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Comments
Sarah
GM Customer Service
I found this recall online: 08 chev Tahoe:
Recall ID # 74931 - ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Hide Details
Recall Date AUG 28, 2008
Component ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Model Affected Tahoe
Potential Units Affected 857735
Recall Date:
AUG 28, 2008
Model Affected:
2008 Chevrolet Tahoe
Summary:
GM IS RECALLING 857,735 MY 2006-2008 BUICK LUCERNE; CADILLAC DTS; HUMMER H2; MY 2007-2008 CADILLAC ESCALADE, ESCALADE ESV, ESCALADE EXT; CHEVROLET AVALANCHE, SILVERADO, SUBURBAN, TAHOE; GMC ACADIA, SIERRA, YUKON, YUKON XL, SATURN OUTLOOK; AND MY 2008 BUICK ENCLAVE VEHICLES EQUIPPED WITH A HEATED WIPER WASHER FLUID SYSTEM. A SHORT CIRCUIT ON THE PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD FOR THE WASHER FLUID HEATER MAY OVERHEAT THE CONTROL-CIRCUIT GROUND WIRE.
Consequences:
THIS MAY CAUSE OTHER ELECTRICAL FEATURES TO MALFUNCTION, CREATE AN ODOR, OR CAUSE SMOKE INCREASING THE RISK OF A FIRE.
Remedy:
DEALERS WILL INSTALL A WIRE HARNESS WITH AN IN-LINE FUSE FREE OF CHARGE. THE RECALL BEGAN ON SEPTEMBER 12, 2008. OWNERS MAY CONTACT BUICK AT 1-866-608-8080; CADILLAC AT 1-800-982-2339 OR HTTP://WWW.CADILLAC.COM; CHEVROLET AT 1-800-630-2438; SATURN AT 1-800-972-8876 OR HTTP://WWW.SATURN.COM, GMC AT 1-866-996-9436; OR HUMMER AT 1-800-732-5493; OR THROUGH THEIR WEBSITE AT HTTP://WWW.GMOWNERCENTER.COM .
Potential Units Affected:
857735
Read more: http://www.motortrend.com/cars/2008/chevrolet/tahoe/recalls/#ixzz1rvpNn6f7
I can check to see if your vehicle is associated to this recall if you wanted to send us the last 8 digits of your VIN; our email is socialmedia@gm.com if you would prefer to send it privately.
Look forward to hearing from you,
Sarah
GM Customer Service
Sarah, seeing so many vehicles are having this issue what is GM doing to rectify this situation? May I also send you my VIN to see if I am part of this recall?
Thank you
I have a 2008 Suburban LTZ I just purchased 2 weeks ago. My problems are very similar to the others listed here. First started when I was driving on the highway and used my turn signal, my radio powered down and back on by itself. Then my cruise control would just turn off while driving on the interstate. Now I am getting the total electrical shut down, all guages go dark and then vehicle seems to power back on at will. locks pop up and down, seat belt chimer starts chiming just as if I used the remote start and then inserted the key and turned it to the on position. I have had it at the dealer, tech even drove it home to try to duplicate the problem. They say they can't find a problem. I have noticed that the frequency of occurrences are when the temp outside is over 80 degrees, running the A/C and vehicle is warmed up. Also I have noticed the Volt guage at start up is reading over 14 volts and as long as it stays there it does fine but will drop down to around 11 or 12 volts after driving a while, thats when the problems occur. I just had a new alternator installed and as soon as I left the repair shop it started again.
I had a similar problem with a Cadillac STS back in 2002 and they eventually had to replace the entire wiring harness after 4 months of diagnostic. They said there was a bare wire grounding out against the frame of the car.
My vehicle has 77k miles and the factory powertrain is all that is active with the warranty.
What are my options?
Thanks
All the best,
Sarah
GM Customer Service
If you haven't already, please send an email to socialmedia@gm.com (include your name/Edmunds username, phone and address, the last 8 of your VIN and current mileage, and the name of your involved dealership, as well as a description of the issue and any visits you have made to the dealer for it) and we will explore any options that may be available; however, I cannot guarantee any results up front.
All the best,
Sarah
GM Customer Service
I'm active duty Navy and just purchased a 2008 silverado ltz(last nine of VIN: 481124518) . It currently has 71000 miles on it. I was driving down the interstate when the interior gauges, radio, door locks and temperature indicator all flashed off and cut right back on. Anytime I would use the turn signal the radio would cut off and the 'Park Assist Off' would flash on. It continued to do this the whole way home (approximately 30 minutes). I parked the truck and shut it off. Let it sit for about 30 minutes and then went to crank it up. Initially it acted like the battery was dead. I tried a second time and the truck cranked right up. I haven't taken it to a mechanic yet. Help please???!!!!
http://www.autoserviceprofessional.com/article/92084/finding-gmlan-wiring-proble- ms (cut and paste into your browser if the link doesn't work)
Thank you for your response. Have you had a similar problem with your Chevrolet? With your recommendations for possible remedies, am I able take those to a dealer or mechanic and ask them to trace those?
I was wondering if you ever got a resolution to your electrical problem on the suburban? Sounds like you and I have the exact same situation. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
After my vehicle started going haywire with the locks popping up and down, dashboard going dark and lighting back up etc while driving, key fob not locking/unlocking and random instances of not starting I took my car to a GM dealership to be looked at.
1)They first replaced the negative battery wire/terminal and called to say it was fixed
--I drove over and picked up my car but before even getting on the highway the computer and guages started going crazy again. So I had to turn it back in for more analysis
2)A week later I went by to speak with the service tech and go over what they were doing.
--he said that although they had replaced the negative battery terminal and wiring they hadn't reset the computer in my vehicle.(before they had only cleared the error codes but hadn't done a reset after battery wire replacement) They claimed that is the only other thing they did to fix my problem. Not a very comforting explanation but so far so good.
I have had my Tahoe back since 3/20/12 and have not had any of these issues come back up (crossing fingers)...
I do still have my 'Park Assist Off' message display about 50% of the time but I will take that any day over all the headache of the guages/computer problems that I was having.
Hoping this info might be helpful to one of you.
A bit of background on the matter. This electrical problem had been going on for over a month now. I'm unemployed so I wasn't about to take the car to the dealer and get raped with a giant repair bill.
Here's was my summary of repairs and eventual sollution to the main problem.
A. 3 brand new batteries over a month period,
B. One new alternator
C. One Loose starter cable
D. Loose battery ground cable wire in pre-clamped factory cable.
E. Small battery posts - sollution: Sanded/grinded clamps to allow for better grip on battery.
I drove out of town. Six hours into the trip, the electrial problem began (at freeway speeds 65-70 MPH), power door locks kept going up and down, dash gauges flickering and reseting, radio in and out. Basically - complete electrical failure during freeway driving.
We (family) safely pulled off the freeway into a Shell station which had a repair shop. The mechanic convinced me that it was the alternator. His meter was showing a reading of 1200 and it should have been showing a reading above 1400... blah, blah... lies, lies, lies...and yes- I bought a brand new alternator: $287.00 delivered to the shop and $45 to install it. My daugther paid for it with her college money. The mechanic did show me how the bearings on the pully of the old alternator Tahoe were also going out. Whatever!!! One day later, I'm still out of town- far from home....same electrical problem on the Tahoe. I noticed that the battery charge gauge on my dash would begin at 14 volts in early drive, then drop down to 9 to 12 volts over 30 minutes of driving. I took the Tahoe back to the same repair shop by the Shell station.
I had read some of the previous comments in other online posts...and asked the mechanic to raise the car and check the starter for a possible loose cable connection. Sure enough: He found that the starter cable wire was loose. After tightening the cable, we went to reconnect battery and the starter would not shut off. Hmmm....scammer mechanic tried to sell me a starter? Nope... .turns out that there is a specially-made metal washer on the connector to the starter with a little metal piece that needs to sit or fit in a groove on the actual starter. We took starter out, readjusted the metal pin, put starter back and took car for a test drive on the freeway.
I told the mechanic that I wanted to go on the test drive and did so. Guess what? Same electrical problem again. The Tahoe eventually died once we stopped at the back of the Shell station. The mechanic turned the car off and when he went to turn the car back on... Nothing! No electrical current. Then, we open the hood, Voyla!!- we jiggled the ground battery cable and all of the electrical juice comes back on. Mechanic figures that the problem is my battery posts (too small) and ground battery cable is a bit loose.
Then, the mechanic tries to measure the posts on new Interstate batteries that he is selling at his shop and suggests that I should buy a new battery. His new battery's posts are obviously thicker...blah, blah.... Aaaahh....NO! I'm not buying a fourth battery... Sooo....
Yep! You guessed it, the battery terminals on my (Third) and new Auto Zone battery were in fact too small in diameter. We took the Tahoe's black ground battery cable apart, un-screwing the tightening bolts and removed them. The mechanic sanded down the clamp's edges with a small electrical grinder so that it would close and grab the smaller battery posts with lots more strength and it fixed the entire problem! Before re-applying the black cable back on the battery, at my request, the mechanic smashed/hammered the metal factory pre-clamp area around the actual cable for a better connection. We found that even though the cable came pre-clamped from the factory, it was a bit loose and corrosion could possibly be preventing a stable electrical connection.
Three hours of labor and I made mechanic feel pretty bad for mis-diagnosing first problem with a new alternator that we probably didn't need. I asked him how much I owed him and he said $40.00 should do it. WOW! I felt like I won the lottery! The local chevy dealership wanted to charge me $120.00 per hour and that it would take at least two hours to diagnose the problem. Plus, a new black ground cable for my Tahoe was $96.00 plus tax at the Chevy Dealer. I priced a similar cable at auto zone and they wanted $15.00.
So far, driving the Tahoe for one week and a half without any electrical issues.
It's amazing how such a simple problem caused so many electrical problems. My wife thinks I got screwed on the alternator, but hey - the Tahoe was built in 2007, sold in 2008 and so, the old alternator lasted five good years. The new one I installed is original GM parts so hopefully I'll be okay for another five more years.
If your 2008 Tahoe is having similar electrical problems, it would behoove you to read my success story and do your best to avoid letting the mechanic take the car out for a drive by himself or herself. In these tough economic times, you should not trust anyone to drive your car by themselves! Don't lose signt of the mechanic near your car either. Although there are lots of honest mechanics, the few that aren't honest will drain your pocket books in the blink of an eye.
I also have a 2007 Tahoe, bought it new and only have about 32K miles on it. About 6-10 months after having we did seem to be coming to a dead battery a few times. We thought maybe the son was leaving the interior light on or leaving his DS plugged in or something like that. After a few times of this happening we finally took it to the dealer. They looked at and didn't find anything wrong with it. Perhapas they updated some of the software at that time because we never had the problem again.
It was a typical Sat. morning today. Went to get my haircut and while in the barber chair my wife came in to tell me the battery was dead. I sadi sure it is. Low and behold when I went out there it was as dead as a doornail. Not thinking about the battery, I left the key on for the wife so she could listen to the cd. I even think the ac was on low speed. The doorlocks on the fob and interior locks wouldn't work. Rear door won't unlock either. We had someone try to give us a jump but it did nothing. It didn't even put a drain on the other car. I figured it was the battery and it had finally died since during the winter it was a little sluggish/slow when cranking up the tahoe. We pulled the battery and went to Autozone, got the battery and installed it. Now everything was working from what I could tell except the door locks and it wouldn't crank or even turn over. I did notice that when we would open a door or tried the fob sometimes we would hear a click sound somewhere near the engine. We had it towed to the local dealer since their service dept was still open. The service guy did hook up his little scanner somewhere under the steering wheel and told us there were no codes. They said they would look at it Monday morning.
So hear starts our story. I will definitely wait to see what the dealership says first but I will definitely tell them to make sure the software is up-to-date, inspect the wiring harness, look closely into the GMLAN wiring system. I have also read that it could be the starter relay or the GM High Speed LAN Resistor. I hope I don't get stuck with some large bill that doesn't even fix the problem permenantly.
I hope that everything goes well with your dealership! Please post an update on the progress there with your Tahoe, and if we can be of any assistance we can be contacted at socialmedia@gm.com
Best,
Sarah
GM Customer Service
He told me the BCM was solid state and nothing could be replaced in it when I mentioned the terminating resistor for the GM Hispeed LAN. He also said there were like 4 resistor modules. I didn't really follow what he was saying or necessarily trusted it.
My biggest fear is that this isn't the real problem and that I don't wany my family to be in danger because the vehicle might fail again but this time fail while it is in operation.
I understand why you're apprehensive; have you decided to have the BCM done? Please keep in touch with us in regards to how your vehicle operates after the replacement. If this doesn't turn out to be the root of the matter, we'd be happy to look into this further.
Best,
Sarah
GM Customer Service
To me this is like having a problem on your computer and the technician tells you to re-install the operating system. It is a hail mary pass that is a huge cost when other components are much cheaper and could be the problem.
This is my family vehicle and luckily this happened when it was parked and I was with them. My wife will freak and be very upset if this happens with her and our son.
Then again, that's "only" 6 or 8 car payments, especially for an expensive new SUV.
The 175 amp fuse I am referring to is located against the firewall on the passenger side under the hood. If you're looking at the battery (on the left) from the front of the truck it should be located above and slightly to the right on the firewall. It's not inside of a fuse box or anything like that, it's a stand alone fuse.
I know the post is long but any suggestions for any of the above problems would be greatly appreciated. We still owe too much money on the vehicle to get out of it so I would like it to work in a manner that all of the ammenities we paid for can be enjoyed.
Seems that everyone is have one or more of the same issues!
My dealer just diagnosed the vehicle with a short in the rear lift gate, a broken actuator in the door, and the need to replace the instrument panel cluster. Total cost is $1300. Based on my research, these all seem to be common problems with Tahoes of this era, but GM has not issued any recalls. Has anyone gotten anywhere by appealing directly to GM to cover some of the costs of these repairs. It seems like things like this would make their consumer satifaction ratings take a plunge. I'm not sure if I will stick with GM next time around.
I had the exact same problem. My local mechanic here replaced what he called a 'mega fuse'. It's located on the firewall under the hood next to the battery. It cost me $107 out the door for diagnositcs and repair. Mechanic said the connectors were barely making a connection. My truck has been running fine for approximately a month and a half (fingers crossed). You might want to give that a try...