My Fix On My Silverado Electrical Problem

BloodRedSilverado · March 21, 2011

Ok so I'm fed up with the issue on the electrical problems with the New Silverado/Sierra's. Over the past year, everybody has probably glanced over my posts with the problems... (Dimming/surging of the electrical systems which causes my truck to go crazy). I can drive down the road and create a surge such as operating a couple items and it starts shutting down my abs/stabilitrack,airbags, door locks,ect. I have went from one end of the truck to the other cleaning grounds,installing a new battery,testing the alt with only a fix for only a week or so.. Cleaning the ground would only last a short time before my truck would surge again. Well with a recent discovery after getting home one night, I noticed that the ground cable on the battery was hot as hell. Now I have heard about the bulletin on the ground cable but considering my warranty went out a week after I starting having these problems ( go figure) there no way in hell I'm gonna spend $100 on a ground cable... Not to mention having the same problem again considering there has to be a problem with these cables. I also discovered out of the two cables (alt/frame) that the frame cable actually is quite small. So i took it apon myself to build my own cable which I know will be flawless. So I took two New 4 gauge battery cables and made one the same length as the oem one.... Now before I could always make my truck go crazy whether holding down two windows at a time or whatnot.... But for the past three weeks I haven't had one blip not to mention none of my lights dim at all when i use several electrical items... All i can say is I'm happy that I can now ride peacefully, considering it only took a hour to make the cable..Btw I did have GM look at my truck during the warranty and they could not diagnose the problem. later

Edited March 21, 2011 by BloodRedSilverado

gnet158 · March 21, 2011

Post pics of your fix. My lights dim but never go crazy like yours did but I'm still interested in the fix.

flhusa1 · March 21, 2011

looks like you are the expert now. i will remember your fix if my 03 gmc starts the same probs. never underestimate your abilities!

mach000 · March 21, 2011

same here

BloodRedSilverado · March 22, 2011

This fix has taken alot of weight off my shoulders... I will post pics of the cables I built when I get back off work.

highspeedvehicle · March 22, 2011

Good for you man looking forward to the pics.

tmoney82 · March 22, 2011

Ok so I'm fed up with the issue on the electrical problems with the New Silverado/Sierra's. Over the past year, everybody has probably glanced over my posts with the problems... (Dimming/surging of the electrical systems which causes my truck to go crazy). I can drive down the road and create a surge such as operating a couple items and it starts shutting down my abs/stabilitrack,airbags, door locks,ect. I have went from one end of the truck to the other cleaning grounds,installing a new battery,testing the alt with only a fix for only a week or so.. Cleaning the ground would only last a short time before my truck would surge again. Well with a recent discovery after getting home one night, I noticed that the ground cable on the battery was hot as hell. Now I have heard about the bulletin on the ground cable but considering my warranty went out a week after I starting having these problems ( go figure) there no way in hell I'm gonna spend $100 on a ground cable... Not to mention having the same problem again considering there has to be a problem with these cables. I also discovered out of the two cables (alt/frame) that the frame cable actually is quite small. So i took it apon myself to build my own cable which I know will be flawless. So I took two New 4 gauge battery cables and made one the same length as the oem one.... Now before I could always make my truck go crazy whether holding down two windows at a time or whatnot.... But for the past three weeks I haven't had one blip not to mention none of my lights dim at all when i use several electrical items... All i can say is I'm happy that I can now ride peacefully, considering it only took a hour to make the cable..Btw I did have GM look at my truck during the warranty and they could not diagnose the problem. later

Same thing with my 08 sierra denali. Dealer cant find problem and hate to spend $100 dollars on cable. But I think I'm gonna go ahead and bite the bullet and buy one!

tmoney82 · March 22, 2011

Btw, whats the part # on the cables?

4wd · March 22, 2011

Many thanks,,,please post picture. Also, what is the problem in the other two cables alt/frame?

BloodRedSilverado · March 22, 2011

Ok so I'm fed up with the issue on the electrical problems with the New Silverado/Sierra's. Over the past year, everybody has probably glanced over my posts with the problems... (Dimming/surging of the electrical systems which causes my truck to go crazy). I can drive down the road and create a surge such as operating a couple items and it starts shutting down my abs/stabilitrack,airbags, door locks,ect. I have went from one end of the truck to the other cleaning grounds,installing a new battery,testing the alt with only a fix for only a week or so.. Cleaning the ground would only last a short time before my truck would surge again. Well with a recent discovery after getting home one night, I noticed that the ground cable on the battery was hot as hell. Now I have heard about the bulletin on the ground cable but considering my warranty went out a week after I starting having these problems ( go figure) there no way in hell I'm gonna spend $100 on a ground cable... Not to mention having the same problem again considering there has to be a problem with these cables. I also discovered out of the two cables (alt/frame) that the frame cable actually is quite small. So i took it apon myself to build my own cable which I know will be flawless. So I took two New 4 gauge battery cables and made one the same length as the oem one.... Now before I could always make my truck go crazy whether holding down two windows at a time or whatnot.... But for the past three weeks I haven't had one blip not to mention none of my lights dim at all when i use several electrical items... All i can say is I'm happy that I can now ride peacefully, considering it only took a hour to make the cable..Btw I did have GM look at my truck during the warranty and they could not diagnose the problem. later

Same thing with my 08 sierra denali. Dealer cant find problem and hate to spend $100 dollars on cable. But I think I'm gonna go ahead and bite the bullet and buy one!

I thought about it, and I got to thinking of the possibility of having the same problem down the road and $100 less in my bank. Clearly there's a problem with these cables.

BloodRedSilverado · March 22, 2011

Many thanks,,,please post picture. Also, what is the problem in the other two cables alt/frame?

The cable from the battery ground is spliced and runs to both the alt and the frame. The frame cable is actually alot smaller than the ground running to the alt... So i ran 4 gauge to both places. Not reallly sure if it is a big problem but most of the trucks electrical devices is grounded to the frame. And because of that I wanted to have a larger ground in that area.

4wd · March 22, 2011

Many thanks,,,please post picture. Also, what is the problem in the other two cables alt/frame?

The cable from the battery ground is spliced and runs to both the alt and the frame. The frame cable is actually alot smaller than the ground running to the alt... So i ran 4 gauge to both places. Not reallly sure if it is a big problem but most of the trucks electrical devices is grounded to the frame. And because of that I wanted to have a larger ground in that area.

Great!, do you know if the replacement OEM cable is the same gauge number all they way or better in anway...

03nosbusa · March 22, 2011

Can you post pics of the cable you made?

Thanks

irongoats · March 22, 2011

Nice fix, kind of reminds me of using 0 guage to ground (block/chassis) for my stereo system.

700 sportsman · March 22, 2011

My dad has the same problem as well, one time when it had lost all power I touched the ground cable, and as you mentioned it was hot and then power was fine. So we knew it was the ground cable at the battery, to resolve it we replaced the connector to the battery with a new one that was soldered in. It has been working perfectly for a couple months now. And while we were removing the old end, it did seem like the wires were a bit loose and the connector wasn't fully crimped from the factory