I'm at a loss... I can usually fix most things on my vehicles, but this one's got me stuck.

Okay, about a month ago, the LED's (odometer/Radio) in my 02 Tahoe started flickering, and on occasion the idle would dip below normal, almost to a stall. Most of the time, I could turn the truck off and start it again, then it would be normal.

Then, on Wednesday, I went out to the truck, tried to start it, and absolutely nothing. No dome lights, nothing.

The battery is fine, the alternator is fine. I can't even hook a code box up to it and get an error code because there is apparently no current moving.

Does this sound like anything to anyone? Some sort of sensor, or wiring harness issue? I've tightened any harness that I could reach, including battery cables.

 

Have you tried hooking up a battery charger to the battery and then hooking up the code box? You should be able to get enough juice to power up the car and read the codes. If you can get the car running for a little bit and you have a DVOM, you can should start checking for shorts in any of the leads coming off the battery, alternator or starter. I'm not really familiar with this particular truck so it's hard to give you any specific advice.

I've got a buddy who is a GM Master Tech so I can ask him when I see him this week and see if he has any ideas.

 

That is a great idea bro.

If you do think of it, I'd appreciate it if you could get some feedback from your buddy.

 

Sounds like operator error.

I doubt hooking up the battery charger is going to help read the codes. You say the battery is fine, so I doubt that is going to help. Maybe the battery isn't fine? If the battery is ok, there's a disruption in the current. It could be a fuse (real lucky), relay (lucky) or a bad ground along the way ( not lucky). Check the fuses and relays related to the BCM, you may just get lucky. Electrical gremlins

 

Ever the smart ass!

I'm going to have the battery checked again. I'm starting to think that this issue is a ground issue, or that there is a draw somewhere.

 

Kinda sounds like a faulty ground. Locating it could be tricky, though.

I'm still voting battery. How old is it? Is it the proper rating?
I've had a similar prob ... underrated battery (thanks crummy dealer) ... took me forever to figure out why I kept getting electrical glitches.

 

The battery is less than a year old. In fact, I replaced it last around this time.

I'm leaning towards a ground issue too...

 

Worth a try...

Unhook the neg battery terminal for 20 mins, it resets the computer. Try it and see what happens. Some codes are history (past) codes and some are current (present) codes.

 

Choke, did you get the problem resolved? I asked my buddy (the GM Master Tech) and he said it sounded like a battery issue. Probably a short coming off the battery if the battery is still strong.

 

Nope not yet. The battery is still strong. I went out one morning last week after it had been sitting a week, and noticed that the interior door open light was flashing... Which it wasn't the morning that the thing was just flat out dead.

So I tried it to see if it would start, and it fired right up, strong as ever. Been running strong all week. No flickering from the odometer or radio LED's, no shaky idle.

I think that it is a ground issue.