C5 in storage - Won't start

1424 Views 9 Replies 5 Participants Last post by zagger, May 25, 2007

Quickshift_C

Discussion Starter · May 24, 2007

Hey guys!

I've had my Vette sitting in my garage for about 4months now, and haven't driven it. I can't drive the car for 6months, and have been going out periodically to fire it up and let it run for a bit....then drive it around my apartment complex and put it back in the garage for a while. After asking for advice on what to do for temporary storage like this, members here said to just go out there periodically and fire it up since 6months wasn't a very long time. I've been doing that and all has been fine.

Well...I hadn't fired it up in probably a month now and went out to do just that a few minutes ago. I was hoping to get it cleaned up this weekend and spent a lot of time on it. Anyway...car won't start. It just makes a loud clicking sound repeatedly. It tells me Low Voltage on the digital readout.

I'm assuming the battery is dead at this point. Am I correct in this assumption?

What can I do to keep this in storage for a little longer (until September) and not have any issues like this? Should I go out there every weekend and fire it up for a while to keep the battery charged, or what should I do differently? This is only my second time with a dead battery ever, I'm guessing I can just jump it and it should be fine.

What do you guys think?

edit: I also haven't put any new gas in the car since 2/17/2007. Is everything going to be ok with the fuel in the car for so long? It still is probably at 1/2 tank.

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Spiderpat

· #2 · May 25, 2007

First, if you're going to stow you Vette, you should get a battery tender.
Second, use stabil in your gas during storage :thumbsup:
If you plan on driving it right now, get it jumped. If you want to continue with storage, take the battery down and have it tested :cheers:

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Quickshift_C

Discussion Starter · #3 · May 25, 2007

Take the battery down and have it tested?

I'll look into the Battery Tender and Stabil. Not sure what those are.

Thanks!

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Spiderpat

· #4 · May 25, 2007

Quickshift_C said:
Take the battery down and have it tested?

I'll look into the Battery Tender and Stabil. Not sure what those are.

Thanks!

Take the Battery out of the car and take it to Autozone or your local parts store. They will test the battery for free.
Stahbil is a gasoline additive for the storage of machinery that operates on gasoling and stops the breakdown of the gas.
A Battery tender is like a Battery charger that supplies a low amp charge to preserve the Battery life :thumbsup:

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Quickshift_C

Discussion Starter · #5 · May 25, 2007

Thank you so much for the help, I appreciate it.

I rarely drive the car anymore anyway, so I will most likely get both those products you mentioned. I'll take the battery to get it tested tomorrow.

Thanks again. :thumbsup:

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Spiderpat

· #6 · May 25, 2007

Quickshift_C said:
Thank you so much for the help, I appreciate it.

I rarely drive the car anymore anyway, so I will most likely get both those products you mentioned. I'll take the battery to get it tested tomorrow.

Thanks again. :thumbsup:

Anytime

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Patrick

· #7 · May 25, 2007

Your fuel is fine.:thumbsup:

Is that the original battery in the car? So it's 8 years old?

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bigred vette

· #8 · May 25, 2007

same exact thing happened to us after about 2 weeks in the winter its definatly the battery what we did is just get a cheap but good battery charger and charge it up and then itll start

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Quickshift_C

Discussion Starter · #9 · May 25, 2007

Patrick said:
Your fuel is fine.:thumbsup:

Is that the original battery in the car? So it's 8 years old?

It might be, I'm not entirely sure offhand. I'll check tomorrow afternoon sometime.

I contacted my local auto-supply store and they said they had a batter tester/recharger ready for me when I get there tomorrow. Said he would check it out and then recharge it for me, takes about 30min.

artyon:

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zagger

· #10 · May 25, 2007

Every time you start the car the battery gets discharged a little and it takes time to recharge it. If you start the car and let it run for a short time it does not have time to recharge. "Spiderpat" is right about the external charger, or you might just let it run for 30 min or more every time you start it, that should replace the juice you lost during the start up. As for the old battery, it probably just need a recharge. Good luck.

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