Not starting! help

[Coastal]

History:

I have an 03 vert with about 16000 miles kept in a garage. This spring I decided to proactively replace the 5 year old battery with a Sears Platinum. Then, in May I had headers installed by DTE so I have confidence they did the job properly but lots of potential for issues in the immediate history.

I’ve been having absolutely no issues since. No starting problems, no flickering or dim lights, nothing. Then last week I had to go away for a few days and the car was not used for about a week. I’ve never had an issue letting it sit for a week or two before so I didn’t connect it to the tender.

I went to start it yesterday and click, click, click. I plugged the tender in and its light indicated that it was charging. I went back hours later and it was still indicating charging but when I went to try to start it was even more dead. I couldn’t even get a click and now the lights were totally dead. Except for a very dim flashing security light. I pulled the tender from the cigarette lighter and connected it directly to the battery for the night. When I did, I noticed the tender was very hot. This morning, no change, the battery cool, tender very hot and now no lights at all, everything is completely dead.

I went and got jumper cables and it did absolutely nothing, like it was not connected to the other car (and, no little spark when the circuit was completed). I tried connecting to both the top and side terminals. I took off the battery cables (that were very tight) and checked and reconnected with no change. I attempted to check the starter but there was no way I could get my hands close to it (how do you get to that beast anyway).

I took the battery completely out. When measured with a hand held VOM it only reads 5 VDC. I know this may not be the most accurate test but when compared to a known good battery that read 13 VDC, there has to something to it.

Then with the battery out of the car, I connected the jumpers again (got that little connection spark) and viola, normal power was restored to the car. I’ve got the battery on the charger as it sits out of the car to see if it will charge (wish I had a faster charger). I will let it sit for an hour or so but then if I can’t get it to charge I’ll bring it to Sears for a replacement. I know anything can happen but the odds of a brand new battery going bad within 3 months doesn’t seem likely.

Am I missing something here?

 

[chris308]

Getting a bad battery is not as uncommon you might think.

I have been in that situation more than once...

 

[Coastal]

Well I got it started. I charged it out of the car for a few hours and the voltage went up from 5VDC to about 11 before I got impatient and dropped it back in the car. It just clicked. I then hooked it back up to the jumpers and that was enough to put it over the top and start. The voltage on the dash read 14 then went down to 12/13 after driving it over 2000 rpm for a mile or two. I let it run a few more minutes then shut it, it started again. Now it’s off but I put the charger on it just in case it was not at full charge.

So the question is, why did the battery charge out of the car in a few hours but not in the car for about 24?

I’m not confident that I won’t have more problems yet since I don’t think I did anything.

 

[RevXtreme 1]

Sounds like you only are useing a trickle charger with say a 2 amp out-put? If so, the normal at rest draw from the car & a dead battery is to much for the little trickle charger. A dead battery will need 15 amps or more to gass it back to a full charge.

 

[Coastal]

Sounds like you only are useing a trickle charger with say a 2 amp out-put? If so, the normal at rest draw from the car & a dead battery is to much for the little trickle charger. A dead battery will need 15 amps or more to gass it back to a full charge.

That may be it, it was pretty dead only showing 5 V.

I don't know why this would have drained so fast. the OEM went for 4 weeks without an issue, this Sears Platnium should not have drained that far down. I'm keeping it on the tender overnight and then we'll see if it can hold a charge.

 

[Mark Dalton]

You mentioned that the voltage on the dash read 14 initially, then went down to 12-13 while driving. To me that indicates a possible issue with the alternator. Does the batt. voltage on the DIC say the same thing? With the car running and a meter across the batt. terminals, you should read about 14 volts. That means the alt. is putting out good voltage to charge the batt. It's also possible you have something draining the batt. while it's in the car. I'd check the car at night to see if there are any lights on inside that may not be visible during the day.

 

[98 softtail]

The conditions you noted sound like a battery that has drained almost completely, possibly from the tender or as noted, a light left on. You might do better by charging the battery out of the car. You also mentioned a spark when you attached the cables. A very small spark like a static spark should only happen if there is a open connection, anything more and you definately have something draining the battery. Also remember to ALWAYS remove the (-)neg/black cable first when removing a battery or cable, and last when installing a battery or cable.

Good luck,
Joe B.

 

[Coastal]

The spark was very small as I was connecting the battery back in the car. I checked for any lights and found none. I usually leave the radio on when I shut the car but I turned that off just for good measure.

Last night the battery voltage was 12.69, this morning after sitting without the tender it was 12.50. I'm not sure if that is normal for the Vette or not since I've never done that test before. The voltage on the DIC with the car running this morning was 14.1 and across the battery with a VOM was 14.4.

Thanks for all the info. :thumbsup:

 

[98 softtail]

That sounds right for the charge rate. It might just be a bad battery that will not hold a charge.

Good luck.