Fairly new owner of a '97 base with approx. 49k miles. I'll try to be brief, yet thorough. Purchased 3/21, garaged 11/21. A couple of weeks after parking, figured that I'd get a few gallons of fresh gas and get it up to temp. etc. before the seasons first storm. Car was dead. Odd, I thought- looked like there was a new battery installed recently. Used my girls car to jump it and then drove for 20 mins. or so. A week later, before leaving for a road trip to Denver, I thought I'd fire it up and it was dead again. Jumped it again, except this time when I put it in 1st gear and attempted to drive back into the garage on our slightly inclined driveway, I sensed the engine hesitant to move the car like normal. I think it died on me once and then, without thinking about it too much, I let the car roll down to the bottom of the drive on the sidewalk. I wanted to get a better run at the garage to see how the car responded. What a mistake. The car idled and revved like it should, but as soon as I would release the clutch and let it about 3/4 of the way out, stall. After about 10 attempts and more cuss words, I had a friend and my girl push me up the driveway as I feathered the throttle and clutch in order to move the car without stalling. Got it in the garage eventually, but I was puzzled. Never had any real issues with this car until now. The weather got cold and I was starting the car here and there and it seemed fine, so I even threw it in reverse and 1st a couple of times, but didn't go down the driveway and it felt normal to me. Come late December or early January and the temps were going to be well below zero, so I thought getting a charger hooked up would be wise. Dead again. And this time, I heard a noise from the passenger footwell somewhere. The cheap trickle charger I had bought was of no use or defective, as I tried hooking it up and then turned the key to see if the battery had anything and a ringing/horn noise came from the driver headlight area. I finally pinpointed it and got it to stop by removing my key. Borrowed a friend's charger and without removing the battery, hooked it up. A fairly rapid clicking noise came from the rear of the car and the same horn/ring sound from the driver headlight area. Didn't want to do any accidental damage anywhere, so I took the battery out and have a slow charge on it so I can observe it overnight. I've always been fairly mechanically inclined, just not with Corvettes and not with electronic components. I've had minor battery issues in the past- which I was able to solve with ease, but this is very frustrating. These forums are a good start. Looking for any and all insight as to what could've caused either of these issues, other than the obvious.

 

Welcome to the forum.

First you should fully charge the battery and take it to an auto parts store that will test it for free.

Then you need to fully charge the battery again and reinstall it. Then measure the current draw with everything turned off. It should be in the range of a few milliamps at most. If it's more than that, you'll need to start pulling fuses until you find the circuit that is drawing the current with everything turned off.

Cars with computers in them start to do wonky things when the battery voltage drops below normal which might explain the various different noises you're hearing when you connect the battery.

 

Thank you for your input, shark. The battery appears to have charged overnight, so yeah, my next course of action will be having it tested today. The battery was manufactured in June of 2020, but I have zero knowledge of the previous owners maintenance routines. Maybe the battery was drained several times while for sale. After all, I bought it from a pretty sleazy dealer. Hopefully, this is an easy diagnosis and fix. The only aftermarket equipment that I am aware of is a CD player/hands free Bluetooth setup.

 

I'm new to these forums, but, I've found what I think is a solution to my battery drain. When searching for what would drain a brand new battery, I found some owners told of a hood light that doesn't go out as well as the glove box light. Well, I found my glove box door doesn't push on the button enough and my glove light bulb stayed on. I don't have a battery tender either. Both these issues will be rectified in short order and I will watch to see how things go.

 

Thanks, Dom. I feel like an idiot, because sure enough, the last time I closed my glovebox, it was hesitant due to the owners manual that eats up all the space and yep, the light was not shutting off. Haven't had an issue since.

 

Happy to hear that. Since I found that glove box light staying on problem, I use a small round furniture leg cushion that has a sticky pad on one side. I placed it on the glove box door so it would engage the arm of the glove box door switch and positively push it in enough to turn off the light. It seems to have worked and so far no more dead battery problem. I am also new to the Corvette, but I am 50 years into the Electrical trades and I found an obvious problem that had an obvious solution. I've also learned that the Corvette should have a float type charger for the cold months when it is in storage. I did put my Corvette on one and it did keep the new battery up for the rest of the winter and cold days.