Battery Problems in '09 GMC

[Jaymez]

Cross posted from GMFS....

Are our NNBS trucks equipped with Battery Run Down protection? I'm not sure if I need a new battery or a trip to the dealer.

So for the last three weeks, my Sierra has been sitting in the driveway not getting used at all. Between the Sport Trac and the Grand Prix, it just hasn't been driven. I went out to get something at the store tonight and found my battery was almost dead.

The first thing I noticed was the headlights not coming on when I unlocked the truck with the remote. Then, when I went to relock it the horn didn't blow when the alarm should have armed. Getting in the truck, the dome lights were noticeably dim. Naturally, my attempt to crank the motor over failed.

Unfortunately, it's dark as hell out so I'm going to wait until morning to try and jump start the truck. Still, it's a 2009 with less than 8,000 miles on it.

I can easily charge or change the battery on my own, but, should I take it to the dealer anyway? If I had the problem with any of my other vehicles I'd just swap batteries and call it good. None of those, however, are as new or under warranty.

Obviously, I'll check to make sure I did not leave something turned on to draw juice. Are batteries covered under the 3/36 warranty? Does my truck even have the 3/36 or is it something else? I bought it in February 09 - one week before the bailouts.
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I decided to jump start the truck tonight just to see if it would take.

The first attempt took 5 minutes just to get a good connection on the positive terminal. Damn jumper cables kept popping off. Once the truck started, the speakers on the stereo didn't work. Ran it for 10 minutes and shut it off to see if the speakers would come back and the truck needed a second jump.

Once running the second time, there was an error on the DIC to service the trailer brake system. WTF? I've never used that. Aside from that, it ran fine. Took it for a 15 mile drive nothing seemed unusual.

I guess I'll try a restart tomorrow and see what happens.

I still want to know why the battery died in the first place.
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So, I took the truck to the dealer this morning to have the charging system tested while I attend some online classes. The service rep didn't even bat an eyelash when I told him what was wrong and said, "I would expect that".

According to the service rep, two weeks is the maximum amount of time a truck like mine (SLE II) can sit because of the number of computers the truck is equipped with. I know that's ******** because I've let the truck sit longer than that , and in colder weather, while I was in Ohio last year.

If that's the case that I cannot leave the truck alone for a couple of weeks, I am seriously going to investigate trading in my truck for a Ford. ****, my Grand Prix sits all the time and never has a problem. Shell's truck never left her abandoned at the airport. My ******* custom built S10 sits for weeks without a problem and that's the one vehicle I'd expect to have **** loads of problems! If my GMC can't sit for a while without being started it is, in my definition, unreliable.

The only problem I see with jumping ship and buying a Ford is I don't know what I'd want. I've been saying to myself I'd pick up a F250 CCSB PSD, but, I don't need the towing capacity. The last F150 I drove didn't have enough seat height to be comfortable for me. While a Ranger would be fine for a daily driver, it might be too small for a work truck.


Has anyone else had a similar battery rundown problem from letting their truck sit? I expect it with my Nova that might get started once a year, but, for a 2009 vehicle to have this problem is BS!
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Can my GMSB Brothers help me out?

 

[crazy4offroad]

I would blame the battery first, which will probably be pro-rated instead of just swapped out for a new one.

Post #7...
http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/f31/battery-goes-dead-86315/

You might look into one of those solar battery maintainers, plug it into the cig lighter and lay it in the dash if all else fails. Also post #11 is very informative.

 

[Jaymez]

Thanks man.

If the truck sat for months at a time, I'd look into a battery maintainer. In fact, I want to get a couple of those solar chargers for some of my other vehicles.

 

[Old77]

To answer your first question, Yes I do believe that the NNBS trucks/SUVs have Battery Rundown Protection on them so I'd vote bad battery as well. Can you have it tested prior to purchase, though, just to make sure before spending the $100?

 

[Irishman999]

Must be GM using cheap ass batteries in their new cars. My Father in law has one of the new Camaros in his garage that just sits, every time we go to start it the thing barely cranks over and its BRAND new.

The Ford car next to it holds a charge and cranks a supercharged engine no problem.

 

[Jaymez]

The truck is still at the dealer getting checked out.

I'll be printing out the TSB and taking it with me when I pick the truck up. It seems like it is quite a common problem with GM vehicles and the official response from GM has been to just disconnect the battery. In my mind, that's ********.

It wasn't uncommon to have to put my GMSB on a battery tender because it saw so little use, but, that was a 20YO truck. When you buy a newer truck you shouldn't be expected to do that **** unless you've modded the hell out of it and stand a chance of having a drain due to poor wiring.

 

[Old77]

The truck is still at the dealer getting checked out.

I'll be printing out the TSB and taking it with me when I pick the truck up. It seems like it is quite a common problem with GM vehicles and the official response from GM has been to just disconnect the battery. In my mind, that's ********.

It wasn't uncommon to have to put my GMSB on a battery tender because it saw so little use, but, that was a 20YO truck. When you buy a newer truck you shouldn't be expected to do that **** unless you've modded the hell out of it and stand a chance of having a drain due to poor wiring.

I agree with you 100%! When I park my 77 for the winter I disconnect my battery so that it won't drain but it's not out of the ordinary for it to sit for a few weeks between drives during the nice months and it usually doesn't have any problems starting up and it's a 33 yr old truck. Obviously, it's had a lot of work done to it but so far was have done nothing to most of the electrical.

It now makes me nervous with my wife's 07 'Burb if we ever let it sit for very long if we'll have the same issue that you're having or not. Keep us posted as to what they say!!!

 

[Jaymez]

You know, I posted this on GMFS and FSC to see if others were having the same problem. Sure enough, it seems quite common yet nobody seems to care. Almost everybody told me just to install a battery tender or drive it more often. One guy was apparently offended at the thought of a "new truck" "sitting all the time."

We spend the money on newer vehicles to avoid the hassles that we have with our toys. It's FUN to wrench on my Nova or my GMSB because I don't rely on them. I'm fine with dealing with the hassles of older vehicles when they're not my primary mode of transportation. To drop the coin required to buy one of the newer trucks and have to deal with the same **** is beyond ridiculous.

I don't know what my course of action will be just yet. I'm going to the dealer, whenever they call, with the TSB's that I have found. If it's something I "just have to live with", I'm getting rid of the truck. Plain and simple. It may be an overreaction to some, but, I don't care.

I'm not sure what to replace it with, though.

I'll keep you updated.

 

[Old77]

Yeah, I saw your post on FSC but haven't followed it. Don't ya love when people get offended by YOUR experiences and what you're dealing with?? It irritates me. Something similar happened to me the other day when I was giving someone wanting advice on Flowmasters or Magnaflows and I told the OP that I'd had really good luck with Flowmasters on several of my trucks and this other dude got so upset you woulda thought I'd slapped him momma! My only response was that I was giving the OP info based on MY experiences and not based on what other people had just told me so he'd be wise to just shut his mouth and store it in his "knowledge database" so that he can actually think for himself at some point (I don't think he'd ever actually had Flows but had just read from other people's trash talk on them).

Anyway, if this is a known issue I think they should have a recall on it to actually fix the problem. If you sell it I'm not sure what you should get to replace it. I'd had a hard time letting myself buy a Ford and definitely will NEVER buy a dodge!

 

[Jaymez]

Just got off the phone with the dealer. Apparently, the battery failed is test. Hopefully, that's all that was wrong with it and everything will be fine.

However, if the battery keeps dying every time the truck sits, the truck getting replaced.

GM probably won't issue a recall for the same reason they didn't recall the GMT800 trucks for the intermediate steering shaft rattle. They'd rather keep packing the known defective units with more grease.

 

[Old77]

Hopefully that is all that is wrong with the truck and you're able to go on down the road and this will be just a blip on the radio....

As for GM's attitude about it, though....

 

[Jaymez]

No wonder they ran themselves into the ground and needed a tax payer bailout.

Of course, just ignoring the problem by installing a shut off switch, in my opinion, is letting GM off the hook for building a product with known faults and not holding them accountable.

I wonder if I can get by with just an SUV instead of a truck until my Square is finished? Probably not since the SUV's I prefer are also GM products.

 

[Old77]

Yep, you'd run into the same thing with a NNBS SUV that's why I'm somewhat concerned about the wife's Burb now. I don't think there'd ever be a time it'd sit for 3 weeks but if we're on vacation and leave the Burb at home I can see it sitting for a week and a half or something. I was unaware of this "known" issue before your post today!

You could always look into a real low mileage Silverado SS. Those are extremely nice!!

 

[burbdood]

I wouldn't worry too much about it. You can get a new battery that has a bad cell in it and not last you a year. Then again, you can get lucky like my dad and buy a brand new 1995 F-150 and replace the battery 15 years later like he just did. If it happens again, I'd suspect a problem like a short somewhere along the line.

 

[Jaymez]

I picked the truck up this afternoon and took it for a nice long ride to pick up an upright freezer for the basement. I'll drive it this week, but, it'll sit most of next week as I need to make a road trip with the GF so she can go to a job interview in Pittsburgh. We're taking her truck because it gets much better gas mileage.

I plan to see if I can find my volt meter before I leave and take readings both before and after the trip to see how much the voltage drops. The following week, I have more online classes so I don't need to leave the house at all, aside from groceries. I'll take the car or her truck instead.

We will see what happens. I am going to try to duplicate the conditions and see if I have the same problem now that I have a brand new battery. While driving tonight I realized that I REALLY don't want to get rid of the truck, but, if I cannot rely on the truck to be ready when I absolutely need it, it is of no use to me.

One of the "reasons" I was given for the draw is that the truck is loaded with computers and they're always drawing power. I was told "it's the price you pay for driving a luxury truck". ********. If that means my 05 Silverado W/T was more reliable because it was a base model Work Truck with less computers, I'll consider looking for a W/T and suck up the cool feature loss.

I spent a good portion of today looking at Ford's website for something that I would want to replace my Sierra with and struck out at every click. Either what I want isn't available without the top of the line trim or I'm not convinced I could be happy with the choice.

I love small trucks like the Ranger and S10 and I'd happily drive one of those on a daily basis, but, when it comes time to make a lumber run or actually use the vehicle as a truck, I want a real truck. Something I know can handle whatever it is I throw at it.

I once fit a 16ft sectional sofa with sleeper in the bed of a Ford Explorer Sport Trac with noting hanging off the tailgate. Yes, the gate was down, but, there was nothing hanging over the edge and nothing was piled above the roof. However, it'd be fairly useless at Home Depot when I finally decide to buy new doors for the house.

I dunno. We shall see what happens over the next few weeks. If I don't update the thread, it means all is well and I got worked up over nothing.