Hello:

didn’t have car on trickle charge and battery died. I plugged in the corvette charger and the red light comes on (indicating terminals are reversed) which certainly isn’t correct. I’ve used the charger before and the battery had never been touched. It did not take any charge over night.

Has anyone seen this before? What was issue?

hard to believe my battery could be dead after one year. If I do need a new battery, what’s best most reliable option?

 

Do you have the CTEK battery maintainer supplied as an option by GM? Read the manual that came with it. I have never seen a "red" light and the manual does not say anything about a red light,but it does discuss the error light, which is in the upper left of the charger face and has an exclamation point next to it. Perhaps that glows red when lit? Anyway, the factory supplied CTEK plugs in through the receptacle in the frunk, so its impossible to connect backwards. Among the reasons the error light will be lit, explained in the CTEK manual, is that the battery "can not accept a charge". This can happen if the voltage is too low. The instructions say you can try to wake up the battery by holding the reset button for 10 seconds, while it is connected. If it does not continue to charge at that point, you can repeat that up to 5 times. If it does not work, the battery needs the be replaced (the manual says).



Some believe that the CTEK cannot charge a low battery. But that is not entirely true. It is actually 4.3 amp charger, and it can, in some, but not all cases revive and charge the battery. At 4.3 amps it just takes longer but it can do it.

Anyway, if you can't revive it, take it out and either have it checked, or you can try to use a more powerful charger with a revive feature. As I read the warranty manual, the starting battery is covered by the three year B2B warranty, so you may want to have it checked.

 

hi: Yes, its the charger that came with it. Its "I" lights up and instructions state its an error, etc. I'm going to try a regular battery charger on it tonight and see if that helps.

 

Did you try just using the reset as instructed in the manual for the charger? I am curious as to whether that will work. Press and hold for 10 seconds while its connected. If it does not continue to charge, you can try again up to 5 times.

 

put a good voltmeter on the battery and let me know what it reads

 

thank you all for the help. It looks like charge was so low on battery, the trickle charge wouldn’t work. It’s charging now w traditional battery charger.

after a couple days of driving, I’m going to put the trickle charger on their as a test.

 

How long did the car sit without a maintainer installed? I've gone weeks without a maintainer connected on my original 2020 battery and never had a problem starting the car. Unless it was for months there is an underlying problem with the battery or the car for the battery to be that dead.

Once charged I'd have the battery tested. If it tests good then it means something went wrong with the car to drain the battery and it could happen again.

 

my prior vette same as you, could met sit for weeks. This car sat for 7 days, dead. I charged with regular charger and it’s seems fine. I’m waiting for engine light to cycle out, I believe five cycles.

 

A little more help please.

I've tried multiple scan tools, the codes are all primarily communication errors due to dead battery I had. However, when I clear the codes, they come right back. I assume this is from the permanent error codes that have to clear on their own. However, I don't understand why multiple scan tools can't clear these out. My question is, if I use the "disconnect battery" technique, will it clear the permanent codes and how long do I need to leave the battery disconnected?

 

I think that if you clear a code and it comes back, it means the problem still exists.

As an example, most all the diagnostic procedures for transmission issues (and other issue to I suppose) involve attempting a potential remedy, such as the Hydraulic System Flush, clearing the code, and then seeing if the code returns. If returns, you try the next step.

 

Final Answer...
I stopped in at a dealer, no appointment, very nice guy at Capital Chevy. He pulled all the codes and concluded my Z06 is part of a recall because the CEL will not clear, go figure. Says the fix is to reinstall the entire software package and he says that's an all day event. I don't understand why that would take more than a couple of hours... At least I know what the issue is.