Left Car Parked 8 Days, now it wont start. HELP!

DAVIDYR1

DAVIDYR1

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Hey everyone.
I travel a lot for work and normally I'll either disconnect the battery on my Vett or have my wife start it every 3 days or so.
Well, on my last trip I completely forgot to do both...so the car stayed parked for 8 days and now it wont start.
I have power to the dashboard, lights and all...but when I go to start it it all cuts out, then lights up again about 30 seconds later.

I tried boosting it with my wife's truck, but no luck.

Yesterday night I attached a battery charger to it, and am now waiting to see if or how long it will take to charge it...hopefully it charges.

Anyone have any suggestions? Am I doing this right? Is there more I should be doing?

Let me also add that this happened from July 21st to July 29th. I got back late the 29th and on the 30th morning realized what I had done and as soon as I tried to start it...well, it wouldn't.
Then the next day we all left for 3 weeks so the battery has been disconnected since...and yesterday is the first day I stuck it in charge.

Would love any words of wisdom from my fine Vett friends....Hoping I don't need a new battery. :(

David
 
I guess my question is how old is the battery?

Automotive batteries don't like to be deep discharged, they are designed to "float" if you will at or around a particular voltage. Our cars seem to like to discharge batteries on a regular basis. This is really hard on a battery, especially as it ages.

Based on what we know about voltage and the impact it can have on electronic equipment in the car I would pull the battery and have it load tested. Buy the best you can to replace it.

Good luck.
 
Nice work.............batteries are eventually going to die, and are a part of regular maintainence. It's also a fairly cheap job. 8 days isn't a long time, so I'd still be a little worried and get it checked.
 
My experience has been that after 3 or 4 WEEKS of sitting,
a battery will not have enough power left to turn the starter.

If yours was only sitting for 8 days, I suggest it is time for a new battery.

And... ALWAYS connect to a "Battery Tender" or "Battery Minder" if you leave it for more than 1 week.... just to be safe.
 
2005 c6

In the manual for our 2005 stick shift car, it says to put the shifter in reverse and apply the emergency brake when leaving the car. This is supposed to shut things down. Without applying the emergency brake, the memory seat won't go to its back position when you want to get out. Early in the spring or late in the fall, our car may sit for a week or two with no ill effects. I connect a C-Tek charger/maintainer for the winter and everything has been fine for me......Knock on wood.
 
I was going to tell you to take it out of gear or depress the clutch when trying to start it. :D

Glad to hear you got er going! But as other's have mentioned, it may be time for a new battery.
 
It's important to not let any battery discharge too much -- which will damage it and cause it to sulphate which in turn won't allow a charge.

I leave my trickler on all the time which is easy with the right attachment. This won't be convenient for everyone so close watching of the state of battery charge is important. Recharge as needed and don't allow the battery to discharge fully.

It's also important to note that an older battery that is half to 3/4 charged probably won't last more than a few days sitting, whereas a newer, fully charged battery will last much longer sitting idle.

The same is true in colder weather: A fully charged, new battery, is less effective in colder weather ...... and the colder the temps the less effective the battery is.
You can see that a battery that is some years old that still starts the car in warm weather probably won't in colder/coldest weather.

Some interesting reading from our friends at Corvette Central; Don't forget the "C6 Battery Concerns" link at the bottom:

http://www.parts123.com/parts123/yb.dll?parta~dyndetail~Z5Z5Z50000050h~Z5Z5Z5AABCB~P229.95~~~~S4580STU7X99237285250F~Z5Z5Z5~Z5Z5Z50000050H~~~
 
Had the dreaded "no start" scene with relay clinking, no crank, lights flashing, DIC messages for steering column lock and fob not detected. My tender would not keep the battery with enough juice to crank. Used the charger for 10 minutes and got it started. Removed the battery (3 year warranty March 2017 = expired), got it tested with 96 crank results: BAD. New battery is now in with no issues to start and no DIC codes. Bottom line, batteries go bad and you can't really stretch their life cycle.
Cheers!

BTW: Nice day in Windsor, ON, top down & ready for a ride today!
 
Fore V said:
Had the dreaded "no start" scene with relay clinking, no crank, lights flashing, DIC messages for steering column lock and fob not detected. My tender would not keep the battery with enough juice to crank. Used the charger for 10 minutes and got it started. Removed the battery (3 year warranty March 2017 = expired), got it tested with 96 crank results: BAD. New battery is now in with no issues to start and no DIC codes. Bottom line, batteries go bad and you can't really stretch their life cycle.
Cheers!

BTW: Nice day in Windsor, ON, top down & ready for a ride today!
Click to expand...

Interesting that your battery tender did not trip out and light up a code due to your battery being that bad as they normally have a very limited output. What tender are you using?
I'm using the "Corvette" one and on 3 cars it has been fine leaving the cars plugged in over the whole winter as well as 30 days at a time when I'm overseas 6 times a year. Ya...the car sits a lot but the batteries have been always on the tender when the car is sitting.
s-l1000.jpg

Your Corvette will drain the batteries in about a week without a tender plugged in due to the computers always being powered. Lots of this is for the security systems. pitch/roll and interior motion sensors..etc.etc. So these cars must be plugged in. They also have a lot of compression and require substantial torque to turn over.
So what I find the best is to plug the car in if it is going to sit for more than overnight then the battery is always fully charged and does not get damaged (sulphated plates) over time. This can happen bit by bit with no real warning until it sits for an extra day and will not start.

I have this charger for my H1 which has 2 very expensive batteries designed to manage winching duties and high draw accessories. (lighting and stereo)
This truck is parked for months at a time and I learned my lesson leaving it unplugged as well. I had to replace the batteries and got this charger/maintainer for it. Works like a charm and also will run a maintenance program for desulfation of the batteries. This would work on the corvette battery too if one felt it was needed on an older battery. This charger is not cheap but about 40% of the cost of new batteries for the Hummer plus I can use it on my Corvette once a year to keep the battery in top shape. The tenders do nothing more than keep the batteries topped up and will not deep cycle maintain them.
noco-genius-g26000-interface-overview-support.jpg

Hope you get the Corvette started today and go out for a great drive. Here in Edmonton it is -1 and sunny heading to 10 today. Bunch of the guys here are planning a cruise tomorrow so I hope the weather holds for them. I'm getting on a plane to Asia tomorrow so Im going to miss this one... grrr

Hope you get your battery charging woes all sorted out and your Vette fires right up for you in the spring.

Derek
 
Derek good write up. If you are away tomorrow I could take your car for the run if you like.:Biggrin:
 
026666810746.jpg
If you can find one like this one ... it actually scrolls words about your battery
not just little lights
... and sadly it will say "damaged" if true. Been there - done that with a Marine Battery :(

I have the Corvette Tenders in use when parked for an extended time
and true, one need a power source nearby for these ...
(I'm not sure of that seeing where you park in your photo)​
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Black 03 Z06 said:
Derek good write up. If you are away tomorrow I could take your car for the run if you like.:Biggrin:
Click to expand...

ddgermann said:
Sure why not.. Just don't forget to cover it up and plug in the battery tender when you're done. :Biggrin:
Click to expand...

Stop at my place Murray and we will go up to Edmonton together. Given the cooler weather, we might even get Derek's Z to spin a tire.... :rofl:
 
lol.... we will stop and park it just short of that Derek.... We know what tires cost for a Corvette.... ;)
 

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