Help me please! My 2008 sierra with 60k miles exhibits random intermittent electrical problems that started around 30k miles… and are possibly going to get me killed. I am a newbie to this forum and will try to be as thorough as possible….
First incident driving across the barren nevada desert. 70mph on the highway pulling a horse trailer. trying to find something worth while on XM radio… when the radio shuts off, then a moment later the door chime begins dinging, then the door locks repeatedly lock and unlock, and it feels as though the engine died, I have no power and am in the middle of nowhere...And then just as suddenly, all the dinging and door locking just stops. the radio begins playing and when i put my foot on the accelerator the truck responds… So I keep driving. (I am bewildered by the whole experience and after 100 or so miles of thinking about it, I conclude that the experience has more to do with area 51 than my favorite new truck… i keep driving.)
We arrive at our destination and i continue to use the truck for a few days and then leave it in the parking lot for for a few more. I hop in the truck to head home and it won’t start. completely dead. not even an interior light. We get a jumpstart from security and we are told to "not stop until we get home to Arizona”… and we don’t turn the truck off for 299 miles.
Once home we replaced the battery as directed and things were fine for a while. Then the “haunting" starts again… after a few similar incidents, i notice the clock also resets to 12:00, service air bag light , service stabilitrac light all come on while it is happening. I start developing theories about the cause. Possibly the turn signal or turning the steering wheel. But whatever it is I can’t get it to do it in front of any of the mechanics i take it to so they have no way to figure it out. The dealership service department tells me they have never heard of anything like this happening to anyone.
My mother and I set out to pick up a horse 2 hours out of town. Everything was going just fine. until we hit a steep hill and to be courteous we signal to change lanes and get out of the way. then we here it the ding ding, terror sets in as the cd tray hums and grinds looking to load a cd, the dash lights flash, and the truck dies as we are doing 70 up a hill with semi trucks all around. luckily we are able to make it onto the loose gravel shoulder of the road without getting killed … on the side of the road we thank the powers that be for sparing us a a fiery death of twisted metal and angry truckers. We try to start a couple times unsuccessfuly but on the third try- it fires up as if nothing had ever happened. So we drive on. what the hell we figure, "we’ve got onstar” and we drove on. To the only farm located in a valley surrounded by mountains. The farm owners had an appointment so we said our goodbyes as we loaded the horse. Alone in a beautiful albeit desolate valley. get in the truck and it won’t start. we push the button to call onstar… nothing… push it again and wait… nothing. This is when we begin to realize just how dangerous this “haunting" could be. What a false sense of security we had. What a bill of goods Onstar and GM had sold us.
I was under the impression that if i had trouble or an accident all i had to do was push the button to hear a reassuring voice "Onstar, how can we help”
It never occurred to me that if the battery was dead there is no button. No voice. No help. Or ...had we been smashed between to semis as we struggled to get off the road because the truck had died while doing 70 and semi trucks were trying to pass…. … not only would onstar not work… the airbags wouldn’t deploy.
In a previous forum someone suggested changing the battery cable. So I did that. Even though the dealership told me the OEM battery cables were perfectly fine, although they couldn’t explain why they had changed the design….
Ive purchased new batteries and had the alternator checked.
So here is where I am at. I know from this and other forums we are not alone in these issues and there has to be a solution. We have always owned GM products and have a lot of money invested in this truck. At this point we are terrified to drive this deathtrap with 60k miles. As someone once said it is “unsafe at any speed”
First incident driving across the barren nevada desert. 70mph on the highway pulling a horse trailer. trying to find something worth while on XM radio… when the radio shuts off, then a moment later the door chime begins dinging, then the door locks repeatedly lock and unlock, and it feels as though the engine died, I have no power and am in the middle of nowhere...And then just as suddenly, all the dinging and door locking just stops. the radio begins playing and when i put my foot on the accelerator the truck responds… So I keep driving. (I am bewildered by the whole experience and after 100 or so miles of thinking about it, I conclude that the experience has more to do with area 51 than my favorite new truck… i keep driving.)
We arrive at our destination and i continue to use the truck for a few days and then leave it in the parking lot for for a few more. I hop in the truck to head home and it won’t start. completely dead. not even an interior light. We get a jumpstart from security and we are told to "not stop until we get home to Arizona”… and we don’t turn the truck off for 299 miles.
Once home we replaced the battery as directed and things were fine for a while. Then the “haunting" starts again… after a few similar incidents, i notice the clock also resets to 12:00, service air bag light , service stabilitrac light all come on while it is happening. I start developing theories about the cause. Possibly the turn signal or turning the steering wheel. But whatever it is I can’t get it to do it in front of any of the mechanics i take it to so they have no way to figure it out. The dealership service department tells me they have never heard of anything like this happening to anyone.
My mother and I set out to pick up a horse 2 hours out of town. Everything was going just fine. until we hit a steep hill and to be courteous we signal to change lanes and get out of the way. then we here it the ding ding, terror sets in as the cd tray hums and grinds looking to load a cd, the dash lights flash, and the truck dies as we are doing 70 up a hill with semi trucks all around. luckily we are able to make it onto the loose gravel shoulder of the road without getting killed … on the side of the road we thank the powers that be for sparing us a a fiery death of twisted metal and angry truckers. We try to start a couple times unsuccessfuly but on the third try- it fires up as if nothing had ever happened. So we drive on. what the hell we figure, "we’ve got onstar” and we drove on. To the only farm located in a valley surrounded by mountains. The farm owners had an appointment so we said our goodbyes as we loaded the horse. Alone in a beautiful albeit desolate valley. get in the truck and it won’t start. we push the button to call onstar… nothing… push it again and wait… nothing. This is when we begin to realize just how dangerous this “haunting" could be. What a false sense of security we had. What a bill of goods Onstar and GM had sold us.
I was under the impression that if i had trouble or an accident all i had to do was push the button to hear a reassuring voice "Onstar, how can we help”
It never occurred to me that if the battery was dead there is no button. No voice. No help. Or ...had we been smashed between to semis as we struggled to get off the road because the truck had died while doing 70 and semi trucks were trying to pass…. … not only would onstar not work… the airbags wouldn’t deploy.
In a previous forum someone suggested changing the battery cable. So I did that. Even though the dealership told me the OEM battery cables were perfectly fine, although they couldn’t explain why they had changed the design….
Ive purchased new batteries and had the alternator checked.
So here is where I am at. I know from this and other forums we are not alone in these issues and there has to be a solution. We have always owned GM products and have a lot of money invested in this truck. At this point we are terrified to drive this deathtrap with 60k miles. As someone once said it is “unsafe at any speed”