TRUCK KEEPS DYING EVERY OTHER WEEK

[HUMMERICH23]

My truck's battery first petered out on my Christmas eve (mind you the battery and truck are less than one year old ). It was fine and then died on me two weeks later and then did it again another two weeks later. Took it to dealer and got a new battery and everything checked out ok and they thought possible bad battery. Then it died on me again two days ago two weeks after i just got the new battery.

So right now my truck has been at the dealer for two days where they did a leech test/parasitic test, and an amperage test over night where it came back NEGATIVE for any problems. They cannot figure it out and the dealership's manager remember early on some of the H2's fuses were bad or something and pins or something were messed up causing the battery to drain but other than that there are NO TSBs or any routes they know to go down.

At first i was worried it was my Hot Tune on my pcm messing something up, but i have had that since July and thought why now would it do that now and my only other thought it was the Nav running constantly but all the test came back negative for any drains. So i am just waiting patiently with my H3 alpha as my rental and hoping anyone here might have a clue of what they should do next????


Richard

[Rene S. Nielsen]

Hmm I have the same problem, something is draining my battery too.

I'm starting to suspect the pac_audio thing for my Kenwood head unit.

Next time I take the center console out I will try to add a switch so I can disable the complete system when I leave the truck to see if this helps.

Rene

[HUMMERICH23]

Yeah the weird thing is it is absolutely fine for the periods between the battery dying. It will start no problem and then all of a sudden just out of the blue its dead. This last time i just drove it at 11pm with absolutely no problem and went out to start it at 6:30am the next day and wham dead.


One thing i dont understand is when it wont start, all of the electronics, lights, Nav, dashboard, etc stuff turns on and is fine. No dimming of lights, no power loss to run those things but turn the key and zero, nothing.

Richard

[Mark805]

This happened to me on my 07 H2. I would have to jump sart my rig about once a week. I took it to the dealership and they told me they would look at it the next day. they gave me a loaner H2 and off I went to work. That evening I called and they said there was nothing wrong with my truck adn i coud get it in the morning.

The next morning, I drive down to get it and meet with the service manager. He grabs my keys and walks back up to me and tells me the truck wont start.

So he decided to replace the factory battery and all is well with the world. He mentioned there was a batch of factory batteries that seemed to have problems and this is what he based the replacement on. Haven't had the problem again and its been about 1.5 years on the new battery.

He stated they checked the battery and charging system and all seemed to check out, so he was confused but glad to see i was happy.

Have em swap out the battery, I bet that'll fix yours too.

[timgco]

my 07 had an issue with the factory stereo/NAV drawing power and also had something to do with the drsd seat module at the same time. I lookd though my service records but could not find that exact information.

...and yes, there have been pleanty of us that have replaced the factory battery due to bad cell.

[HUMTECH]

Is your onstar activated. I have run into issues with onstar when its not activated the module wakes up periodically and searches for a signal, when it cant find one it stays awake and keeps searching. I have also had a few radios that stay powered up, even though they look off, they are still drawing around 200mA when staying "awake". Very intermittant.

[HUMMERICH23]

I have activated my OnStar but i am really thinking it has something to do with radio or Nav. They are going to keep the truck one more day and do the amp test again over night for the third time. They said this time they will actually drive it around and then pull it in and hook up the equipment and see if there is anything. I know they truck has just sat in the bay without being driven or locked so i wonder if they should lock it thereby enabling the alarm system and see if there is a drain there. Just thought of that and hope they would be smart enough to do that.


Richard.

[HUMTECH]

They should try exactly that. Always need to duplicate a typical drive cycle the owner goes through to check for intermittant problems for sure. They should hook up a disconnect switch between the neg cable and battery. Close the switch and drive it using all accessories at least once. Then hook up the amp meter across the disconnect switch, once that is all done open the switch to allow all current flow to travel through the meter without actually removing power from the truck and all the modules.

[HUMMERICH23]

Dam that sounds good. I am going to tell them that exact method!!!

[Rene S. Nielsen]

Hi Richard

You say that when your truck won't start you have no problem running all you other eletronics. No dimming light or anything.

Then my guess is that you have the famous ignition problem.

Try and use the search function there where a very good right up on finding this error (and how to start you truck when this happens).

If you have lights it's not your battery.

Ignition problems can come and go until it fail completly.

Regards
Rene

[HUMTECH]

Missed the part where ya said all accessories still worked, i agree ignition switch or starter. when it happens to not start check to see if the starter relay clicks, if it doesn't problem is between ign switch and relay most likely ign switch. If the relay does click check for power at the starter, if you have power at the starter, ya need a starter.

[HUMMERICH23]

I got the truck back today and of course after 4 days they could not figure out anything or come up with any ideas, however i love and thank you guys for the help. It sounds like i might have the ignition problem like you guys are saying because on the days that it dies, when you go to turn the key you dont hear a thing, nothing, no starter, no clicking, nothing but all the electronics and everything else works fine and lights are not dimmed at all. The guys at the Central Hummer did say my battery was very low each time i brought it in and thats why they thought i had a drain somewhere.

I even ventured to tell them about your guys's ideas and they were delighted for me to email them or call them with what solutions you guys come up with so they can help out others and file it. If it happens again i am copying exactly what you guys are saying so at least it gives them another road to go down.


Richard.

[Rene S. Nielsen]

Hi Richard

Do yourself a favor and find that article on finding the problem. There is a workaround in there so that if your stranded you can still start you truck.

Print out the instructions and put them in your car. It WILL fail again.

My way was to turn the egnition on, turn the wheel all the way right, then you can reach the starter behind the right front wheel.

You will need something to jump the starter this way.

But there where another solution where you could jump the relay from the fuse box I think. And thats pretty easy.

Rene

[Ed G.]

The ignition switch problem will cause your battery to drain and will cause your key to become stuck in the switch. Had it happen twice in my 2003.

[HUMTECH]

Another thing you could check is the connector at the ignition switch, on a couple of occasions i have found that the connector is not fully seated in the ignition switch body

[HUMMERICH23]

I called my Tech at Hummer today and told everything you guys have said and he said only the one about the onstar coming on sounds legit and that i wouldnt have a battery problem if it was the ignition or starter. I told him to look into it but he said that was the least plausible cause which i think now is the most plausible and said that is not a road to go down and said why was the battery low if that was the problem.


The more i think about it, the 4 or 5 times it has died, every single time i first used the remote start and nothing would happen and then go to start the truck manually and it is dead, not clicking, no turning over of starter untill a quick jump. I just remembered that pattern with the remote start and wonder if it has something to do with the starter/ignition in that way. The only thing i dont understand is why would jumping it make it start if it was an ignition problem. I think ill try starting it everytime now with the remote too see if that drains it or see what happens.

Richard

[HUMTECH]

Check behind the dlc(data link connector) for a wire spliced into the data line(purple wire). If there is a splice into that line the next time it wont start disconnect the splice and try to start the truck after key has been off for at least 10 minutes. Its possible the remote start is sending a feedback voltage into the class2 data line which will cause all sorts of problems including a no start

[Tones H3]

Just out of curiosity does your h2 have an aftermarket radio/nav? I have had the exact same issues in my 06 h2 ....After a couple of months of the same crap you are going through, we finally isolated it down to the radio harness..It had a parasitic draw that was killing my battery...Just a heads up to anyone who is having the same issues with an aftermarket radio or nav.

[HUMMERICH23]

I do not have an after market radio. Also I will do what you told me to HummerTech next time it dies. She has been very good but i know its coming. I copied your posts to me and sent them in an email to my Hummer Maintenance manager and he was pretty impressed with your knowledge. Where you located in Canada? If i cant get this fn figured out i am driving up to you.

Richard

[HUMTECH]

Im in Calgary Alberta