BATTERY PROBLEMS WITH AV!!!

[dmacker]

Went to my garage this morning to fire up the AV and what a surprise!!

Turned the key and nothing. Poked around for awhile and then called the dealer who first told me to call road side service, (interesting), then connected me with the service dept.

Service asked me several questions about what it was doing, to each of which I responded, "nothing". They finally told me to jump start it and bring it in.

At the dealer the "magic box", said it was a bad battery.
Not a dead battery but a "bad" battery. The dealer said they have been having a lot of problems with the batteries going bad in the AV's.

If this happens to you., expect nothing when you turn the key. You can jump start it and it will run normal and show no symptoms of a low battery, ie: system charging. You can turn the vehicle off and it will re-start without a problem. That is untill the next time it goes completly dead. The only unusual thing I noticed was no sign of a weak battery. It was simply all or none.

My AV is less than two months old and has less that 1500 miles. And has a new battery.

 

[carrerarod]

Not limited to AV either. Tahoes and Suburban's....and I would guess the Silverado's share the same batteries.

Heck the vette's of a few years ago had a problem with leaking batteries. This was a BIG problem since the wiring harness are below the battery tray!

 

[ColoradoAV]

Hmmm. So you didn't see any noticeable signs of this coming? It sounds pretty random to me. EVERY start up except for one (you can't blame the AV- it was -15 degrees at the time) has been strong and impressively short even on the cold starts with ours.

That cold start when it was -15 degrees was just sluggish and probably a second or two longer than normal.

We have been very satisfied with how the AV performs on start up. Now if we could just say the same about our Bonneville . I just hope there won't be any problems down the road .

Good luck, dmacker. With such low mileage, it looks like you got a dud for a battery .

 

[orboater]

The last two GMC Suburbans that I had both had batteries die unexpectantly at about 18 months. Just got in and nothing without any warning. They both just died.

One was a 1996 and the last was a 1999. I just tossed them and put in HD ones from AUTOZONE. No problems after that.

 

[dmacker]

Good luck, dmacker. ?With such low mileage, it looks like you got a dud for a battery .

Not any more!! Got a brand new one from Uncle General.

 

[brmiller]

DUH! I think the same thing just happened to me! Totally out of the blue!

I went to turn it to the acc position to roll the windows up (had it parked in the garage with the windows down a few days ago), and nothing. Turned it to on (right before where it woudl be if you started it) and whereas I usually light up the whole console, only the "Service Engine Soon" light came on dimly, and then faded. Nothing. I haven't actually tried to start it ('cause it's in the garage and it's night), but when I turned the key back to off and removed it, I heard a bunch of relays going click-click-click-click-click real fast. And then a "defalting" noise. Seriously. Light you were exhaling through your teeth.

Is the same "wake up one day and your battery is toast" that others have experienced? And here's the suck-part: I have to wait 'til Tuesday to take it in since tomorrow's a holiday! Arg!

Brendan

 

[tpseabird]

Not limited to AV either. Tahoes and Suburban's....and I would guess the Silverado's share the same batteries.

Might as well add the Trailblazer to the list.

My six month old Trailblazer did the same thing. I took it to the dealer after I jumped it and guess what? A bad battery!

Sounds like Chevy needs a new battery company.

TP

 

[zimmthumps]

Went to my garage this morning to fire up the AV and what a surprise!!

The dealer said they have been having a lot of problems with the batteries going bad in the AV's.

Sorry to hear of this Mac.

I Hope this is the worst of your problems. I've been lucky so far - not one problem.

My family and I have gone through about a dozen new Chevy's (Camaros, Blazers, S-10's,my Av) since 1990 with not one battery problem.
I have fried 3 alternators from my little stereo adventures...

 

[dmacker]

Brmiller,

That's exactly what happened to me. It really scalds your .... well you know.

Too bad that you have to wait until Tuesday. The good news is the GENERAL will caugh up a new battery. Good luck. Mine has been flawless since the new battery was installed.

 

[brmiller]

Thanks for the reply, dmacker...

What really scared me was the clicking relays and hissing/deflating noise I heard. I didn't know whether to run out into the street yelling "She's gonna blow!"

Brendan

 

[ShapeShifter]

Mac,

Glad to hear you got a new battery!

My old '99 Blazer had battery problems, but I think it was different. Sometimes, in the winter, I would head out to the garage and it would crank slow, other times it would just click, most of the time it was OK. If I clipped on a battery charger for a few hours, it would take a charge and work fine for a week or two.

Finally, I gave up and got a DieHard. Hadn't had a problem since.

Probabally not the same "bad battery" situation, but definately not a "good" battery either!

-- SS

 

[dmacker]

This was definately a faulty battery. It had less that 1000 miles when it went. Even an eveready should last longer that that.

 

[Alaska_AV.]

Hmmmm. I'v had to jump my AV 3 times in a week. 33,000 mi on it. long story short, Dealer replaced the alt after a quick load test as they were changing my oil saturday. I drove it home, didn't drive on sunday. Monday AM dead again
Good thing it's going back next sat for bum rear defroger. I love my jump box!

 

[brmiller]

getting back on topic....

I took my Av to the service department today. What a crock. First, I had to jumpstart it off my other car. No big deal--hadn't got to try out my new jumper cables yet (Christmas present from folks last year). Excellent! Started right up and I didn't electrocute myself.

10:00am Drove it over to Capitol Chevrolet here in Salem. Service rep guy said I'd have to leave it all day. Then said they had no rental cars left. Got shuttle ride home. Shuttle driver almosts gets mowed down by a suburban driver turning right on red without stopping.

2:30pm No call from service dept. Called rep myself. No answer. Left message.

3:30pm Still no call. Called again, rep not available, talked to someone else, didn't do any good, only Phil could answer, left another vmail.

3:35pm Shuttle driver calls to say it's his last run of the day, and if I want a ride back to Capitol, he can pick me up on his way to do 4 other pick-ups and we'll get to Capitol by 4:30. Told him there was no way I was sitting in his van for an hour tour of Salem if I had no idea what was going on with my vehicle in the first place. We argued about how much the service department actually knew about my Av, and hung up. I told him to keep going without me.

4:30pm Still no call from service rep. Called again. Made someone page/find/drag him to phone and talked to him. Service personnel were testing it "as we speak". Asked about likelihood of completion by 6:00pm closing time. "No guarantees" but would try. Told him to make sure he called me before going home to advise me on "go"/"no-go" status.

5:30pm Service rep calls to say "truck is ready". Asked him what problem was found. His answer: "None. No problem found." And here we go: "...problem must be present or reproducible for service technician to diagnose..." Service rep calls taxicab to come get me at my house.

5:50pm Still no taxi. Call service rep again and ask what's going on. Now I won't make it by six. Service rep calls taxi company again who says 15-20 minutes. Service rep will leave keys and paperwork at front desk in showroom (which is open until 8:00pm).

6:35pm Taxi driver shows up. Says she tried to take a "shortcut" and got lost.

6:50pm Get to Capitol. Get papers. Get keys. Go home.

Here's what my paperwork said:

TESTED BATTERYU 12.45 VOLTS 685 COLD CRANKING A MPS GOOD BATTERY CK FOR
PARASITIC DRAW NONE FOU ND ELECTRIAL OPERATING TO FACTORY SPECS AT THIS TIME

If you forgive the guy's typing ability, it sounds like they did as much testing as they could (service rep said earlier that they checked over the entire electrical system to look for shorts, ground-outs, drains, and other 'badness'), and they truly found nothing. I wonder what they would have found if I had not jump-started it this morning?

So I either do not have the "bum Chevy battery" that dmacker had or my service department continues to trumpet their "must be able to reproduce" policy. Having worked in technical support for a computer hardware company, I know the importance (mandate) to have a reproducible scenario, but I'm starting to feel that good ole Capitol Chevrolet doesn't believe me when I report a problem.

So I asked Phil (service rep): "Luckily I was in my warm garage--so what happens when I'm on Mt. Hood and my truck is completely dead?"

Phil: "Have it towed here. Don't even jump it or do anything. Just have it towed."

YOU BETCHA! Next time there's anything wrong with my truck, I'm gonna call them to have them tow it to their service department! They won't catch me unable to demonstrate the problem!

Not feeling the Av-love tonight,
Brendan

 

[gluggo]

Last night I went to drive the prize truck and it was dead! ? ?Only changes I made were to replace the high and low beam lights and foglight bulbs. ?Everything else is stock. ?Put a charge on it last night this morning the battery voltage was at 12.04 volts. ?Are these batteries that BAD or is the truck loosing power. ?I have not driven the truck for 1 week. ?I had a radar detector attatched and was on would that be enough to drain the battery down to 2 volts on the multimeter last night. ?
If the battery needs replacing are they that bad and how long will it last!

 

[Alaska_AV.]

well new starter.
new Alternator.
she was dead once after surgery. Two-ish weeks later , still no dead battery
I hope it was only my 1500watt inverter killing her. The inverter was supposed to have run down protection. Maybe that feature went to heaven

 

[MAB]

Ya have to wonder about the drain that all those lights and such that come on before starting and stay on after you shut down puts on the battery. This vehicle is my first experience with one that lets you automatically keep playing the radio after you turn the engine off and so forth. Even things like the seat memory always changing the position of the seat and inflating the lumbars, etc. put additional drain on the system. I can only guess what the cumulative effect of all these small system drains are upon the charging lifecycle of the battery.

 

[SJProwler]

I hope it was only my 1500watt inverter killing her. The inverter was supposed to have run down protection. Maybe that feature went to heaven

I've had 2 inverters that supposedly had run down protection, both of them killed the battery. Seems that the rundown protection only comes in to effect when there is a load on the inverter. If the inverter is just sitting there idle, it will drain a battery.

I can only guess what the cumulative effect of all these small system drains are upon the charging lifecycle of the battery

Being that the battery in the Av is Lead Acid, there shouldn't be any cumulative effect or "memory" buildup like there is in a Ni-Cad or NiMH type battery. The small amount of currenty required by the lamps, memory features, etc. in the Av shouldn't cause a battery to fail.

I've had several Delco "Freedom" Batteries that have done just that... Taken their freedom at the most inopportune time.

SJP

 

[Alaska_AV.]

I've had 2 inverters that supposedly had run down protection, both of them killed the battery. ?Seems that the rundown protection only comes in to effect when there is a load on the inverter. ?If the inverter is just sitting there idle, it will drain a battery.

Thats what she does now. First 6 mo of use, We had harmony.

 

[WVBubba]

Went to my garage this morning to fire up the AV and what a surprise!!

Turned the key and nothing. Poked around for awhile and then called the dealer who first told me to call road side service, (interesting), then connected me with the service dept.

Service asked me several questions about what it was doing, to each of which I responded, "nothing". They finally told me to jump start it and bring it in.

At the dealer the "magic box", said it was a bad battery.
Not a dead battery but a "bad" battery. The dealer said they have been having a lot of problems with the batteries going bad in the AV's.

If this happens to you., expect nothing when you turn the key. You can jump start it and it will run normal and show no symptoms of a low battery, ie: system charging. You can turn the vehicle off and it will re-start without a problem. That is untill the next time it goes completly dead. The only unusual thing I noticed was no sign of a weak battery. It was simply all or none.

My AV is less than two months old and has less that 1500 miles. And has a new battery.

Had to jump it the last 2 days...had electrical system checked out....nothing they could see............put in new battery (warranty)

 

[zeeya2000]

I had a post on this a few months ago,
My 2000 Z71, battery leaking, mechanic caught it during oil change. changed battery, took tray out washed it down and repainted it.......
2001 yukon with 48000 miles caught it leaking, they replaced it under warranty, even though at 48000 miles it was long gone. Service rep said they have have numerous problems with these batteries.
Ok, that is a 2000, 2001 and now your 2002's ,,,,,,,,,HELLO GENERAL,,,,,,,,,,,,,NEED TO FIND A NEW BATTERY MANUFACTURER

 

[manny]

My battery died out on me a few time, but I'm not getting and leakage. I must admit though, my light are very dim and whenever I turn any auxilary lights on the meter goes down past 14, about the 13 area. I'm thinking of getting a bigger altenator, if they make it for us.

Manny

 

[MrBill]

I have two words for a GM battery

THEY SUCK.

I replaced mine at 800 miles, WHY because I know that it will die. I knew when I hooked up my light array that the GM battery would give out, so I just replaced it before it went dead.

I now use my GM Battery to start my generator, my personal opinion is that is the only thing that they are good for.

I plan to upgrade to dual batteries and a bigger alternator in the future.

My .02

 

[manny]

I just did a search and I can't find any post about bigger altenators. what kind do I get? Where do I find it? I want the biggest one that I can get.

Manny

 

[byron]

Here's a good one for you. I had to change my AV's battery IN THE DEALERS LOT THE DAY I BOUGHT IT!!!!

They cut me a deal on a AV...but it turns out it was not the exact AV I looked it. It was one that was better. But we couldn't find it. We looked all over the damn lot for it. Finally we drove back to the repair lot. It was hiding. Turns out it had a bad battery and was in for repair. Had this not happened it probably would have sold before I got there. So we jumped it, I test drove it and loved it. We made the deal. Then this comverstation occured.

Dealer: Well the service department is closed. You'll have to come back on Monday to pick up your truck
Byron: The hell you say! Its just a bad battery!
Dealer: We don't have anyone to change it.
Byron: I'll change it!
Dealer: We can't get into service to get a battery.
Byron: *points* That AV has a new battery in it.
Dealer: We don't have the tools to change it out with.
Byron: I have enough tools in my truck's toolbox to change out the damn engine!
Dealer: Oh....well I guess we can do that.
Byron: I'll get my tools. You get the paperwork drawn up.

And so I did. I stole the good battery out of another new AV and put my bad battery in it. I always wondered if it was a bad omen that I had to repair my truck to drive it off the lot for the first time.