[wwiiavfan]

Originally Posted by Yves ZL1

Note a good idea to disconnect the battery cause there are often default codes after...

I use optima tender 🙂 but the battery really don’t like cold weather...

I take my battery out every winter and bring it inside on a tender, because up here in Gods country it can get cold enough to damage a battery. I never had any codes upon reinstalling it in the spring.

OP, make sure you have the technology straight. A trickle charger is a regular battery charger that constantly feeds a small current. Not good for an unattended battery. You want a battery tender, also known as an automatic battery charger. It monitors the battery state and only applies a charge when needed.

[17rsvert]

My Camaro is not a daily driver and is garaged. I don't take it out when the roads are wet or until all road salt has had a chance to be washed off the roads. So it does sit for weeks at a time this time of the year. I do check the battery condition every 3 weeks or so when sitting, and I find the Fluke meter reads about 12.0 to 12.3 volts after that time. The car would start right up in this condition, but I know the battery is significantly discharged at these voltages, so I hook up my Schumacher smart charger and within an hour or so it's back to 100%.

[ZX-10R]

Originally Posted by Vigilante375

My car sits 2 to 3 weeks at a time and it's been fine with no trickle charger. But when I do drive, it's for a minimum of 3 days before it sits again.

I've been doing this for over a year now.

Lead acid is more "forgiving" (li-ion is not) but no battery should discharge <~20% for an extended period. Just because it starts fine doesn't really prove anything, it's the service life, which should be at least 5-6 years. Quite a few members on here reporting 2-3 years which tells the real story

[LT4 650]

THANK YOU everyone for all of your input. Always can count on multiple ways to look at things on this forum and I LOVE it.

My actual plan is every month on the 1st, 2nd & 4th Saturday there is a CnC I plan to attend...unless it rains ( Rain???...I live in Arizona...actually supposed to rain this whole week ).

However. here the summers can be brutal...last summer broke the record for number of days 110 or more. Also the car scene slows WAY down...due to the heat.
So usually from May - Sept will only take it out every other week (CnC 2nd & 4th Saturday) to keep things moving. Along with a few trips up north Arizona to escape the heat!

So all in all I think I will be good not needing a trickle charger but based on all the responses I will hook one up if I think the car will sit longer than 2 weeks. Now I need to search on the best way to hook on up on our cars in case I need to use mine.

Thanks again everyone and be SAFE!!!

[G61LE]

My 19 ZLE is not a daily driver. I bought it in Jan. of 2020. I do use it for occasional HPDE's, and running to the store, every now and then. I put 1700 miles on the car in a year if that is any indication of how often I drive the car. About 6 months ago, went to start the car and the battery was dead, so I jumped it, and it seemed okay. I took it for a long drive to charge the battery and started back up when I got back home. Long story short, if the car sat for any amount of time the battery would die. I initially thought I had an electrical draw, but found nothing. Keep in mind I only had 1700 miles on the car. I ended up putting a new battery in it, and I now keep it on a trickle charger and have no more problems. I have read that once these gel batteries go dead, there is no recovering them. My .02 cents for what its worth. Get a good trickle charger (I have the Optima), and plug it in if the car is going to sit up any longer than a few days.

[Scottyz]

I don’t know. My ZLE has sat for weeks without being started. Cold and hot weather. And cold as in sitting outside in -10 degree weather. Always starts no problem.
To me it sounds like something is staying energized and drawing the batteries down. I find it interesting that a lot of the cars aren’t even in really cold climates for long periods of time.

[DaveC113]

After reading this thread and doing some research it seems like a good idea to use a charger like the CTEK MXS 5.0 periodically or even every time it's parked. I'm going to do that and see if I can prolong my current battery's life. It was about $90. It seems the car's demands shorten the life of the battery, 2-3 years is not optimal. I think a properly maintained battery should see more than double that and nearly 10 years for a Optima type AGM.

[Vigilante375]

Originally Posted by ZX-10R

Lead acid is more "forgiving" (li-ion is not) but no battery should discharge <~20% for an extended period. Just because it starts fine doesn't really prove anything, it's the service life, which should be at least 5-6 years. Quite a few members on here reporting 2-3 years which tells the real story

How many miles did they have before the battery died? I have 23k miles in the 2 years and 5 months of ownership. I don't think I've ever seen a thread about the 6th gen "eating" batteries but I guess I need to do some research then if that's true.

Originally Posted by DaveC113

After reading this thread and doing some research it seems like a good idea to use a charger like the CTEK MXS 5.0 periodically or even every time it's parked. I'm going to do that and see if I can prolong my current battery's life. It was about $90. It seems the car's demands shorten the life of the battery, 2-3 years is not optimal. I think a properly maintained battery should see more than double that and nearly 10 years for a Optima type AGM.

My 2012 BMW 135i battery life was supposedly 10 years on a AGM battery. I think I got 5 out of it. I'm glad GM doesn't do like BMW and make it so you have to pay for the battery plus $150 for the battery to be "programmed" to the car for longer, better battery life BS.

[wwiiavfan]

Originally Posted by Vigilante375

How many miles did they have before the battery died? I have 23k miles in the 2 years and 5 months of ownership. I don't think I've ever seen a thread about the 6th gen "eating" batteries but I guess I need to do some research then if that's true.



My 2012 BMW 135i battery life was supposedly 10 years on a AGM battery. I think I got 5 out of it. I'm glad GM doesn't do like BMW and make it so you have to pay for the battery plus $150 for the battery to be "programmed" to the car for longer, better battery life BS.

OEM battery in my SS lasted one year. I stored it the first winter with a tender on it and the next spring I had starting issues that turned out to be a bad battery. I'm speculating that even with a tender on, sitting for ~5 months in the cold ruined it. That's why I take my battery inside for the winter and put on a tender. Been working good ever since.

Edit: Sorry for kind of repeating myself. I alluded to this in an earlier post, but this is "the rest of the story".

[Vigilante375]

Originally Posted by wwiiavfan

OEM battery in my SS lasted one year. I stored it the first winter with a tender on it and the next spring I had starting issues that turned out to be a bad battery. I'm speculating that even with a tender on, sitting for ~5 months in the cold ruined it. That's why I take my battery inside for the winter and put on a tender. Been working good ever since.

Edit: Sorry for kind of repeating myself. I alluded to this in an earlier post, but this is "the rest of the story".

What I did with my 135i, I would take take off the positive terminal on the battery. It sat 5-6 months at a time like that as I would be out of the Country from time to time. So all in all in the 5 years before the battery went bad, about 2 1/2 years was with the positive disconnected.

Never was on a battery tender or trickle charger. Never needed to be jumped. This was also when I was in WA so it did get cold. The battery just started to crank slowly and I decided to replace it before it actually died.

[ZX-10R]

Originally Posted by Vigilante375

What I did with my 135i, I would take take off the positive terminal on the battery.

That works but it's a pain to get to on these cars

[G61LE]

Originally Posted by Scottyz

I don’t know. My ZLE has sat for weeks without being started. Cold and hot weather. And cold as in sitting outside in -10 degree weather. Always starts no problem.
To me it sounds like something is staying energized and drawing the batteries down. I find it interesting that a lot of the cars aren’t even in really cold climates for long periods of time.

A friend of mine, who is a GM tech, said my case was unusual, but sometimes, batteries just go bad. He did mention that if the key fob was left in the car or close to the car, even though the car is "turned off" it keeps the computers energized and causes a drain. I have never left the fob in the car, but I was leaving it on a workbench about 5 feet from the car.

[Snowwolfe]

I used my trickle charger from day 1. Anytime I know the Z will sit for more than a day it gets connected. Just pop open the hood and connect the charger. Takes less than 30 seconds.

[Vigilante375]

Originally Posted by ZX-10R

That works but it's a pain to get to on these cars

135i battery is in the trunk where the spare tire would be and you have to prop up the floor cover.

The Camaro is in the trunk to the right. Same amount of effort to get to 1 terminal. Though the cover should be bigger so you can get it out easier. At least the battery is half the size of the BMW!