Hello,

Its been a while since I posted. The other day after not having driven the car for a few weeks I start it up and immediately get the reduced engine power, service vehicle soon, low fuel along with the temp, fuel level and oil pressure gages not registering. Also, the power window and lock for the passenger side door do not work.

The car is an 00' with currently 19,170 miles.

I had this same problem with the car in Nov of 01' when the car had 9,132 miles. Several modules were replaced, the IP cluster was redone -- they really did not pin point the problem but kept replacing modules until it was fixed. I was able to get GM to give me an extended warrenty for an additonal 2yrs -- which expired October of 2004.

In November of 2001 the following items were replaced: body control module, PCM, TAC module, Right hand door control module, IP cluster repaired. The techs spent over 16 hours trying to trouble shoot and repair the car.

I had a reoccurrance in May of 02 and the ingnition switch was replaced.

I pulled the codes last night and every code was showing as a history code -- there were about 30 of them. I am not sure if I should pull the battery cable to reset the computer history so I can determine what the current codes are?

I am not sure where to start with this -- even though I am out of warrenty I still feel GM has an obligation to me since they were never able to truely tell me what the problem was -- they just replaced everything until the problem went way. Plus the car only has an additional 10,000 miles on it since it was previously fixed! Thats how I was able to argue/justify getting them to provide the extended warrenty.

I might call the dealership tonight and talk with the service advisor about this -- maybe GM will work with me to cover the costs? Anyone have any luck trying to do this. I would call Chevy customer service myself, but I think they are just going to tell me that I am out of warrenty and they already provided me an extended warrenty.

Any advice on what to do? Can I do anything myself?
I read some of the previous posts on this -- it seem most people fixed their problem with a new TAC module, but that has already been replaced in my case. I did look at the chasis grounds that I could see in the motor compartment -- All that I could see looked good with no visible corrosion -- I did not get under the car.


Any advice on what to do? Can I do anything myself?

Thank for reading
Ed

 

I know this may be a long shot, but have you thought about maybe a battery problem? Ive heard many a story about all sorts of gremlins coming up when the battery is low. Just a thought.

 

Being the car sat for a few weeks I would suspect a battery issue.

 

E-Man, I am having the exact same problem. It started a few months ago. At first I asked the dealer to make sure the area under the new battery was clean and free of acid residue, which they did. They also tightened ground points. The problem went away for about 5-6 weeks and then came back. They replaced the ignition switch and within 5 hours the problem came back. They will have it all next week but if you hear of anything please send me a PM and I will do the same for you. This is rather frustrating. Do you find that the warning lights and the messages come on after washing the car or driving in the rain?

 

You might want to replace the fuse panel next to the battery. If it has any signs of corrosion then you will get all kinds of strange electrical problems and codes. Replacing it fixed my problem. They are about $200 new from GM with all new fuses and relays.

 

Thank you. I will talk to the technician and suggest this to him.

 

I had very similar problems - my driver's door controls would work sometimes, other times not. And, I started getting occaisional message overload like you did. The dealer fixed two grounding locations and all is working fine now. The invoice says they "repaired loose ground at C201" to fix the driver's door switch problem and "repaired connector at C202" in "right side of kick pad area" to fix the flashing messages problem. These repairs were covered under my extended warranty.

The other time I had problems with my driver's side door switches, they repaired the wiring harness between the door and the car.

I hope this helps

CB

 

I replaced the original battery in August 05'. I still had the original AC delco but since it was 5+ years old and I had read of incidents where it leaked causing major problems I decided to swap it out. Car had run fine since August with the new battery. I even hooked the charger up to it last night to see what type of charge -- it was full - 100%.

I had washed the car several weeks ago and then it sat under the car cover for a week or two -- car had not been driven since I washed it.

I think I saw a related post somewhere on here about where the major chasis grounds are located -- I will search that out.

The error messages typically do not start until I have pulled out of the driveway and the car gets up to 15-20mph -- I think it takes the car to be at that speed before the tire pressure monitoring system takes a reading of the tire air pressure -- Then I think all hell breaks loose when pressures cannot be read.

Last night I pulled the battery cable to reset everything - clear the codes -- all of the same codes came up -- but none of the codes show as current -- all of them show History. The passenger side door shows a "no communication" error.

So I guess I will check the chasis grounds and talk to the service advisor at the dealership.....no to come

 

I had the same problem and we check the battery and found the the battery had cracked and leaked acid on the pcm. went the dealer they replaced it at no cost to me because the pcm is under warranty for 88000 mile. look in your owners manual and you will see. but don't let them change o2 sensors, egr, just the computer and reflash ita nd you will be fine

 

Was the battery leak noticible? When I poped in the new battery in August 05' I looked at where the old one had sat -- and say no evidence of any leakage -- I even examined the old battery out of the car and saw no evidence of leaks.

 

same problem here on my 01z. i found out what it is. it was not the battery i replaced mine and still did it. move the wires around that are in the rubber boot in the door jam and the windows will work again . this will not solve the problem but will give you an idea of what it is.as soon as my car does it again im going to the dealer and im gonna move the wires around and show them that theres some kind of bad connection. its been doing it for 5 months now and i just figured it out a couple days ago. it would be nice if it never did it again but if it does i have a clue to what it is now to show these gm technicians. good luck

 

Thank you to everyone that has posted, this is great stuff.

Ed, I replaced the battery exactly like you did. 5 year old ac delco original battery, so replaced with red top optima. I did notice the acid residue in the lower part of the compartment though. Dealer cleaned up the area for me and tightened some grounding points, evidently not all or the right ones.

 

Played around with the car a little more last night. Took the battery out, checked all the electrical connections I could see and re-installed the battery -- I took extra care to make sure I connected the cables securely -- it seems like it is very easy for the threads to be a bit off and you think you have tightened the cable down all the way but you don't. I also grabbed the rubber boot in the passenger side door (this contains all of the wiring for the door) and moved is around a bit. I started the car up and pulled out of the driveway and guess what -- NO Reduced engine power!!. I am not sure what did it, the wire movement or possible securing the battery cable connections better.
I was having some issues with the passenger side door locks and window one night before the "reduced engine power error" came up -- but I did not try to start the car when I noticed the problem. A few times I was able to get the lock and window to work, depending on if the door was open or closed and also just the jarring that occurs when you close the door. I am thinking like another poster said -- there is some bad connection in the passenger side door.

Everything worked fine on the short drive - 15 miles. I am going to drive it a lot more the rest of the week to see if the problem comes back.

Does anyone have an instuction breakdown of how to take off the interior door panels, I would like to check the connections myself.
I was not sure if the panel is (2) pieces and upper and lower and if the panel is held on with spring loaded clips?

Ed