Strange electrical issues

[ta2sam]

Hello everyone, i have a 2004 Tahoe Z71 with approx 130,000 miles on it. It runs awesome and has no major issues but recently it has been acting funny. It started about a month ago. After sitting over night, i started it up (started just fine as normal) and i noticed that the clock (factory cd player) was completely wrong so i reset it. It happened a couple more times within the next few weeks randomly. Then the second issue started a couple weeks ago. Every once in awhile (about 1 out of every 10 times) when i get in to start the truck, all the lights and everything on the dash work but when i turn the key it does nothing, no clicking, grinding, nothing. Its like there is nothing getting to the starter. After turning the key off and taking it out a few times it starts just fine. Now the final issue happened just this morning. My wife took my son to school this morning at 8 o'clock and the truck started and ran fine. When i go out to the truck an hour later to leave for work i noticed when i hit the unlock button on my remote i couldn't hear the doors unlock which they weren't. I unlocked the door with the key and noticed when i opened the door with key noticed no dome light or anything was on. Put the key in and nothing, no clicking or anything. the truck was completely dead. Took the key out went into the house and asked my wife if she had any issues earlier, she said no. I went back out to the truck popped the hood checked the battery cables which were tight. I got back in the truck and noticed the dome light was on. I put the key in and it started right up. The voltage gauge reads fine the truck is running just fine. I drove it 40 minutes to work with no issues. Please someone give me some info on what is going on

 

[BirchyBoy]

Mine is an earlier model but I had similar, seemingly unrelated electrical gremlins. When I turned my fan switch the "Service 4wd" light came on. It ended up being a wiring harness in the steering column, activated by the ignition switch, that somehow controls power throughout many systems.

Good luck!

 

[tsb09000]

If your battery has the screw in type connectors you might check if those are stripped. I had a similar issue where the battery and everything always checked out fine but I would randomly have to jump it. Turns out, the post was stripped and not making full contact all the time even though it looked ok.

 

[ta2sam]

Mine is an earlier model but I had similar, seemingly unrelated electrical gremlins. When I turned my fan switch the "Service 4wd" light came on. It ended up being a wiring harness in the steering column, activated by the ignition switch, that somehow controls power throughout many systems.

Good luck!

Thanks for your input BirchyBoy, I will look more into that.

If your battery has the screw in type connectors you might check if those are stripped. I had a similar issue where the battery and everything always checked out fine but I would randomly have to jump it. Turns out, the post was stripped and not making full contact all the time even though it looked ok.

Thanks tsb09000, but i have the clap style battery connections and they are on tight.

 

[zieglerj-pdm-specialist]

If your battery has the screw in type connectors you might check if those are stripped. I had a similar issue where the battery and everything always checked out fine but I would randomly have to jump it. Turns out, the post was stripped and not making full contact all the time even though it looked ok.

Make sure the terminals are clean with no white corrosion around it. pull them of and use a wire brush to clean them off if and if one does not clean up replace it but what were are having a problem is with a negative connection on the post. Mine use to do that all the time it would start great for a month and then it would give me problems and not turn over. The interior would turn on but no cranking so I bought new posts for the positive and negative terminal's. I replaced them both and it hasn't had any problems for the past 4 months. Starts over strong. Not losing any amps so check your posts clean then if that doesn't work replace the terminals.

 

[zieglerj-pdm-specialist]

Mine is an earlier model but I had similar, seemingly unrelated electrical gremlins. When I turned my fan switch the "Service 4wd" light came on. It ended up being a wiring harness in the steering column, activated by the ignition switch, that somehow controls power throughout many systems.

Good luck!

Do you use your vehicle for just short trips in the day a mile or two. If you do this its not long enough to allow the alternator to fully charge the battery letting it go low and makes it not get the full 800 cranking amps and letting your radio lose memory. If it has always been like this its your wiring on your radio.

 

[hook50]

It's ur battery connections not makin good contact replace battery harness problem solved