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The issue of the radio staying on in my truck has been identified. You can actually pull the key out before it is turned all the way off. I was told to make sure I've turned it all the way before removing the key. There are some parts that can be replaced to eliminate this issue, but if I simply turn the key farther, it is supposed to be okay. ($300+ to fix versus turning key farther).
On the electrical issues with seat warmer and its lights going on and off -- I had the unit in the seat replaced (yes, over $800). It's been a couple weeks and it looks like the problem is coming back, so that might have been a poorly spent $800.....
it has a common problem with one or more wires getting hot and and losing connection. Most common is the big black wire that is likely ground for more than one thing. Unplug the harness and check each wire to make sure it is seated tightly in the plug. If you can get the seat to move all the way forward and up it makes it real easy to get to.
This is where you should start. I know how frusterating these things can be.
Hope this is helpful.
2011 Yukon Denali XL. Battery goes dead after door is open for a short period of time or a dome light is on for a short period of time. Had battery, alternator and starter tested - all fine.
Was loyal Toyota guy but needed a bigger vehicle and no model from Toyota fits the bill. Starting to regret going with GMC ...
Would a new battery with higher cold cranking amps help? Seems way too fast for a battery to get drained.
Can't imagine a mere door or dome light drawing that much amperage out of a battery. You should test the battery drain with everything off and shut down. It really shouldn't read more than 50-100 milliamps, although some techs say up to 400 milliamps is tolerable. If you don't have a large amp drain at "rest", then I would suspect your battery, yes. I don't think any battery that is more than factory spec is required unless you are running extra equipment.
Hello....I am new to the forum. I own a 2004 Yukon Denali....well im paying on it. I am going through allot of electrical issues. All of the dash light are completely out. It would only flicker at first but has progressively gottn worse. The battery went from dying after a full day to now if I dont crank it every 4to6 hours I will be guaranteed to need a jump. I have had battery, starter and alternator all checked and all are good. I still bought a new battery praying that was the issue. After having the new battery a week all the issues came right back. I am a working mother of 4 kids from age 10-18 I work overnights which is rough enough but now add the fact that I havent sleept more than 4 hours at one time in over a month because of fear of my truck not starting when I awake. I dont have allot of money....I was in an accident which totalled my last car and i only have my gmc. I luv the truck but not its problems, trading it in is not an option because id be upside down and my credit bites. I have had all my fuses checked.....I cant afford going to an electrician and anytime I try taking my truck anywhere the car guys allways try to get over on me. I feel so defeated right now and im trying to not let my kids feel or see what im going through....I dont know what to do or where to go to get this fixed. If anyone has any advice, do tell. I reside in Pensacola Florida.
My speedometer, radio, locks, mirrors work, then they don't work. When my speedometer does work, I'f I stop quick, or go into passing gear, the speedometer goes wacky and stops working. The radio will change stations, or turn off. Why is there not a RECALL ON THIS PROBLEM. THERE ARE THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE SAME PROBLEM. EACH DEALER FEEDS ME [non-permissible content removed], TELLING ME THEY DON'T KNOW WHY IT DOES IT, OR TELLME THEY HAVE TO SEE IT DO IT WHILE THEY HAVE IT. [non-permissible content removed] GM.. YOU NEED TO STAND BEHIND WHAT YOU SELL. MY CAR HAS LESS THAN 100,000 MILES AND IT IS 11 YEARS OLD. I HAVE HAD MORE PROBLEMS WITH THIS, the most expensive vehicle I have ever purchased, THAN ALL OTHER VEHICLE'S COMBINED.
GMC!!! WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO????
Brought my 2011 Yukon Denali into the dealer after having to jump start it twice this month (one time needed to call a garage to get it jumped).
Their advice? Purchase a new battery from them (over $50 more than high quality batter from Autozone). I have had the battery, starter and alternator tested at another shop - all tested fine.
I asked the dealer about a "battery drain test" and they said they really couldn't do anything without a new battery.
Just wanted to update as I can see A LOT of people have the same issue.
Off to buy a new battery ...
Have a 2009 Denali XL with many of the same issues identified here EXCEPT doors locking and unlocking and the rear window thing. Been fighting the gremlins for almost 3 years. Originally I though I had it narrowed down to a broken battery post in the battery when I seemed to be able to wiggle the posts and got everything to work. New battery seemed to fix everything for about 6 months then things started "happening" again. Cruise drops, Navi/radio goes out, dash goes out, occasionally won't crank, etc. Then I was finally able to MAKE the cabin power issues happen pretty consistently by stressing the electrical system by running 2 window motors up against the stop points at the same time. Also had fluttering head lights which sure acted like a bad ground. Removed, cleaned and reinstalled every ground we could find with dielectric grease. Again it seemed to be the "fix" for about 6 months. Recently gremlins have returned. I have not been able to tie together temp, rain, usage,turn signals, rough roads, or any other factors to failure. I have seen fluctuations in voltage from 14.2 down to 13.5 (approx) but never low enough to indicate alternator "dropping out" but just to be sure it was not due to occasional alternator failure I unhoooked alternator charge wire to put max stress on battery....no failure, all systems ok. I am in the marine business and am very familiar with trying to locate this type of issue but this one has me baffled. Fortunately we do not have all of the electronics a modern vehicle of this type has. One thing I did not do was check the resistance in the ground wires so I am replacing those as well as the BCM. I plan to make sure the dealer gives me back the old BCM and wires as I will take a close look at the circuit board and check resistance in the wires. I just don't have the time to pull it, check things, put it back in and possible get nowhere. Love my Denali but the gremlins have been tiresome. Parts are ordered and I will try to post results when completed and tested for a couple weeks. BTW - my dealer did get me a significant "policy" price reduction since I had multiple logged complaints and service requests on this issue. Dealer has been great on this and a couple other issues with the vehicle.
Hello, I have some of the same problems many people hear have had and I have some new ones. I have owned my 2007 GMC Yukon XL for about 3 years and over that time I too have had the battery die after a few minutes of having the rear hatch open. I have replaced the battery with one from the local Napa autoparts and that has at least for now allowed me to keep my hatch open for more that 30 minutes and still start the truck. I have had the rear defroster tab just fall off the window, I took that back to the dealer for a repair and they told me after three attempts to fix it they could not make it stick. So I now have no rear defroster! They just tucked the wire into the roof and told me if I really wanted it fixed to break the window and have my insurance replace it. My power door locks do work but I have found them working on there own without pressing any buttons on the key fob. They just start locking and unlocking by themselves. They will eventually stop after about a minute or so. I have put on a turn signal to make a turn and had the turn signal stop working and then all of a sudden start up again. And then just the other night at 4am my alarm started sounding for no reason, As I got out to the car it stopped. I looked around and started to head back in the house and it started up again. And just today I stopped at the gas station and went to push in on the fuel door and it did not pop out so I had to pry the door open to allow me to gain access to the fuel tank ( the button that pushes the door out is stuck in and I can not get it out) and then after that I get home open the rear hatch to take some items out the the car and as the hatch closes the button falls out of the door to open the rear hatch glass. I also forgot to mention that my dash has cracked over by the passenger airbag. This is almost as big of a complaint as the electrical problems.
Now I have heard of things breaking over time and can accept most problems but this is totally unacceptable that a vehicle less that 10 yrs old be falling apart like this. Where is the GM quality we used to have? I cannot believe that with all of these issues so many of us are having with this vehicle that a class action has not been brought up. GM needs to recall so many things that are manufacture defects and still they do nothing.
I would love to know if the cause of these problems has been found....
We have a 2007 Yukon Denali XL with the following:
At low speeds - the car goes into neutral or starting from a stop jumps into a high gear and won't shift. We've had the transmission valve replaced last year for a different issue as there was a stuck solenoid, and this time it's been determined it is NOT the transmission but an electrical issue.
Prior issues repaired:
In addition to the electrical issues we have very high oil consumption like others have mentioned and had to recently replace the battery because even a dome light on after a few minutes would cause the battery to die. We also have an issue with defective wheels which are apparently causing our tires to constantly lose air.
Any fixes?? Our local dealership says they've never heard of these being a problem but from the forum it appears this is a well known issue. Thanks!
I have a 2011 GMC Yukon Denali. About two months ago I started noticing that the car was acting abnormally. The biggest thing was that when I parked the vehicle and turned off the ignition, all power was cut to the vehicle. Normally, when you turn the key off in a GMC vehicle, the navigation system and radio stay on until the door is opened. At that point the overhead lights turn on. In this case, turning the key off killed all vehicle power. No lights, stereo, even the locks wouldn't work. After a while I was able to determine that, by jiggling the negative battery cable, I was able to get power back to the vehicle, indicated by the overhead lights coming on.
Here's the real kicker. I took it to the local GMC dealer here in Bossier City, LA, and they were unable to isolate the problem. I actually took it in three or four times. No joy. They never could find a problem. I talked the problem over with one of the men who worked there, and he seemed to believe it was something known as a gang ground, that was located under the dashboard. Another significant problem I had with this vehicle after buying it was a huge crack on the driver's side of the dashboard, which the warranty company refused to fix (despite being addressed specifically in the terms of the warranty). This lead me to believe that there may be a connection between the cracked dash and the gang grounds underneath it.
Anyway, I changed out the negative battery cable. The first change I noticed was that the batter gauge was reading consistently in the vertical position. Prior to changing it out the gauge would fluctuate between the 10 o'clock position and the two o'clock position.
I think the problem may be solved! My 2008 denali started to have the same issues...instrument panel would go dead for a second, radio would die or go black for a few seconds, my remote start would not work, it would die completely for hours on end. Made 3 or 4 trips to dealership over the span of @8 weeks..1st remedy was to repair an electrical wire that was rubbing up against the transmission and to get a new battery...needed one anyway. Worked fine for a week, same problems persisted...2nd remedy was to replace the negative battery cable because it had a short in it. Worked fine for a bit then the same issues began again within a few weeks..but this time it lost power while driving, still ran but no acceleration and locked up when I hit the brakes, the locks went up and down very fast over and over. After a few minutes I pulled back out into traffic, drove home and got the dealership to start me a tow, on their dime.
This time I spoke with the tech who advised that the positive battery cable was bad also. He explained that there are two cables running through there and they create a short. This can really only be detected when the car is dead, which mine was this time. The dealership replaced the positive cable for free and was very apologetic that this was the third or fourth time in for the same issue.
SO LONG STORY SHORT....replace BOTH battery cables and check whatever runs near the transmission as that may be chaffed. It has worked flawlessly so far.
We have a 2012 Yukon Denali with ~ 40K miles. Occasionally, the vehicle's electric power system just cuts out. Normally this occurs after the vehicle is turned off, but has occurred at speed.
When the issue occurs when parked, all of the electric power is off: No dome light, no display, no door lock/unlock, no radio, and no starting. It is most noticeable when turning the vehicle off, at that point, the radio and convenience lights are all off. After some period of time (with no intervention), everything works normally.
When driving, the most obvious indication is that the Radio/DVD/Navigation system restarts. Occasionally the electric power steps will extend and retract (one side at a time). In one occurrence, the vehicle lost engine power for a moment.
It is currently at the dealership, but they have not been able to reproduce the issue.
Questions:
1. With the number of write-ups of these symptoms, is there GM / GMC guidance on this issue?
2. Does anyone have suggestions on how to help reproduce the issue?
3. Without the ability to reproduce, is there any proactive service (replace negative battery cable, positive battery cables, battery, BCM, ...) to perform to mitigate the risk of electrical failure.
Amber N.
GM Customer Care
If you get an successful fix please email it to me at [Email removed]. I like my vehicle, when it is running.
I commented on another post asking them to please email me at [Email removed] if they get a successful fix. If the dealership solves the problem for you could you do the same. I like my vehicle, when it is running.
I'm so sorry that your local dealerships have been unable to diagnose these electrical concerns. When was the last time that you experienced this? We're happy to discuss this in greater detail. Please send us your info via email to socialmedia@gm.com.
Kind regards,
Jonathan A.
GM Customer Care
Just purchased an 08 Yukon Denali XL, picked it up last week,drove fine, until this morning, wife calls me freaking out, door locks started to go up and down, radio/nav would shut off and turn back on intermittently, and worst of all, there was no ability to accelerate, luckily she was only down the street, and the car was able to idle back home safely. Called the dealer to have them come tow the car back and get it fixed, but this is definitely not a good way to start. This vehicle was certified preowned, not sure how these things are not caught, but very disappointing overall. I do hope it can be fixed, as after reading all of these posts, it seems there may be a solution but not definitive.
A draw of any more than say 50 milliamps is unacceptable.
To be really thorough about it, you should, prior to testing, have your battery load-tested and your charging system checked. Any battery over 5 years old is suspect and if your volt/ohm meter doesn't show much of a current draw, you know the problem is not a drain but perhaps a weak battery, weak alternator, or your driving habits (that is, short trips in cold weather, things like that).
If your local shop can't handle it, then check on this website:
http://www.iatn.net/
Look under "repair shops".
These people are the best of the best. Hopefully, there is one somewhere in your area. Good luck with it.