Hello, I am a new Tahoe owner and was hoping someone could help me diagnose an issue. I recently bought an ’03 Tahoe LT with the 5.3 engine, 137k miles. I bought the vehicle primarily for towing my camper and up until now have been generally happy with it. About a month ago, the SES light came on and it threw a code for the MAF sensor. I took it out and cleaned it and the SES never came back.
I’ve also had intermittent symptoms of a weak battery – when you turn the key nothing will happen for maybe 3-5 seconds no clicks, nothing, then it will turn over very slowly and then start. Like I said it’s intermittent – sometimes it will sit for a week and fire right up and other times if I shut it off for 2 minutes to get gas it will be hard to start. No rhyme or reason to it, but everytime it is hard starting I’ve noticed that the clock resets to 12:00. I’ve also got intermittent ABS light/symptoms and the doors will occasionally lock and unlock very quickly for no reason. I have no idea if these issues have a common cause or not.
Yesterday, when leaving the campground towing my trailer it started right up, no problem. I shut it off to empty the trailer tanks (5 minutes) and it was very hard to start and twice it started and died immediately. The third time it stayed running and I pulled out. I immediately noticed it had absolutely no power, the engine would not rev over 1k RPM. I also noticed that the odometer/message center and gear indicator were not lit up in the instrument cluster. I pulled over, shut it off and re-started. It started easily and the odometer and gear indicator were back. However, the Message center read “Low Engine Power” and again the motor would not rev. I shut it off and restarted a few times but it made no difference. I then pulled the MAF – it looked fine and I reinstalled. Tried it again – it fired right up and ran fine all the way home. I have a SES light on now, but have not been able to have the code pulled yet as I was afraid to shut it off on my way home.
My apologies for the lengthy post, but I wanted to give all the info I could. I would greatly appreciate any input you can offer on troubleshooting this issue. I have a couple camping trips coming up soon and I just don’t trust this for towing at the moment. Thank you!
I’ve also had intermittent symptoms of a weak battery – when you turn the key nothing will happen for maybe 3-5 seconds no clicks, nothing, then it will turn over very slowly and then start. Like I said it’s intermittent – sometimes it will sit for a week and fire right up and other times if I shut it off for 2 minutes to get gas it will be hard to start. No rhyme or reason to it, but everytime it is hard starting I’ve noticed that the clock resets to 12:00. I’ve also got intermittent ABS light/symptoms and the doors will occasionally lock and unlock very quickly for no reason. I have no idea if these issues have a common cause or not.
Yesterday, when leaving the campground towing my trailer it started right up, no problem. I shut it off to empty the trailer tanks (5 minutes) and it was very hard to start and twice it started and died immediately. The third time it stayed running and I pulled out. I immediately noticed it had absolutely no power, the engine would not rev over 1k RPM. I also noticed that the odometer/message center and gear indicator were not lit up in the instrument cluster. I pulled over, shut it off and re-started. It started easily and the odometer and gear indicator were back. However, the Message center read “Low Engine Power” and again the motor would not rev. I shut it off and restarted a few times but it made no difference. I then pulled the MAF – it looked fine and I reinstalled. Tried it again – it fired right up and ran fine all the way home. I have a SES light on now, but have not been able to have the code pulled yet as I was afraid to shut it off on my way home.
My apologies for the lengthy post, but I wanted to give all the info I could. I would greatly appreciate any input you can offer on troubleshooting this issue. I have a couple camping trips coming up soon and I just don’t trust this for towing at the moment. Thank you!
