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There is a 're-flash' of the computer that is supposed to stop this problem. Has this been done? With the amount of work done on your car, and this being a well-known problem with 2005 and early 2006 manuals, I sure would think your dealer would know about this and have done the reflash.
Other than this, I don't have anything else. I've never read about a problem this bad. Has the new battery been tested? You could have gotten a bad battery, one with a bad cell, and it is not charging.
2009 BMW 335i, 2003 Corvette cnv. (RIP 2001 Jaguar XK8 cnv and 1985 MB 380SE [the best of the lot])
Please - how can I recharge the battery, if I can't get the hood to unlatch?
Thanks,
DR
There are ways to enter and exit your Corvette when the battery is dead.
Along the left side of drivers seat, and the right side of passenger seat are small levers which will manually open the doors from the inside.
You have a regular 'key' which will open the rear hatch via a lock above the license plate. Then, there is a pull tab inside the hatch on the left wall which will open the driver door.
Yes, Corvettes have a somewhat significant battery drain at all times. You did not drive the car for about 5-6 months. Especially if the battery was not fully charged when you shut it down, this might be 'normal' results - a dead battery. The battery could have been significantly discharged while new with doors being left open, many short drives around the lot, etc, etc, etc. And 100 miles might have never brought the battery up to full charge, especially if you only made short trips, left the doors open, etc, etc. And then you let it sit for 5-6 months. You did not leave the 'FOB' inside the car all this time, did you? This will really discharge the car, since the system thinks you are about to start the car and remains 'awake' all the time, with a significant power drain. When you park the car, move the FOB outside the car. I would recommend at least 10 feet or more. This should let the car go into sleep mode with minimum discharge. But the car is drawing some power all the time. The car has to be able to recognize when the FOB approaches the car within 3 feed in order to automatically unlock the doors, if locked. It then senses the FOB when inside. Also, by 2009, all Corvettes had Onstar as a standard feature, if you/dealer activated it (first year free, so it was probably activated), Onstar will query the car once a month to check the sensors, so the Onstar system remains 'awake' all the time. I receive an email each month which reports various status items on my car. This monthly query will pull some power.
Overall, don't leave a modern car will a large set of electrical features for this long without running it. Or, remove the negative battery cable, or better still, put a trickle charger on the battery all the time when stored.
Now, about the hood that won't open. This is a very unusal case. Are you SURE you are pulling on the latch inside the drivers footwell correctly?
If it will not open, I would not want the car dragged out of my garage and loaded on a wrecker to be taken to the garage. But, with a manual tranny, you can at least get the tranny into neutal so the car will roll and can be pulled onto a truck.
What I would do, is have the dealer send someone out that knows how to 'jump' the car from the bottom. The car can be jacked up on the right side and a charger or 'jump box' can be attached from the right under side to the positive terminal on the starter, and a ground somewhere under there. The car should then start. And then drive it to the dealer and let them try to get the hood open. I only hope they don't break something getting into it.
Oh, and jacking up a Corvette is not an ordinary operation either. The jack has to be positioned in the correct place on the side of the car. If it is placed under the plastic painted side panels, which wrap around and under the car, the panel will definitely crack, and these are not easily repaired. Jack only on the open place on the bottom where the plastic, painted panel is not at.
I don't see this as a 'failure' on the car. A lot of this you seem to be unaware of, but this is an electrically complicated auto, and should not be expected to be left for 5 months without being started or having a charger attached.
Good luck. When you get into the car, I recommend a new battery, because this one being left deeply discharged for quite some time, will probably again quickly fail, even after being charged, causing future problems.
Also, after a dead battery, the windows need to be 'indexed'. I'm leaving this item as something you can find in the owners manual and do. In general, read the manual, there is a world of info in there you need to know.
By the way, if the vet is running already and you let someone else drive it alone and you forget to give them the key and dont tell them about the emergency release they can get trapped as well. That is a lawsuit waiting to happen IMO, especially on an electric top convertible
When pulling the fuses, have you gotten access to an ampmeter with a significant power capability (saying this because the ampmeter on most multimeters usually cannot handle much power), somthing that can manage 2 or 3 amps.
When you have this, put the ampmeter in series with the positive battery cable. In other words, wire it up so all the power to the car runs thru the ampmeter. Then, you should see how much power is being pulled. And start pulling fuses. When the power drops, you have at least finally found the circuit that is draining the battery. And, then the real fun starts when you try to find what component in the circuit has the problem.
You are going to almost surely need the factory service manual to find this, unless you just stumble on the problem.
There might be a problem in the alternator and it pulls power all the time, and this might not be fused thru the regular fuses. I'm not sure how to check for this.
On, and here is my stand standard comment about electrical problem. If the car has an after market security system, remote starting system, or heavy duty stereo added on - these are the first things I would suspect. These systems all are cut into various parts of the electronics, and when their electronic components and/or connections start to go had - you are going to get electrical problems.
i have a short in my system that is not fuse protected at least i dont think so because im not getting any blown fuse's and it is continous.
when i parked it last evening the alarm sounded and i could not get it to quit so i disconnected the battery and when i reconnect this A M i had a very strong spark at the battery, the car run's and the amp gauge show's about 13.5 volts at all times but my battery went dead when just in for breakfast.
I am not familiar with the alarm system on this car (ie how to shut it off or dismantle it) and there is nothing i can find in my manual's that refer to the alarm.
Can anyone out there help me
Thanks
Sandy
02 conv. vett. 2 days ago the switches on the driver door would not work at all.
After opening and closing the door they would again work. Then the following day
all the switches went out and while driving the oil went to zero, the Temp went to
red and messages began to apear telling me, check engine, low engine power,
check tire pressure and some more. I pulled over, shut the car down and upon
restarting everything functioned fine except the door switched. As I pulled away
it started all over again (3 times) .I opened the door and squeezed the boot holding the wires and the door switches worked. All mechanical functions seemed to work fine during all this
After moving the plastic shroud around the harness it would sometimes work momentarily. Clue to the problem.
Comanche1
they go down the left pops up abut 3/4 of the way.
You car should not have a problem.
Except, the battery is small, the car has large electric requirements, and many people (including me) don't drive them enough to keep the battery charged.
If you are going to let the car sit for a couple of weeks or more, get a trickle charger and keep it on the battery.
P.S. Your salesman doesn't know much about Corvettes.
93 Ruby Anniversary, original owner
Thanks
In general, it looks like something opened up the power to the circuit to the dash and radio for a short time. Or something went bad in a computer module for these.
About the only thing you can do now is get into the fuse box (boxes) and wiggle the fuses and breakers and relays and make sure they are all well seated.
And wait for it to happen again, permanently.
nothing!
Thanks for any help.
You might have not put the cap on right, but if you are making it click, it is on correctly.
Bad caps are well known as a problem. If the code indicates the cap is not tight, put a new cap on it.
Also - you aren't letting the engine run while you are fueling are you? This will set the check engine light every time.
Hope this helps.
2008/C6 Convertible, 20K, LS3, 6-speed manual
You either have something pulling juice, or a bad battery. A battery can fail at any time, or be bad from the start. It needs to be 'load' tested, where a hight electrical load is placed on it.
Something I've learned since I wrote the earlier comment (a year and a half ago). Having the FOB near the car will NOT cause it to run down. Now I think it needs to be out of range of the antennas, but this is only about 3 feet. If you keep the FOB this close, the car thinks you are still inside, and keeps the car 'alive'.
But if you move the FOB away, it should go complete to 'sleep' in about 20 minutes. In the last year or so I've read several messages where people have put amp meters on the car and monitored how it 'goes to sleep'. It seems to have about 2 or 3 step-downs, until it hits the lowest current draw in about 20 minutes.
Also, just walking close to the car with the FOB will NOT wake it up. You have to touch the door or hatch open button. The car monitors these buttons while asleep. When pushed, the car sends out a signal to the FOB and looks for the response. Just walking up to the car does nothing and leaves it in sleep mode.
Also, Onstar does not query the car when it is inactive. I thought it did, but looking at my email Onstar responses, you can see that the car must be woke up (driven) to communicate with Onstar. Just letting it sit in the garage will not update Onstar.
I've still got the orginial battery in my Sept 2006 model 2007 car. It has dropped one time, after sitting for about 2 months or so, to where it would not start the car. I now keep a small trickle charger on it most of the time. I think I should get a new battery in any case. 4 years on a Corvette battery is pressing your luck, unless you are driving the car almost every day.