You called the battery charger a trickle charger, of which there are numerous models on the market. The model sold with a '016 Z06 is a Battery Tender brand and they have been available for quite a few years. There may be other battery chargers available on the market like a Battery Tender, but do yourself and your car a favor and use the Battery Tender. This little computerized wonder monitors the voltage and amperage load of the car's battery and goes to idle/stand by, once your battery is fully charged....it can not burn up or toast your battery. If you didn't get that option with the car, you can buy a new one on eBay for around $50....with the cigarette lighter adaptor, you can plug it into the receptacle in the right rear area of your hatch (as someone already said). The only one you should be using...Battery Tender.

 

The factory "battery tender" is a repackaged CTEK. For a few years they actually didn't even repackage them and just changed the labels.

 

You very likely are correct, my dealer told me it was a Battery Tender, but probably he was just using that name. Battery Tender is a registered trademark and as I mentioned before, I'm not aware at all what other "chargers" are available on the market today, I'm sure there's dozens of them. But, whatever the OP was using, he should be sure it works like a Battery Tender (which the battery maintainer that is available as an option on the Corvette does) in that it shuts down (goes to stand by) once the battery is fully charged. Over the years I've known several people who had their cars on trickle chargers over winter and they wound up cooking the batteries.