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Pickups Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon Electrical Problems
249 messages, Last post on Nov 24, 2009 at 4:21 AM
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Replying to: mrwebman (Feb 24, 2009 1:08 pm)
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Replying to: duart (Feb 28, 2009 2:21 pm) Personally, I'd stop looking for ONE reason for your problems because it sounds to me that you have multiple things going on. To my knowledge, there's no such thing as a 'drain' sensor in any normal production vehicle. Maybe NASA has something like that but frankly, I would not want it in my car - if I don't want something powered up I can unplug/turn it off without some computer deciding what's best for me. Remember, leave the lights (or other load) on and when you come back to the car your battery could be dead. Inverters: I'd never leave one of those plugged in because they eat (consume, waste) roughly 30 percent of the max load even when there isn't a load attached. So... 1000 watt inverter consumes 300 watts of power when not powering anything. 300 watts at 12 volts is 25 amps of current. 25 amps of current for 10 hours is 250 ampere/hours or to put it another way, a toasted battery. Now look at what the inverter does to your car when you ARE using 1000 watts, ie, when you do have a load plugged into it. At full load, it is consuming about 84 amps of current from your car but your alternator can not supply but 60 amps so the other 24 amps comes out of the battery and eventually you have a bulging, burned up battery. Of course, the numbers would be different for different size inverters. And, I haven't even touched on the noise that inverters send back into a computerized vehicle system... Cheers.
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Replying to: mrwebman (Feb 28, 2009 3:20 pm) Now, I cleaned my MAF sensor today and it made no difference whatsoever to the way the engine idles. The engine is fluctuating between 450 and 700 rpm at idle so this presumably must be the AIC? sensor or a vacuum leak as the engine light code suggests. My 2006 Mazda MPV LX will turn off the outside lights if the key is out of the ignition for ten minutes and the light are left on by accident. It will also turn off the inside lights if a door is left open by accident. That's what I meant by drain-protection. If I have everything on in my 05 Colorado with the key turned to ACC, and then start the engine... everything turns off for a second until the engine is running... lights, radio, accessories. That is intentional switching somewhere in the harness. I was wondering if that could be selectively failing some circuits but it doesn't really make sense, especially considering your blower resistors. I guess I just over-heated my CD-player and it needed a while to reset. Your electrical consumption figures seem to be generally accurate. My alternator says it pulls 400W continuous, which is 400/12=33A continuous draw against the acc harness and 800W peak draw (66A). The Factory fitted alternator in the Colorado is rated for 100A - 120A. This means that even at full load, the alternator can power my inverter with 35A - 55A spare for everything else and charging the battery (not including voltage drop across the harness and components). BUT!!! I degunked my engine bay today and, wouldn't you believe it, I heard a horrendous squeeling noise (above 1000rpm) coming from somewhere on the belt. I checked everything and everything was turning, so I am willing to bet it's the bearing in the alternator. I heard this squeeling occasionally before but I was driving around the mountains in Washington and Oregon states so I figured it was cold and moisture on the belt. Not so. Anyhoo, I found a High Output Alternator (200A) for the Colorado for reasonably cheap so I think I'll do that and get a new belt just for s***s & giggles.  http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/04-06-CHEVY-COLORADO-NEW-HI-OUTPUT-ALTERNATOR-200- -AMPS_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1713Q2em153Q2el1262QQcategoryZ33573QQihZ010QQit- emZ200306064612
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Replying to: Alennx (Feb 28, 2009 8:09 pm) Anything turned off automagically is done so by a contactor (relay). Contactors are pretty easy to test. Either change them out one at a time or swap them around to see if the symptoms change. Mine are located in the relay box under the hood. The really huge ones are outside of that box. Your computations for the alternator are close. An alternator is designed to put out 13.8 volts (some actually a little higher). If your alternator is rated at 400W then it's capable of 400/13.8 which is 30 amps. The battery voltage when not being charged is generally 12 volts but can be down to 10 or lower depending on it's charge condition. A 500 watt load (inverter for instance) is pulling: engine on and battery charged: 500/13.8=36 amps; with engine off and fully charged battery 500/12=42 amps; engine off and weak battery 500/10= 50 amps. If you let the battery get much below 10 volts bad things start happening like starters not working and electronics failing. On RV's you'll almost always see a separate set of heavy duty batteries just for the inverter. Instead of buying a bigger alternator, I would recommend adding a single deep cycle battery and battery isolation diode assembly to charge it. You can pick up the diode assembly at most auto parts stores or any RV supply house for around $50, maybe less. Wire your inverter directly to this battery with heavy duty cable. By adding this second battery you get several advantages: you'll never be stranded somewhere because of a dead start-battery; you keep most of the noise out of everything on your vehicle because the diode assembly isolates it; and you'll probably save your vehicle battery from premature failure because car batteries are not deep cycle batteries and the constant deep drain and recharge wants to send you back to the auto parts store prematurely. It is a truck so putting it in the bed up close to the cab should work and that keeps the huge wires going to the inverter short thus less $. If you have an audio shop near by they could help you because they do this sort of thing all of the time... you've heard them at the red lights... boom boom boom. The noise drives us all crazy but look at the electronics in one of those sometime - it's pretty amazing. Cheers.
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Replying to: mrwebman (Mar 01, 2009 7:34 am) All the alternator stuff I've come across rates an Alternator in amps.  My factory unit is rated at up to 120A... and it puts out 14.7V under full draw from the headlights and inverter and radio, etc... I've seen it with my own eyes  This is how I know I don't have a ground fault, otherwise the ground fault would be subtracting from the harness voltage, which appears to be very healthy. I fitted an Optima Yellow battery, which is specifically designed for Deep Cycle and is actually warrantied for it (unlike the Optima Red). I have killed two standard batteries in this truck since I started using it for work. the factory battery (570A) died in about a year and the replacement (870A) died in eight months. Clearly the Deep Cycle feature is necessary for my kind of use. I'll post if it fails. You know, they build trucks with inverters factory fitted. Are they using a noise-filtered 6V battery under the hood to power it? I bet they are, based on your RV story. Anyway, the reality is I'm going to keep using my inverter because I have to power all this crap. My truck is at 72K so things are going to start going wrong on it and now I have to play grease-monkey until my boy passes his test and I can unload it onto him. He's sure to crash it, so then I can buy my new Trailblazer with everything working on it.
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Replying to: Alennx (Mar 02, 2009 1:42 am)
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Replying to: dmathews3 (Mar 02, 2009 3:43 am) I just want one OK!  ... 
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Replying to: Alennx (Mar 02, 2009 11:17 am) Lennx also said: I was going to pick up a used '07 or '08 EXT 4x4 for about $8K here in Cali. I just want one OK! ... You said NEW which is a lot different than OLD. Tell your story straight and I wouldn't have posted that they aren't made anymore. 
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Replying to: dmathews3 (Mar 03, 2009 3:54 am) Anyhoo, I changed my mind again. I need a mid-sized truck with a bed... so I guess it's another Colorado UNLESS THEY AREN'T MAKING THOSE ANYMORE EITHER? EH?
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Replying to: briguy7 (Feb 14, 2009 3:20 pm)  I am ready to put a match to it.
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