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SUVs Chevrolet Suburban & Tahoe Chevrolet Tahoe Electrical Problems
63 messages, Last post on Nov 29, 2009 at 8:06 PM
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Hello- I've been having a problem lately with my 4DR 4WD Chevy Tahoe. Lately it has been completely losing electrical power while driving or sitting at a light. Everything is running fine, then it just shuts off. All lights, everything. When this first started happening, the truck would start right back up. Now, however, it stays dead until I remove the positive battery cable (negative doesnt help). When I put the pos. cable back on, there is enough juice to crank it back up. There is no corrosion on the cables, but I noticed the last time this happened that the positive cable terminal was extremely hot and the stock red rubber around the cable end was starting to melt/burn. Ive had the battery and alternator checked out and they tested fine. Had a general mechanics shop look at it all day today and they couldnt reproduce the problem, so they didn't figure it out either. I've got a nice Optima Yellow-top so I don't think the battery is the problem. Last summer, the car was doing almost the same thing. The only difference was the terminals were corroding badly. I had the battery check and they said it was bad (another Optima yellow top, only a year old), so I got it replaced. It ran fine until this current problem arose last month. Lastly, when I bought car 3 years ago, the alternator died and I had it rebuilt to a slightly higher output (to power my sound system, which is now unplugged to eliminate that as the problem). Could this be damaging my electrical system? Thanks for taking the time to read this. Hopefully someone has an idea of what's going on, but I realize electrical problems are difficult to diagnose, especially over the net. |
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Hopefully someone has an idea of what's going on ____________________________________________________________ Anytime you get cables starting to melt and/or burn you have a major problem. Obviously some type of short circuit. You should take your vehicle to a high quality auto electrical shop immediately. You have a strong probability of a fire starting under the hood.
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Replying to: rockman59 (Aug 09, 2006 8:10 am)
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Replying to: ksmith5 (Aug 09, 2006 8:25 am) ____________________________________________________________ I know you don't want to hear this...but any dealer who can't find out why something is causing your cables to overheat as hot as they are is not doing their job. Obviously something is causing a huge electrical draw on the entire system. This is not just a tail light or fan problem...this is something much bigger. I still think you should find a top quality electrical shop and get their opinion. They deal with this stuff every day....it might cost you a diagnosis fee but at least you will know the problem. You can then take the vehicle back to the dealer for repair if it is still under warranty. And you better buy a fire extinguisher...make sure you get the kind for electrical fires. Seriously, you may be needing it. |
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Replying to: ksmith5 (Aug 08, 2006 6:40 pm) Symptoms often are that without warning it just dies and then on the next moment everything seems to be ok. Then you say the battery terminal was hot enough to melt red plastic around it. If you draw that much power from the battery then it makes a huge spark when you re-connect the cable. Did this happen? If the short is inside the battery it can get very hot but does not spark when re-connecting terminals. Then you said that another yellow top went bad after just a year. I think it is time for you to find something else than a yellow top battery. It all sounds like a $70 Die Hard would fix your problems. And then, your problems a year ago appeared also in summer time, right? Well, hot weather is bad for batteries and that is what we have had this summer also. --Arrie--
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Replying to: arrie (Aug 09, 2006 5:26 pm) The first Optima yellow-top replaced a Die-hard that died. I took the current batter to the same place that diagnosed the previous bad yellow top and they said this one is fine. I hate to say but I'm pretty sure the new cables aren't gonna fix the problem. We'll see.
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Replying to: ksmith5 (Aug 09, 2006 8:02 pm) Thanks for your help
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Replying to: ksmith5 (Aug 09, 2006 8:04 pm) You say that there is hardly no spark if any so at the time you connect the terminals the problem is not present if the problem is not internally in the battery. If the problem is not the battery itself I think you need to look at the alternator or starter motor. These two things are the only electrical parts in your car that could cause high enough amps at battery terminals to make temperature raise to a level that starts melting plastic. And from these two I would focus on the starter motor since I really don't think that the alternator wiring is big enough for current to cause that kind of heat, but it could be. You could have an intermittent short at the starter motor solenoid, which would ground the positive starter motor wire and heat the battery terminal as the battery drains very fast. Starter motor wire is very heavy duty and does not burn if grounded. Something else will burn instead, like battery itself. --Arrie-- |
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While driving a city street my '97 4DR 4WD Tahoe suddenly lunged and all the dashboard needles deflected. As the needles settled down, the voltmeter showed a steady continuing drop. When the needle got into the 9V zone the engine quit and would not turn over. A kind soul provided a jump but the engine would die the moment the cables were removed. I took the battery to be checked and it wouldn't hold any charge at all. New battery installed the engine jumped back to life but the voltage slowly dropped again to ~10V when a sudden high-pitched noise I'd never before heard kicked in and the voltage climbed back up. Since that time the battery does not charge in the vehicle though it charges fine on a charger. Was the sound I heard the last cry of the alternator? Could just the voltage regulator be bad? Any/all thoughts are welcomed. Thanks!
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Replying to: caelab (Sep 03, 2006 3:33 pm) ____________________________________________________________ You need to take your Tahoe to a qualified auto electrical shop for a complete evaluation of your electrical system.
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