The assumption you're making is that the car is in a garage. How about when the car is parked outside in the rain? Do you want to have to leave the Frunk open while on the maintainer for a few days letting the rain get in?

 

Get creative. Designated trickle charger come on lets be real… some real funny stuff….

 

Decent point, although there are ways around having to leave the frunk open even when using the accessory outlet.
And car covers.

 

An easier solution is to move to somewhere with little rain.

 

If you're leaving it outside for enough time that you need the battery maintainer, an outdoor car cover is a good idea to protect the vehicle too. Then the car cover will, ummm, cover any gap at the front of the frunk.

My C8 is outside not only in the rain but all winter too. Electrical cord is draped over the front fascia, with a soft towel under it to protect the paint just in case the cord moves, and into the frunk to connect to the GM battery maintainer plugged into the frunk's power outlet. The first click when closing the frunk keeps the lid fastened but leaves just enough of a gap for the electrical cord. Car cover goes over that and everything's fine.

 

Be careful with car covers, put it on a dirty car and your asking for trouble… the dirty secret is they accumulate dirt and start acting like sand paper…

 

YES... My cars live outside, never garaged, except for "the red thing". (see avatar). ...

Someone showed me a picture of a route from the battery down and to the side so that there is a route to hang wires just behind the rear suspension... My plan is to affix ring terminals to the battery and have the charger mounted so that only the 120v plug hangs out...That way I can run an extension cord from the garage to the plug and have the frunk sealed, and the charger dry. .

 

My car has been in the dealer since Tuesday morning following my dead battery OTA update fiasco. Found out today it should be back on Wednesday. I don't really mind though. They are replacing the Info module. Mine came defective from the factory (Home Button had no function so I had no way to exit Apple Car play -- annoying but not serious). They replaced 2 rims by recall for poracity, recharged the battery and did all updates.

So, so far/ so good. I'm happy. Dealer seems to really care.

 

Thanks for the video. I'll plan to remove those two panels, add a pigtail of some kind that I can use so I won't have to remove the panels to put it on my battery maintainer.

I think the better idea is to drive it so much that I never worry about a battery maintainer!

 

Ok man...thnx for the update...enjoy the car...drive it like you stole it

 

For C7 after you drive it around for 45 min or so the cabin gets hotter and hotter from the torque tube, even with AC on it's still not comfortable vs other cars. And in the winter after 45 min you keep taking a shirt off every 15 min or so. C8 doesn't have this problem right?I really hate that in C7 its almost like a defect. And 5 min before you get to your house you turn off the AC, and the air gets HOT after like 30 seconds, other cars it's about 2,3 min or longer. Very uncomfortable.

 

Motorcycles don't have that heat issue.

 

Update on this transmission solenoid issue. I finally got the car back after 10 days from the original check engine light. I asked for all the documents from the service and they photocopied them for me. At Audi they always give them all to you. But here I guess you always have to ask?

Anyway, the docs say I had P0868 (Transmission Fluid Pressure Sensor 3 = Less than a predefined threshold - For greater than 1s) and P1955. P1955 I don't have a description but it is in Service Bulletin #21-NA-033 (which deals with multiple codes) and says the cause is "This condition may be caused by an Internal transmission solenoid or switch sticking due to debris." The bulletin then has a few different procedures and next steps, one of which is to replace the main control valve body assembly which they did for mine. They got the part(s) in yesterday and replaced, reassembled, verified fluid level, programmed the valve body, flushed the system, did a "Fast Adapt Learn" and the codes didn't come back after cold start and test drive. All covered under warranty of course but for posterity it looks like it was a 6.1 hour job + the part(s) which I'm just guessing probably $3k? Total 10 days from check engine light to back in my hands.

Well. the car is dirty so I'm glad I got PPF and ceramic done prior. I will be cleaning it after work ;-) But I'm glad it's back and I will be trying to drive the hell out of it the next few weeks. :-D

 

Great News…

 

May I ask prior to the codes showing up, were you driving primarily on the highway or local stop and go city traffic? Reason I ask, I had the same code P0868 and also P2855 (separate occasion), and yes the service manuals say to clean / flush. Dealer just reset the code and it didn't re-appear (yet). What I am curious about is the hydraulic flush procedure mentions when replacing the trans filter and using the GM scan tool to bring the engine rpm up to 2k for 8 minutes. Am wondering by driving on the highway and keeping the rpm over 2k for over 8 min is the same as flushing the contaminants through the cartridge filter.

With my situation and the DTC codes, it has 100% been all city traffic for the first 1300 miles.

 

Good questions. At first they tried a software update and a "self-clean" procedure as described in the bulletin. The code returned, so the proceeded to the next step.

I'm almost at 1300 miles. I did museum delivery so the first 700 miles or so were a lot of highway but varying speeds and gears as they recommended before 500 miles. Then after 500miles, i really pushed it on the highway and back roads of Virginia, and also in inclement weather (this was in early February). Since then I've put another 500 miles on. Lots of town driving, but lots of twistys and drives to the butcher in town and a few cars and coffee events. I have gone through all the modes too, and really only did one session of launch control launches the day before the codes showed up. The day the codes showed up I was driving over an hour on twisty roads and highways coming back from Leesburg Cars and Coffee in VA, about an hour to my house. Some lights, but a lot of, lets say, spirited driving. Z mode, my mode, manual shifting, etc.

I hope and assume it's just a fluke thing. IMO these cars are meant to be driven in a spirited fashion. If they can't handle that, then something is wrong. I'm going to assume I just had a fluke switch/solenoid or wiring, whatever and will try to pretend like the last 10 days didn't happen lol.

 

You are very patient and deserve to have a trouble free vehicle ... I hope all the issues are in the rear view where they belong!

 

The final saga of my dead battery from the OTA download.

Got the car back to today. It was at the dealer a week. I had a new (230 mile) Equinox SUV as a loaner for that time, which was pretty nice.

They completed the download and recharged the battery (which they stated was caused by the download). They cleared the Check Engine light from the dead battery. They replaced 2 rims that they found a while back that had the porosity problem. They did a complete inspection. And the big thing: They replaced my entire infotainment module including the screen so that my Home button would work (and it does -- finally I can use Apple Carplay and go back to the main screen).

The interesting thing is the new radio as programmed with all my previous settings. So I didn't have to adjust anything, which was nice.

For anyone having their screen replaced, it seems like it takes a few days. Chevy has to approve it after the technician shows them the problem. Then they send the replacement module. Once the dealer gets it, it takes about a full day to replace it, reprogram it, and test it. It came with a new clear plastic protective tear off shield still on it like when I first got it.

So far, so good. Aside from the hassle of the car being dead from some improper software, I'm Ok with that process.

 

The only two problems I've experienced in 2K miles is that OnStar cannot get rid of the message telling me to contact OnStar because it's not working and SiriusXM radio doesn't up load all the channels it once did. I didn't sign up for OnStar and the trial expired already and the XM channels went away after it wouldn't load one time after starting the vehicle. Don't plan on keeping the plan anyway and so no big deal. Other than that I'm over the moon with how good this car is compared to my other C7s. Just a stunning automobile.

 

Great, glad that you are having an awesome time with it. Which C7s did you have and why is it so much better. I have a C7Z06 and plan on selling it in a few months and getting C8 Z51!