Today, one week short of two years of my cars' build anniversary the battery died. Analysis showed a dead cell. My Z is my daily driver and I drive 60 miles a day roundtrip to work. Well, they replaced it with an AC Delco "Pro" with a 6 year warranty. I think that in 2 years I'll get an Optima and stop worrying. Not having a spare tire is enough aggravation.
Melsy, mine started acting funny about 2 months ago (I have an '02). This Florida heat kills our batteries! Switched to an Optima red top and haven't looked back. Can't risk a dead or partially discharged battery with all the LS1Edit tuning I play around with!
I only got about 16 mos out of my OEM battery. Came home from a trip and the car was dead in the airport paking lot...it was midnight when I got there. What a pain in the a$$.
Next morning bought a red top Optima.
JWz06.
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21st CMC / LPE Stage II TT
Best 1/4 mile E.T. 10.69
Best 1/4 mile MPH 138.44
Both on ET Streets and Skinnies.
Im running two Optima Yellow tops, after 8 years my frist optima yellow top died. I had that battery in two trucks with large stereo systems and played them with the engine off everyday (6 hours) for 4 years. Seeing how long the one lived even while being abbused its safe to say im a customer for life. Now i wonder how long the two new batteries will last??
The Optima will be the only replacement I consider when it is time.
That would be a good poll -
How many years have you gotten out of an Optima battery?
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'04 MS/Blk - Z06Fest IV, V, VI & VII - WinterFest I "Bus Driver"
OEM battery. No problems for 2 years (Actually, 1 year, 11 months and ~24 days, this 24th will be two years since I bought the Z).
The battery was almost dead once because I stored the car for over a month with the alarm ON and no charger. Since that happened, I invested some cash on a top of the line battery tender charger/starter and the battery has been rock solid at 13.9 volts since then. Car starts right back up at the 1st crank after 2 months of being stored around.
Everytime I take it out for a spin and I get back home, the Z gets plugged back into the charger. Why pay for a new one when you can prevent the bad stuff from happening to the OEM one with just an extra 10 seconds that takes to pop the hood open and hook up the battery to the charger.
Location: Gilbert, AZ Z06 Fest II,III,IV,V WinterFest 1&2
Posts: 2,757
Quote:
Originally Posted by Manteuffel
Why pay for a new one when you can prevent the bad stuff from happening to the OEM one with just an extra 10 seconds that takes to pop the hood open and hook up the battery to the charger.
By bad stuff, would that include the lead/acid OEM battery case cracking and leaking acid onto all the cables to and from the PCM and TAC module that are right underneath
The main reason I replaced the OEM with the Optima!!
The previous owners had to replace the battery in my Z because of non-use. Car only had 4100mi on it after 3.6 yrs. Killed the battery sitting around too much. I'll see how long this one lasts....
Optima Red Top 35/75 installed after OEM failed at 33 months and about 19K miles. It even looks good in a TR Z06!
I think I've read that you don't want a regular type battery in the Z as the battery cradle was not designed to control leaks, etc...
Yeah, it's too bad they put a piece of junk where the battery is supposed to be.
The vette tech at my local dealership told me to get rid of the OEM battery ASAP due the leaking issue. You dont want the battery to leak and get on the puter that is underneath the battery tray. He recomended the Optima Red Top.
The OEM battery in my '02 w/30k miles died yesterday at work in New Orleans. Tried to crank it at lunchtime--the starter barely engaged for a fraction of a second, and then nothing electrical would work. There was an odd clicking/buzzing sound coming from the area around the computer room under the passenger mat . Anyway, I replaced it with an Optima RedTop 34/78. The top of the battery is a close match to the engine covers and looks great! Would've gotten a 35/75, but no one had one, and I needed one right away. Kinda hate the extra 5 pounds, but it's nice to have on tap 980 cranking amps and 800 cold cranking amps.
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'02 Z06, TR/BK, GHL Magnum Plus, modified airbox, Green Filter,
Optima RedTop, shorty antenna, 6 turns lower
By bad stuff, would that include the lead/acid OEM battery case cracking and leaking acid onto all the cables to and from the PCM and TAC module that are right underneath
The main reason I replaced the OEM with the Optima!!
Ken
Yes, bad stuff like that. Any battery can do that. No matter how awesome the battery is: A Lead-Acid battery is a L-A battery. Regardless how awesome the advertisement about being a different kind of L-A battery is.
There is always a reason why a battery goes bad. Atop of those reasons is insufficient care and/or not enough recharging time. Those two can lead exactly to that: a failure. Lead-acid batteries hate to stay discharged or stay with low charge, even for short periods of time. If a L-A battery is discharged and not recharged quickly, it is going to fail and it can potentially create a mess when that happens. The cracking is probably due to 'sulfatation' and the pressure inside the battery grows due to gases. I don't really see any other chemical reaction. This can be prevented if a battery is kept recharged and starting the car for five minutes during the winter time and shutting it off is NOT going cut it. To recharge a battery you need to run higher RPMs than idle for just five minutes. Repeated 1 mile trips to the convenience store will eventually lead to battery failure as well.
As I said, my battery looks brand new, the connectors shine like the day I bought the car and everything inside and underneath the battery looks perfectly clean. I'll knock on wood in any case and Sorry about the mishap (or bad stuff, if you will).
G.
Last edited by Manteuffel : 08-17-2004 at 10:48 PM.
Can I place a tray or something under the crappy OEM battery in case it decides to leak?
Mid America sells a pad you install under the battery. Suppose to absorb the acid in the event of a leak. I don't know how well it works. Get a red top.
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. Anyway, I replaced it with an Optima RedTop 34/78. The top of the battery is a close match to the engine covers and looks great! Would've gotten a 35/75, but no one had one, and I needed one right away. Kinda hate the extra 5 pounds, but it's nice to have on tap 980 cranking amps and 800 cold cranking amps. 
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