randomly acting dead, no crank. wait 5 then it works?

[alister]

This one is a new one on me. It's happened a trio of times since we bought it a few weeks ago. Essentially you unlock it, jump in and try to start it. It acts like a dead battery; barely a flicker from the engine light and no other noise/lights. Try it again same thing. You can wait 10-15 seconds and hear all the electronics reset like the CD player, etc. Didn't touch a thing after waiting a couple minutes and tried it again...****, it all works and starts again. That seems to be the pattern and waiting a few minutes seems to let it fire right up.

New battery was put in but still randomly happening. Don't show any codes or anything I can see on the dash though. Any ideas at all??

 

[2000Yukon]

Check the battery cables, they might be loose.

I had a similar problem and I thought it was serous, but it was just loose cables.

 

[tsb09000]

Ditto on the cables. Mine 'looked' fine but the negative terminal was stripped. Super easy fix

 

[AquinoSteven]

I had the same problem. First it was loose battery cables and then a bad starter. All within the same month. I would check either one

 

[alister]

Thanks all. I didn't change the battery myself so I will check it first and report back. Hopefully not the starter but didn't think that explain the nearly no lights.

 

[alister]

Check the cables and they are tight. Finally had it happen again to me tonight but I kept a voltmeter with me this time. Posts show nearly 12.5v the whole time. Could this be a relay or something? Note this time I didn't wait the 5 minutes but merely walked away to drive another vehicle (twas in the driveway) and when I went to re-lock the doors it didn't sound it took and got a I'm-dying-quickly-barely honk confirmation.

 

[kurtibm]

alister,
I have been having the same issue for months.
Neutral safety switch is A-OK, battery is new, cables are new - still have the issue.
Did you ever get to the bottom of your issue?

Thanks,
Kurt

 

[alister]

Actually it ended up being the connection to the cable for me. Although it looked fine, we disconnected them, cleaned and sanded them, and put it all back together. No issues since.

I wish you luck because that was one annoying problem.