2008 Yukon Electrical Problems

[hbr]

I would start with having the BCM reflashed........when that thing goes funky all kinds of weird stuff happens.

 

[rxrep]

Mine stopped doing it for a while, and now it's back. Lights flicker at night, and sometimes the whole electrical system shuts down and "reboots" (stereo shuts off and comes back on, guage cluster goes blank and then comes back with all kinds of warnings like airbags, etc). The thing runs fine through it all and the engine doesn't skip a beat. I found by mistake that if I touch any of the window buttons in the wrong way (like if windows are already up but I hit the UP button), it shorts out everything almost every single time. Funny thing is that it won't do that at idle sitting still. The car has to be moving, and then it will do it every single time. What a piece of crap. Off to the wild goose chase of a dealer not being able to figure it out. But at least it does it all the time now so they'll be able to replicate the problem. A few months ago, it was intermitent. I hate this thing. First US-made SUV I've owned and it's been nothing but a pile of junk. Bought new with 5 miles on the ODO, so it's not like I got someone else's sloppy seconds, either.

 

[MTG]

I bought an 08 Tahoe in July 2010 and have had exactly the same recurring probllem - some times while driving the radio / nav will shut off, some times this is triggered by use of window controls. Many times the car will be dead when I go to start it. I have learned that tugging on the battery cables resolves the issue. Chevy dealer charged me $300 to tell me they couldn't find a problem - in any event they reset the computer and updated for fixes, but problem persists. I have lived with the battery cable fix, but have now seen that this is a widespread problem and think Chevy needs to address this.

 

[GM Customer Service]

MTG,

It may be need an electrical ground repair. Are any of the connections corroeded?

Louis
GM Customer Service

 

[MTG]

When the problem first starting happening I had a local mechanic take a look and he said that he couldn't figure out the issue, but that he cleaned all of the connection. A few weeks later I took it to the Chevy dealership and they cleaned the battery terminals and rechecked all of the other connections that might be involved (in addition to resetting the software). What other connections might be involved / corroded? Appreciate your help.

 

[GlenB]

I read through these posts and sounds like it could be several things, but more point me to this issue that I resolved a few months ago.
Have your dealer look up this TSB # up for your vehicle
Here are the number TSB Number: SB-08-07-30-021 NHTSA Number: 10025668
Loss of high speed gmlan communications, intermittent no crank, ipc gauge fluctuation, intermittent door lock cycling, transmission may not shift, DTCs U0073, U0100, U0101, U0102, U0121, U0140 set (repair backed out terminal in transmission.

---------- Post added at 03:28 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:57 AM ----------

rxrep,
The way have discribed the issues it sounds like the altornator has a bad voltage regulator built inside the alternator housing. What happens is you can roll all 4 windows down at idle, but if you rev your engine to 1700 - 2000 RPMs and try to roll all 4 up it will most like start doing the reboot deal. A bad regulator can only charge at pully idle anything higher and the relay clicks off and your truck is not charging. I would suggest bying a "NEW" one (NO NEW REMAN) most of these REMAN's have lifetime warrantee because they are meant to get you home and use the lowest grade parts.

 

[Peaches]

Count me in for odd electrical issues. She rebooted today and has been running off. The AC turns itself on, cranks down to 74 (WITHOUT prompting), turns on passenger, axillary, recycle air (all of this while not using remote start), hesitates while starting and the CD player has been acting strange, cycling CD's when there are none in que. It's also idling rough, I just went out and played with it, started great then after a few moments the rpm's hovered around 400-700. You could hear the engine straining to keep it running. AC is also weak.

Husband will check all my terminals tonight and see if everything looks ok. It still has the original battery, which very well may be the culprit. I sincerely hope it's dirty terminals or a bad battery. I REALLY don't want to mess with the throttle body or alternator.

Also, the mooing, moaning, weird ac related noise has ceased, which I don't think is a good thing. It's obviously dying to go to the dealership and since I'm a procrastinator, this is the quickest way there, via coming up with something more serious for me to worry about.

 

[lbzrcks]

I know this is an old thread, but does anyone have a known fix for this yet? My 2010 Tahoe is doing this funny erratic stuff too.

 

[snaward]

There is a GM service bulletin that tells the dealer how to test the battery cables to see if they are still in specification. That was done on my 08 yukon about 6 months ago and since then I have not had any problems. If you look around the net you can probably find the service bulletin.

 

[Peaches]

Mine has been resolved, until this summer. I'm fairly confident when the temperatures start climbing, the electrical issues will come back. I had the fuse box repaired and new battery cables put on, which seemed to fix it. However, it's newest quirk is to tell me the hood is open when I turn a corner. So, something still isn't right.

 

[GM Customer Service]

I know this is an old thread, but does anyone have a known fix for this yet? My 2010 Tahoe is doing this funny erratic stuff too.

lbzrcks,

What issues are you experiencing?

Louis
GM Customer Service

 

[HD4]

Reason I got rid of my 08' XL Denali for the 2010 Ram. Crazy electrical prolems that many describe here.

Have the 02' Yukon XL and Never a problem

 

[white434]

body control module

I had what I assume is similar to the same problem with my 07 Tahoe. The problem started for me with the remote locks not working. I would unlock the door manually, and as soon as I started the car, the locks would work properly. Then the problem got worse from there. Every week or so when I got in the car, the interior lights wouldn't work. Also had no brake lights, turn signals, rear wiper, front and rear windshield washers. The front wipers would only work if turned on high, the power locks wouldn't work, and the rear window switches wouldn't work. The DIC would display Service Suspension System, Service 4 Wheel Drive, Service Traction Control, and Service Air Bag.

I could turn the key off and back on a few times and the lights would come on, everything else would start working, and it would start. This was an annoyance for a couple of weeks, then the problem started happening while driving. Sometimes everything would just flash and come back on, but then it got to the point where everything mentioned would stop working and I would have to pull over and shut the car off and restart it for the lights and other functions to work again. When the weather got colder, the problem got a lot worse. Sometimes it wouldn't start after 30 minutes of turning it off and back on.

After reading forums and getting advice from a few mechanics (not dealer mechanics) I bought a new bcm and had the dealer program it today. Now I am getting a Service Airbag message and Service Suspension System message every time I start it. This has been an extremely disappointing experience for our family. The features that are offered in the Tahoe are nice, but only if they work properly. I feel that the electrical issue in our Tahoe is extremely dangerous because of the failure of the lights, wipers, and turn signals especially because one of the times it happened was while I was driving in the rain at night. I plan on calling the dealer to ask if there's a correlation between the bcm and the air bag/suspension warnings now.

 

[Peaches]

I'm pretty sure that most of these electrical issues are BCM issues, not new battery cables or tighter bolts on the fuse box.

 

[jdpber]

I'm pretty sure that most of these electrical issues are BCM issues, not new battery cables or tighter bolts on the fuse box.

 

[white434]

I agree, seems to be a common problem with the bcm's.

I went through a huge mess with the dealer and finally got them to agree to check it for free. It ended up my air bag light was coming on because the first mechanic that looked at it didn't configure the air bag. The problems don't irritate me near as much as the poor quality of customer service that I received. Cars are going to have problems; how they are resolved is the important part of the service department.

Lesson Learned. I have never had a problem with local BMW or Lexus customer service for my wife's vehicles. Situations like this play a big part in our purchase decisions.


By the way, GM Customer Service, I typed a whole story of my personal interaction for this whole issue but couldn't send it. I haven't had 10 posts so I can't respond to your PM.

 

[GM Customer Service]

I agree, seems to be a common problem with the bcm's.

I went through a huge mess with the dealer and finally got them to agree to check it for free. It ended up my air bag light was coming on because the first mechanic that looked at it didn't configure the air bag. The problems don't irritate me near as much as the poor quality of customer service that I received. Cars are going to have problems; how they are resolved is the important part of the service department.

Lesson Learned. I have never had a problem with local BMW or Lexus customer service for my wife's vehicles. Situations like this play a big part in our purchase decisions.


By the way, GM Customer Service, I typed a whole story of my personal interaction for this whole issue but couldn't send it. I haven't had 10 posts so I can't respond to your PM.

white434,

I’m sorry to hear of your experience with Customer Service. You are welcome to email your story to me. I would like to document everything and look into this further.

My direct email is: [email protected]

If you have any additional questions or concerns, please feel free to include those as well.

I look forward to you reply.

Louis
GM Customer Service

 

[jh1021]

Yukon XL Electrical Problems? Or Not? Don't Know..

I am having the same issue as many in this thread. Our 2008 Yukon XL started having some sort of electrical problems a few months ago. The issue is that the radio and instrument clusters will start flickering on and off and making a loud popping noise, and door locks will go up and down then the vehicle will go dead, and I mean dead dead. The car will not turn over, the door locks will not work, absolutely nothing. Every time we can wait about 30 minutes to 2 hours try it again and it will crank fine. Our mechanic thought it was the BCM. He replaced it and it still happened, we took it back and he tightened some connections to the BCM. We thought that fixed it, but it did not. Three days ago it happened while driving down the road, we had to pull over, let it sit a minute then it did fine for a few days. It happened again this morning and it is dead right now. We are taking back to the mechanic today. As FYI, the mechanic was able to replicate the issue while driving it, so he has seen exactly what it is doing. We are at wits end and considering looking into the lemon law at this point. We are out of options and do not know where to go next. Any insight is appreciated.

 

[GM Customer Service]

jh1021,

I'm sorry you are experiencing this issue with your vehicle. Was the Mega fuse checked? This is just a suggestion, it is not meant as a diagnosis.

Louis
GM Customer Service

 

[cwarm3]

I am having the exact same problems with the electrical system. I am going crazy trying to fix this piece of crap '08 Yukon XL Denali. Has anyone figured out what to do??

---------- Post added at 11:24 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:11 AM ----------

bump

---------- Post added at 11:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:24 AM ----------

i tried to email one of you GM service reps that are posted on here but it said it was a bad email address. can one of you give me your email address?