Electrical Gremlins

[The Silent Genius]

**I apologize, I don't know how I screwed this one up. I could have sworn I clicked on the "Electrical" subforum. Could a mod please move this to the appropriated section**


1998 2-door Tahoe, purchased in March of 2008, has always had an electrical issue. Nothing too serious, just irritating.

Horn in intermittent. Interior lighting is the strangest...When the key-less entry is used, the floor lights come on as they should. The switch on the dash turns on the floor lights as well. The ceiling lights do not come on, even though the bulbs are good. The map lights come on, but they dim out, even more so if you turn on more than one at a time.

Volt gauge in the dash reads low. It starts off in the normal position (14) on a cold start, but drops down to around 10 when warmed up. This a false reading. I checked numerous times, with various accessories on at the battery with a volt meter and all is well.

So, other than cleaning and re-doing some ground connections, any pointers or experiences similar as to where to look for problems?


Thanks in advance

 

[SunlitComet]

check for tight connections on the fuse blocks.

 

[The Silent Genius]

checked those out and all is well. I did, however, find a ground strap, that runs from the firewall to the base of the underhood lamp, that is torn in half, yet the hood lamp still functions.???

---------- Post added at 06:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:32 PM ----------

did some probing around with the digital volt meter...

on the 20k ohm scale, I probed the negative side of the battery and a body bolt and it read 1.45, then to the alternator case and it read 3.5, a/c comressor was 1.5. I dug the probe into the alternator casing to try see if I could get better contact, but nothing changed.

I have no clue if any of this means anything lol.

 

[SunlitComet]

your grounding seem just fine the underhood lamp is probably grounding the the hood and hinges to the body.

 

[The Silent Genius]

my thoughts exactly, but I figure it's broke, might as well fix and see.

looks like it's time to study some wire diagrams and see what I can come up with, if anything at all. All other electrical components work fine. Just this interior lighting and intermittent horn thing.