Owners of the brand new 2023 Chevrolet Colorado and/or GMC Canyon are increasingly finding their vehicles randomly dead and unresponsive for no apparent reason.
Over the last week, many 2023 Colorado and Canyon midsize truck owners have taken to the internet to report their vehicles are randomly dead and/or unresponsive. The issue seems to be caused by flat batteries- but why are batteries draining themselves?
Actually, it’s not a new issue- the redesigned Colorado and Canyon have had issues with dead batteries for months – issues that owners had thought were fixed and behind them. Apparently not.
Owners from the GM-Trucks.com Forum and 2023+ Colorado and Caynon Facebook Group started noticing again last week that their trucks were having battery issues once again. And those owners are not happy.
Some owners have woken up to a dead truck in the morning. Others have come back to a dead vehicle after driving it somewhere. Many have ended up having their vehicles towed to dealerships because even jump-starting isn’t a guaranteed fix.
2023 Colorado / Canyon Dead Battery Service Bulletin
In July, General Motors released PIT6042 detailing how “we are aware of the issue with certain trucks experiencing drained batteries…” How many trucks are “certain trucks?” Well, we’re not exactly sure. However, the issue is related to Over-The-Air (OTA) updates and server-to-vehicle communications not being completed in the correct manner. The OTA either doesn’t finish or doesn’t disconnect from GM’s servers when finished, and the vehicle’s battery drains at a higher rate until it’s dead.
The fix in July that doesn’t seem to work for today’s problems is to simply charge the battery. In July dealerships were told to charge, check and see if the battery is still good, and send customers on their way. GM also recommends that customers apply every new OTA update to make sure they are running the latest software to prevent this issue from happening again. However, as we now know, the issue is still happening. We also know that charging the battery after it goes dead may not fix the issue or resuscitate the vehicle.
2023 Colorado / Canyon Issue – Owner Reactions
Owner reactions to the new issues have poured out online:
“Thought I was safe from the dead battery issue. I’ve had my TB since 6/25 and it’s been fine until yesterday afternoon. Completely dead, had to open door with the key and then jump it with a boost pack. Truck was undriveable, no power steering, no brakes, and about five other less critical error messages. By the time the tow truck came about two hours later it was fine. Started right up and no error messages. Had it towed anyway, will know more tomorrow at some point. Only good thing is that I was home at time, not stranded somewhere.”
“My Denali did the exact same thing Friday morning. Towed to dealer, they found a bad cell in the battery and replaced it. Same thing also happened to me in July, and then the battery tested fine. I really question if that battery is the issue since sooooo many owners are having the same problems.”
“Well my truck did the same thing went to the store and when I came out a dead battery again, I tried jumping it know such luck, it’s getting to the point to get rid of it, we all need reliable transportation that we can count on, not wondering if my truck will start or be stranded somewhere else vice at home or store. I think GM rush into this 3rd generation vehicle, with all the issues everyone is having it’s frustrating for me.”
“Same boat went out last night to go to the store and truck was DEAD had to use the key to even get in. Charging the battery now hope she starts with no errors or fixes it’s self quickly.”
“This dead battery thing is not a myth
I got me yesterday in the middle of no where when I was camping.
Took forever to get someone passing by to jump start me and had a 💩 load of codes after. Which I cleared once I got home.”
“All seriousness
My trucks being towed now
2x to dealership for dead battery issues
should know something in several hours and will
Update
Serious ?
How can we handle this ?
This is really frustrating
Leas than 4k miles
Got in April”
“I just dropped mine off. I was able to start it with a jump pack and drive it to the dealer. I think because after the first battery incident I replaced the OEM battery with the highest CCA Interstate battery that I could get for it so it wasn’t fully drained. When I hooked the jump pack to the battery it read 10.4 volts. Low enough to keep the vehicle from powering up but not completely drained to where it couldn’t be jumped or charged. I expect that I’ll have it back either later today or tomorrow morning. Even the service writer seemed a bit frustrated with GM on this.”
“Mine just towed in for first time. Jumping wouldn’t even start it”
“1st time my truck didn’t start was July now it’s not starting again I waited 30 minutes for onstar to find me a tow guy they never came through so I had to use AAA I’m pissed”
2023 Colorado / Canyon Dead Batteries – What’s Next?
GM-Trucks.com has reached out to Chevrolet and GMC for comment and received the following statement:
“We are aware of the issue and our engineering team has identified a solution, which will also prevent this from happening in the future. Customers who are experiencing issues with their vehicle should contact their dealership directly.”
Most importantly- owners of GM’s new midsize pickup are growing weary of trusting their vehicles. Even new buyers are backing out of owning these trucks until the issue is fixed… read this:
” I went to test drive a Canyon yesterday and absolutely fell in love with it. Was sitting in the salesman’s office while they were working up the pricing for Canyon and trade in. And started looking at this site and watching all the trucks being loaded on tow trucks and told them to forget it… this grumpy old man does not have enough patience to be worrying about if I’m going to be stranded somewhere.”
In the 20+ years that I’ve been writing about General Motors products, I can say that I’ve never seen such a widespread and specific issue be reported by so many people in such a short period of time. Stay tuned.