New to the group with loads of problems - kinda long

Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

BlackDenali

Roof Rack ****
Joined
Jun 11, 2009
Posts
1,801
Reaction score
5
Location
Boca Raton, Florida
:welcome: and hang in there. These trucks are worth the minor headaches and look on the bright side, you'll be learning alot about your new vehicle especially if you do most of the repairs yourself :imo:
 

badtothe bone

Full Access Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2010
Posts
111
Reaction score
10
Location
western pennsylvania
How to explain things without getting too deep into the subject.

I'm sorry if I made you feel bad about buying something that doesn't work.
I mean come on now, if it doesn't work, we need to help you to get it all working again.

But the problem is - that with everything hacked up and you don't know all of what they hacked, the chances of just doing a couple of little things and getting everything back to normal is not real optimistic.

I bought and sold automobiles for 20 years and I participated in automotive stereo competition for many years and I have some experience installing some of these options and I can tell you that I am afraid of doing some of these so call modifications wihtout doing lot's of research and asking lot's of questions and having someone to lean on when things do not go right.

As I sit here right now, dejected that I failed a hearing test for my CDL drivers license, I almost wish that I never heard of a company called ORION or owned car stereo's that played in a 1980's Monte Carlo SS at 155 Db.
Or that I would have used hearing protection when I abused my hearing for years, working in a machine shop, fabrication shop, carperntry, shooting guns etc.

Here is my advice, if you know of someplace that does car installs, go to that place and ask lot's of questions. If you cannot find someplace locally that does that type of installs - you can feel free to call my tech guy at Audiophonic's In Indiana PA. Bruce has been installing car stereo's and upgrades now for about the last 20 years and he has lot's of experience both in diagnostics and repair of good installs gone bad.

As I said before, there is a module, probably connected to the drivers seat that controls the heated seats that also auto dims the mirrors that I suspect either has fault codes due to something not being connected right or somethign shorted out or something not connected that should - that either has knocked out the module or is causing problems that got into the mirror circuit that made the previous owner dump the self dim mirror with the turn signal arrow in the mirror.

I would check to see if the heated seats actually work and then diagnose it from there. The hum in the radio - well there is probably 3 speakers in that door and maybe the tweeter is knocked out. You can disconnect them after taking the door panel off and hook them up to a small radio and diagnose to see if they actually work and you can check to see if their is a floating ground issue or other problems with the head unit that needs to be repaired.

You can drive without the gauges for now, but you can do one thing at a time until you get them all done. If the 04 used the same gauges as a 02 Chevy truck, I could sell you a used gauge cluster - that everything works - but has high miles on it for about $75 + shipping.

Other then someone going to your house and helping you out, about the only other thing I can think of is to get a wiring schematic and diagnose as many of the problems as you can and pay someone to do the rest as your budget allows.

---------- Post added at 09:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:05 PM ----------

http://www.the12volt.com/
Wiring diagrams and technical information.

Installer Information - Bruce Damico
http://www.the12volt.com/installbay/installer-detail/2084.htmlhttp://www.the12volt.com/

Email [email protected]

1885 Oakland Ave.
Indiana, Pennsylvania 15701
United States
Phone 724-465-9996
 
OP
OP
yargnits

yargnits

Full Access Member
Joined
Jan 27, 2010
Posts
236
Reaction score
36
Location
Northern Indiana, the land of annoying lepreachons
New Discovery and Possible Solution

My spirits have been lifted with the anticipation that the new servo motors for the gage cluster will likely solve my speedo problem. Today it indicated that I was doing 20 on the freeway.

I dug into the alternator whine problem tonight and learned quite a bit. The first thing I learned was that it wasn't the left side speakers that had the whine. It was just the driver door and the tweeter in the a-pillar.

I took auxiliary fuse block out tonight to get a good look at the wiring and see if anything had been worn through due to vibration and what have not. The block that was installed was secured with screws and all the wires wrapped in electrical tape and tie-wrapped in place. I know... a real hack-job.

The fuse block has a cover with custom printed labels for the aftermarket stuff. AC converters, Sat System, Valintine 1, and Defuser. Defuser??? Turns out this truck also has a K40 Laser detector and jammer. I guess the guy that had this truck liked speed.

Well, started removing power from various systems to try and pinpoint the source of the bleed-through. I then noticed that if I put the ign on without starting the truck, the speaker still made a disturbing buzzing sound. I then verified again that it was only the driver door and tweeter. Under the hood I noticed that pulling a fuse stopped the noise... the radio fuse. duh. Then there was another fuse that caused the sound to cease when pulled... amp.

I didn't realize that the truck had a factory (assumption) amp in it. I had picked up a FSM at the library (to research ground points) so I flipped through it and found that the Bose amp is in the center console and that the left front tweeter is simply fed of the left front speaker with a low-pass filter.

At this point I think it's a good assumption that the amp may have a bad FL channel. I just did a quick search on ebay and see some stupid expensive and one decently priced. I'm not going to but anything though until I do a bit more research and get part numbers.

I'm thinking about swapping the pinout at the amp and see if I can move the problem to the RF speakers. If I can move the problem by swapping the outputs but not the inputs, that should secure the amp as the culprit.

@Mad, The problem with the mirror is that the glass was replaced with a part that doesn't have the arrows. The heat is hooked up but there is a 4 pin connector that's just dangling in there because it doesn't match up to the 2 pin conn that's on the mirror, which I suspect is for the auto dim feature.

My wife asked if I still regretted getting the Yukon and I told her that I don't see a light at the end of the tunnel but it's starting to glow a bit.

Thanks for all the positive comments from you guys. I just hope that my overly long drivel helps someone when they search the archives.

---------- Post added at 10:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:54 PM ----------

Goggling "speaker buzz bad amp bose" tuned up this thread http://forums.trailvoy.com/showthread.php?t=38553. It points to the rear seat audio controls. This is interesting because I thought the plastic above the panel seems warmer than it should be. Short? I'll unplug the panel tomorrow if it's easy to get to and see what happens.
 
Last edited:

klownin04

TYF Newbie
Joined
Jan 27, 2010
Posts
6
Reaction score
0
Location
nebraska
How to explain things without getting too deep into the subject.

I'm sorry if I made you feel bad about buying something that doesn't work.
I mean come on now, if it doesn't work, we need to help you to get it all working again.

But the problem is - that with everything hacked up and you don't know all of what they hacked, the chances of just doing a couple of little things and getting everything back to normal is not real optimistic.

I bought and sold automobiles for 20 years and I participated in automotive stereo competition for many years and I have some experience installing some of these options and I can tell you that I am afraid of doing some of these so call modifications wihtout doing lot's of research and asking lot's of questions and having someone to lean on when things do not go right.

As I sit here right now, dejected that I failed a hearing test for my CDL drivers license, I almost wish that I never heard of a company called ORION or owned car stereo's that played in a 1980's Monte Carlo SS at 155 Db.
Or that I would have used hearing protection when I abused my hearing for years, working in a machine shop, fabrication shop, carperntry, shooting guns etc.

Here is my advice, if you know of someplace that does car installs, go to that place and ask lot's of questions. If you cannot find someplace locally that does that type of installs - you can feel free to call my tech guy at Audiophonic's In Indiana PA. Bruce has been installing car stereo's and upgrades now for about the last 20 years and he has lot's of experience both in diagnostics and repair of good installs gone bad.

As I said before, there is a module, probably connected to the drivers seat that controls the heated seats that also auto dims the mirrors that I suspect either has fault codes due to something not being connected right or somethign shorted out or something not connected that should - that either has knocked out the module or is causing problems that got into the mirror circuit that made the previous owner dump the self dim mirror with the turn signal arrow in the mirror.

I would check to see if the heated seats actually work and then diagnose it from there. The hum in the radio - well there is probably 3 speakers in that door and maybe the tweeter is knocked out. You can disconnect them after taking the door panel off and hook them up to a small radio and diagnose to see if they actually work and you can check to see if their is a floating ground issue or other problems with the head unit that needs to be repaired.

You can drive without the gauges for now, but you can do one thing at a time until you get them all done. If the 04 used the same gauges as a 02 Chevy truck, I could sell you a used gauge cluster - that everything works - but has high miles on it for about $75 + shipping.

Other then someone going to your house and helping you out, about the only other thing I can think of is to get a wiring schematic and diagnose as many of the problems as you can and pay someone to do the rest as your budget allows.

---------- Post added at 09:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:05 PM ----------

http://www.the12volt.com/
Wiring diagrams and technical information.

Installer Information - Bruce Damico
http://www.the12volt.com/installbay/installer-detail/2084.htmlhttp://www.the12volt.com/

Email [email protected]

1885 Oakland Ave.
Indiana, Pennsylvania 15701
United States
Phone 724-465-9996

i must say in your first post u made ur self sound like a real ass. But in that post you sounded like you really wanted to help. I belong to alot of forums due to the fact that i collect alot of cars 'my wife hates that by the way" and i know that sometimes you get sick of answering the same crap all the time. But you also have to step back and think, Why the hell am i on this forum responding to someone if i dont want to help them?? If you just want to rip on people all day I have a perfect site for you to go to they love to rip on one another and i think you would change your mind about the way you think about helping people. The site is layitlow.com Its a lowrider forum and them guys are ruthless. Sorry i know that its probably isnt your kind of site but like i said i have all kinds of cars and I love all kinds of cars and trucks as long as there GM

and to the guy that started this thread. does the truck have an aftermarket radio or aftermarket subs and amp? if so then it sounds like u may have a ground issue there or you may even just be geting interferince throughthe rca's. but it sounds like u are tracking someting down with the factory amp as well. good luck to you
 

177mph

Full Access Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2009
Posts
72
Reaction score
0
Location
Jersey
Wow - you guys are tough. I think bad to the bone was just trying to pint out that some mods dont always make the vehicle better. In fact - alot make them worse. Good luck to the original poster. It sounds like you know what youre doing and you'll get it all solved. The tahoes and yukons are great trucks.
 
OP
OP
yargnits

yargnits

Full Access Member
Joined
Jan 27, 2010
Posts
236
Reaction score
36
Location
Northern Indiana, the land of annoying lepreachons
One problem down, several to go...

Here's an update:

I got my servo motors for the instrument panel in the mail today. Even though only the speedo and oil press gage were goofy, I ordered all six and considered it preventative maintenance. The total was $47.50 with shipping.

I had the mailed to my work address so I could use my lunch hour to swap them out. Using the instructions that I pointed out earlier made the work simple. The hardest part was figuring how to take the top bezel off. (the tabs on the bottom weren't obvious how to release) Two test runs and all appears to be fixed. Speedo works and the oil needle isn't pointing to the oil can.

Here's the latest discovery. I've discovered a major clue to the buzzing in the front left speakers. The whine is still there but the main irritation is the intermittent buzzing. When I could hear it, it was at various loudness.

Well, I was dropping my daughter off from school today and there wasn't any buzzing. When I pulled into my garage the buzzing started after a few seconds. I noticed it comes and goes with the auto-lights, but the buzzing remained when I shut them off. Even though the lights can be manually shut off the dash lights stay on. After playing around I found out the buzzing volume is proportional to the dash light brightness. The buzzing would completely go away if I had the dash lights adjusted all the way off OR all the way bright. I disassembled the light switch module and visually inspected it. I can't see anything obviously wrong. I'm going to search around using google and poke around tonight.
 

badtothe bone

Full Access Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2010
Posts
111
Reaction score
10
Location
western pennsylvania
GM has had a lot of problems with the BOSE amplifier, if you go to the Chevy Avalanche Fan Club - you will read multiple posts about people looking for good used amplifiers and questions on how to fix the problems associated with them.

Now stop and think about it. The light switch feeds the display for the radio controls. Both in the steering wheel if it has redundant controls and in the dash. Anything that is wired wrong or is fed wrong is going to back feed and cause a hum in your speakers. Or if the amp doesn't work at all - you have no sound.

The reason why I see many mirrors disconnected or broke is due to a problem with the heater circuit which causes the mirrror to look smoked - where you cannot see out of it when the engine is turned on. So if you were going to sell a used vehicle and it was apparrent that if someone tried to look out the mirror and couldn't - that they would know that the truck has issues and it would make it harder to sell. So you have two options - you can spend more money - which if you are trying to get rid of the truck you wouldn't want to do, or you can take the auto dim mirror out and replace it with a cheaper version that does not dim and hope that the person buying the truck doesn't notice that the mirror doesn't work until they get home. Most people don't buy a vehicle in the dark.

As I said before, one piece at a time. Take small steps, Don't get in over your head. Ask for help - if it gets too tough and sooner or later your big problems will become small problems - if you fix them one at a time.
When you get to a problem that you cannot solve on your own, take it to a garage and pay someone to fix it for you. That is how our economy works.

The link I provided gives you a description of all the wires in the harness and what they do and what is inside of the wire. Volt's, watts, amps, resistance , sound, lights, ground etc.
 
Last edited:

jdpromo33

Proud Tahoe Owner
Joined
Dec 18, 2009
Posts
690
Reaction score
6
Location
Bloomfield, New Jersey
LOL to Bad to the Bone.

I see your not one for short answers huh?

You obviously know your stuff but I can see how your posts can rub people up the wrong way. I think you've corrected most of us at some point.

I think everyone on here is used to modifying their trucks, some better than others and we all seem to help each other out in one way or another.

JD
 

Forum statistics

Threads
129,117
Posts
1,810,720
Members
92,204
Latest member
22loweryak

Latest posts

Top