Hello everyone! Hope one of you car guru’s might have some idea of what’s ailing my 00’ GMC safari’s electrical system. To begin, she has 95,000mi, an although that’s about a year old, a duralast gold battery about the same age, and 13.8 volts at idle on the meter at the battery. The problem, over the past couple of weeks, I’ll start it and drive off as normal, an the thing wants to stall for about two seconds. After that, no problem whatsoever. One time, it actually did stall on me, and everything went dead for a couple of minutes, no juice whatsoever; noticed that even the clock in the radio read 12:00. After a few minutes, I tried to turn the key again, and it started right up. This a.m., I went to start the van, and it initially would not turn over. The started motor turned but in a weak manor. At that point we went completely dead again, no electricity whatsoever. The strangest thing is what happened next, I pulled the hood latch release as I was about to investigate and noticed the guages on the dash move when I did, power was back. The van then started but barely, and when it did it stumbled for a few seconds before driving off without so much as a hiccup the rest of the day. The only other possibly related symptom would be a slight rough idle combined with a just noticeable dimming of the dash lights in the dark at idle. Also, I should mention that I have checked the battery terminals and they are tight and clean, the van is in excellent shape mechanically, averaging 20mpg combined, smooth acceleration, no leaks, “using oil”, white or black smoke, etc. Plugs, cap, rotor, and pcv are recent. Egr and maf are both clear. Any advice guys?
" Also, I should mention that I have checked the battery terminals and they are tight and clean, . . . "
How Did You Check ? Did You Take Them Off And Clean Them And Reinstall Them, I Hope ?
Cables Have Two Ends. How About The Other Ends ?
Easiest, cheapest things, first. I’d take a jumper cable and hook to the negative battery terminal (as a second ground) and then clamp the other end to some clean engine metal and see if that works to help isolate the problem (bad ground). I’d try clamping it from battery to clean body metal and check that, too.
Somewhere there should be an engine-to-body ground strap. It might not be making a stable connection.
CSA
P.S.
" . . . I pulled the hood latch release as I was about to investigate and noticed the guages on the dash move when I did, power was back. "
I’m not exactly clear on what you’re explaining, but it seems to back up a bad ground theory.
I’ll definitely check for the ground to body. As for the “hood latch”, to be more specific, when I pulled the lever the guages moved at the same time indicating the return of power. Coincidence?
You might disconnect the battery cables and inspect the junctions for corrosion. It would be worthwhile to wire brush all the mating surfaces until they are bright. before reassembling. There have been a few electrical problems on GM vans that were caused by poor grounds under the carpet that proved to have been caused by a leak at the bottom of the windshield. Such gremlins can be difficult to pin down.
A clean battery connection can look ok on the outside but still have a thin layer of corrosion that causes the things you described. As already stated remove the connections and clean then with a battery cleaning brush. If thr problem still continues then clean the ground wire betwrrn the battery and chassis. Also check the power wire that ties to the distribution panel under the hood for a connection problem.