Battery Drain Problem with 2012 Corvette
 

Just purchased a new 2012 Vette, my first and my dream car after 50 years. I heard that the Corvettes with On-Star drain the battery.

First, how quickly does this drain usually take?

Is there any way to stop it?

Any other suggestions on anything regarding the car. I await your expertise and experience.

Thanks.

I have On-Star in my 06 and have had it 3 yrs. I had to change the battery last year. Don't know if the previous owner had any problems but doubt it. It had 24k miles on it. It now has about 85k miles on it!

:yesnod: I like driving my Vette! I have not noticed a battery drain from the On-Star. But if you don't drive it much that might be an issue.

:squirrelrun:

Every car, not just Corvette is capable of discharging a battery under an almost unlimited number of circumstances. DBS (coined Dead Battery Syndrome) was a phenomenon specific to some of the 2005 manual transmission cars where a perfectly charged battery on an otherwise normally operating car would discharge in less than 48 hours to completely dead. This is no longer a concern on later model year Corvettes. Every DBS case results in a dead battery, not every dead battery is DBS.

The OEM battery on average can go about 27 days on a charge without being driven. You can theoretically end up with a dead battery driving every day for very short trips as you will use more than you will replace with each start up.

The C6 is the most electrically demanding Corvette yet. Virtually everything about the car and the systems places more demands on the battery and charging system. Even the simple act of opening the door drains the battery with the touch pad latch and fob interrogation system. The tire pressure system is different than that of the C5, so on and so on.

There is no known issue specific to Onstar that I'm aware of. Frankly, I think someone was a little misinformed that told you this. Don't lose any sleep over it.

Wow, man, where have you been? Nice to see you back. 12 posts since 2009 makes it seem like you have been in Antarctica or something. You have always been a wealth of very good information.

Thank you. I just find there isn't a lot to do here for me so I only remember to check in very infrequently.

i have a 2012 too. i unhooked the onstar, but not because of the battery, i just don't think its any of GM's business how far of fast i drive it. that said, i got a battery tender and hard wired the pitail it comes with to the battery. if i am not planning to drive it for a while i simply plug it in and viola', battery topped off forever.

The "mild to wild" exhaust control is responsible for more than a few complaints about C6 batteries. I stopped having problems with my 07 after I took out the M to W. There is an optional installation procedure that will not drain the battery.