Corvette Battery Comparisons | Knowledge Base | Replacement Parts

Corvette Battery | By: Chris Trautman

Welcome to our Corvette Battery page. We have the best Corvette battery knowledge on the Web. We'll tell you how to know if you have a dead corvette battery, how to get into your Corvette with a dead battery, reviews for new batteries, and recommendations on replacement batteries for several generations of Corvettes.  

We've included only the Corvette Best Batteries on our reviews and comparison page.  We have also included other battery installed items such as key FOB's and tire pressure sensors. You will find all the vehicle specific battery information on the Best Corvette "By Generation" Batteries pages.  

Click below on the Best Battery for C5, C6, or C7 generation that matches your Corvette to find the best and correct battery size for your model Corvette.

Best Corvette Battery By Generation C5-C7 | Battery Reviews and Comparisons 

Best C5 Corvette Batteries & C5 Corvette Battery Sizes 

Best C6 Corvette Batteries & C6 Corvette Battery Sizes

Best C7 Corvette Batteries & C7 Corvette Battery Sizes

How Do You Know if You Have a Dead Corvette Battery?

All sorts of different sounds and clues can be your first indication your Corvette battery is weak or dead.  These are the same for a dead C5 corvette battery, C6 corvette battery or C7 corvette dead battery.

Weak Battery:

• Slow cranking
• Clicking
• Instrument panel indicator lights acting weird

Dead Battery:

• Doors will not unlock
• No Start
• Lights come on but car will not crank

If you have experienced any of these a worn out Corvette Battery could be your problem.  This can happen if you are not caring for your battery with routine maintenance charging.

What is routine charging?  Any vehicle inactivity where the car is not driven for at least an hour (preferable more) a week.  

How do you avoid a dead Corvette Battery?  Drive your car is the prefered method, but if you are like us weather doesn't always allow this. 

But I can't drive my car or I wish to keep it safe away from people.  Hey we get it the world is full of shopping carts and D holes!  Get a battery tender, we have some recommendations and comparisons here.

Emergency! How Do I Get Into or Out of My Corvette With a Dead Battery?

C5 Corvette owners:  Use your key on the drivers door.  Early C5's also had keys on the passenger side.

C6-C7 Corvette owners: To get into your Corvette use the emergency key on your key FOB to open the trunk.  Inside the trunk on the left side you will find an emergency release cable pull for the drivers door, see our page on bypassing the trunk and need for a key and location of cable pull. 

C6-C7 Corvette owners stuck inside:  Just outboard of the seat bottom along the floor a black pull release can be found.  The opening for your finger is on the forward side, lift up and door should pop open.

Knowledge Base of Dead Corvette Battery Issues

Summarized list of what to expect with Corvette Batteries:

• Parasitic electrical draw discharges battery at a higher rate than other cars
• Battery leakage on non-AGM style batteries can damage ECU/wire harness on C5 Corvettes.
• You need to purchase a battery tender or spec the Corvette Battery protection package when ordering your Corvette.  This is not an option!
• Later generation Corvettes came standard with AGM cell batteries.
• Discharge rates have improved with each generation of Corvette but you still need the battery tender or charger.

How Do I Know If My Battery is No Good?

One word, capacity!  It is what makes your battery a battery.  Over time capacity degrades as the normal life cycle of the battery.  Deep discharges can reduce the life cycle of the battery. 

Normal batteries should have an unloaded (no current draw) state of at least 12 volts.  If you check your battery and its below this voltage the battery is bad or still has an electrical draw.

Testing: To properly determine the state of a battery in must be charge at the proper current and time.  Typically a 600 amp battery charged for 96 hours at 5 amps will take the battery to 80 percent.  This is where having the right battery charger matters. 

You cannot, let me emphasize this, cannot use a battery tender with low amperage to charge a dead battery.  As you can see in the example with a 5 amp charge current it takes 96 hour to reach 80%.  Look at your charger to find this out.  We recommend at least a 30 amp Fully Automatic Smart Battery Charger.

Once the battery is fully charged it should be able to maintain a voltage of near 12 V during test.  We recommend a Battery Load Tester to eliminate the guessing.  Besides anytime we find a reason to buy a tool for the garage the better it is, cue Tim Allen grunt, harrr, harrr, harrr!  

Battery tested good, now what?

It's time to check your battery leads and grounds.  Start with inspecting and cleaning or replacing any bad leads.  The starter area is a known problem area for lead issues.  Chassis grounds are your next spot to look.  

Note: As always use professional help and we do not recommend doing maintenance on your Corvette unless you are qualified.

History of AGM Battery Evolution in the Corvette Timeline

All 1997 to 2000 C5's have a very high potential for battery leakage problems. See our replacements

The problem isn't so much that the battery leaks, but that it leaks on the computer, wiring harness, frame and one vacuum hose for the A/C controls. The battery tray is open in the center, and will direct the acid straight onto your computer! This can become an expensive repair, and is NOT covered by any extended warranty. If your car is still under the original warranty and has the original battery it is covered! If you have not already done so, replace your battery with either a Optima Redtop Part # 8004-003 34/78 or the ACDelco AGM 78P-7YR.   Make special note of the P in the part number. This is what specifies that this battery is a AGM (Absorbent Glass Mat) AGM is a newer type of battery construction that uses saturated absorbent glass mats rather than gelled or liquid electrolyte. They will not leak acid.

2001-2004

At some point in 2001, GM started to use the newer AGM batteries with a GM part number of 75P-7YR.  See our replacement recommendations.

The battery tray size also changed to slightly smaller size. Thus the reason that this is only an issue with earlier C5's. The Optima part number for 2001-2004 PN 8022-091 75/25 RedTop. We highly recommend these types of batteries for your C5 regardless of acid spillage. They last much longer and handle the abuse of all the G's Corvette's are known for! 

A brass washer is recommended to be put on the positive battery post from GM parts dealers. The problem with the batteries is the positive battery cable's bolt acts as a puller, and will actually pull the terminal out of the battery dumping acid. While probably not needed with the AGM battery, We would still recommend it.

1997-2004 C5 Battery Care Recommendations

Every late model Corvette needs a battery charger.  The newer cars have so much parasitic draw from all of the computers a perfectly new battery can be dead in less than two weeks!  The Factory realized this and started providing this as an RPO option in late 2010.  Get the same charger here!  

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