Anyone ever have this problem?
I have about 32000 miles on my 2005 z51. I've had this car for almost 3years now. I fell in love with the C6's at the Detroit Auto Show and just had to have one as soon as they came out. I sold my '99 hardtop to get it. It has been into the dealer three times this month because the 15 amp radio fuse is blowing. Each time, the dealer has kept it for 2 days then called me to pick it up. Each time, it's fine when I drive it away. Within a week, I hear a crackle sound from the speakers, then the radio goes dead. Another blown fuse. It seems to do it after it sits in the sun in the parking lot at work.
Yesterday it happened again but worse... I was going back to work after lunch and heard the same crackle from the speakers but this time I didn't lose the radio, just the XM bands. I heard the crackle then the radio went to the AM band. I tried to switch back to XM but could only switch between the two FM and the AM bands.
I went back to work and parked in the lot. I went to leave for home a few hours later and when I approached the car I noticed that the rear hatch and the gas cap door were both open. The car had popped both open on it's own. I had to open the driver side door manually and found all systems shut down, no response from anything electrical except for the alarm when I opened the passenger door manually. The dealer was unable to help me at that hour of the day so the car sat in the parking lot overnight with the fuel door open. It would pop open on it's own several minutes after I closed it.
The car was finally hauled off on a flat-bed this afternoon.
The dealer is stumped. I am so discouraged that I'm ready to hire a 'lemon-law' attorney. My wife is laughuing at me because she's hated this car from day one. (she however loves her '07 LTX suburban.)
Does anyone have any insight???

 

What's your states law on lemons? Most are 12 months...

I don't know what to tell you except you're lucky you're under warranty!
Good luck and let us know what they find out (if anything )

 

johnny 5 is alive

 

Man, that sucks! I just have recurring cruise control set point and CD track changing issues. Minor ones that reset easily, but wierd and unpleasant.

 

NEED MORE INPUT

 

I'm sorry for your trouble and for your aggravations. This is a new one on me...I haven't heard of the 'toaster' syndrome before. Electrical problems can truly be gremlins. This is a case for Shopdog if I ever heard one.

I would doubt the Lemon Law would come-into play but as was mentioned, be thankful you still have warranty coverage.

Keep us posted and good luck.

 

My car has been at the dealer for a week now. They gave me a '07 Trailblazer to drive. The service manager called me today to inform me that they found the problem. Apparently the wiring harness wore through and shorted out against the XM box. They figure that's why the radio fuse kept blowing. He said there are big black marks on the XM box. He said this caused the entire "engine wiring harness" to go bad. Apparently this isn't an item that is normally stocked by the parts supplier. They have to get a new wiring harness from the factory. He said it's a $1700 part. He estimated the labor time to fix at 24 hours. They have to tear the entire car apart to replace this harness. His total estimate to fix is around $5000. He said I should have the car back in 2 to 3 weeks. I'm glad it's still under warranty. I just wish Chevy would give me something nicer to drive in the interim.

 

just a reminder FUSES BLOW FOR A REASON this dealer did not repair it the first times, therefore the damage was quite larger.......

 

Amen to that.

Need to shine the "Shopdog beacon" into the sky to summon him, fast.

 

I certainly hope they're not trying to charge YOU the $5000 -- factory warranty should cover that.

 

Wow.
Similar thing happened to my C6 except it wasn't the wiring harness inside the engine compartment chaffed, shorted against the chassis.
Lost power in 4 cyclinders on [that] side of the engine.



Amen to that!!
Hey, a Trailblazer beats walking.

Glad to hear the solution's been found & be rectified at no expense to you.

 

Definitely sounds like a grounding problem...or at least it was the first couple of times that your fuse was blowing.

Now....the dealer fix may have caused a slightly larger problem.

Sorry to be captain obvious, I hope it all works out for you.

 

It's probably the radio,not the fuse.I've replaced 3 so far.I heard a crackle the last time and the radio went dead for a while.Not a lemon law thing most likely.

 

Boy, sounds like he's milking this one. None of the wires for the XM module or the radio run anywhere near the engine harness. Now the XM wires do run with the instrument panel harness for a short distance and the radio's wires run alongside one of the BCM cables. To get to the engine harness, however, would require the primary wire on the battery side of the fuse block to overheat. That's a very large wire.

Wonder if your dealer used a too large fuse the last time. The fuse is supposed to be sized to protect the wire. In other words, the fuse should blow before the wire's insulation melts, and certainly before the insulation on other nearby wires melts. If we're to believe the dealer's story, this one didn't. That can only be because of a too large fuse. The stereotypical penny in the fuse box comes to mind here.

Anyway, if it were my car, I'd want to see the damage. Normally, a harness can be repaired. It usually takes something like an engine fire to wreck a harness to the point the entire thing needs to be replaced. From your description, sounds like the dealer is proposing to replace all of the harnesses in the car (the engine harness is totally under the hood, and fully accessable without disassembling the car). Replacing all of the harnesses is major, and should never be necessary short of a very serious car fire.

 

Hey, he may be legit, but I seriously doubt it. GM need to get a district rep over to that dealer before they pay a $5,000 bill for blown radio fuses.

AL

 

with the fuse issue. I'm sure it's been changed back to the proper fuse. As you said that's why they have different requirements.

 

After almost three weeks, I have my car back. The dealer spent 30+ hours stripping the interior out of the car and replacing the entire wiring harness. The service manager showed me the old harness. Apparently the car was just not assembled correctly in Bowling Green and the harness wore thin and shorted out. The DM called and offered to rebate one month's payment back to me. So far I haven't received a check. The horn doesn't work any more but the car is back and I don't have to drive the loaner Trailblazer.

 

If the horn does not work something is still bad. Please keep us posted on how it progresses.

Are you satisfied with the work? Since you said they took the car apart... is everything back correctly? Are you happy with the reassembling? no rattles?

 

the horn doesnt work? I wonder what else. Better really check everything very well.

 

Regional help. Also, GM has repair forums just like our forum here. Have a good service mgr (somewhere) get on the horn.