2003 GMC Yukon Dies And Has Several Warning Lights On

2003 GMC Yukon XL. Question: Car was dying. Water added to battery. Battery overflowed. Now, after I hit a bumps in the road: Door locks "cycle", "Ding" sounds for about 10 dings or just a single "ding"ABS light, brake light, and "service brake system" light all go on,A/C turns off but resumes again after 2-10 minutes Car loses power & "reduced engine power" message comes on.

When that happens, I temporarily am not able to get car to go over 40 or so. If I take my foot off gas pedal and then depress pedal again , the problem disappears. NOW when the message appears, the car dies shortly after and I lose my power steering. Car restarts, but stalls at next bump. A brand new battery was put in -didn't help.

Answer: Well, first of all, you should not add water to any battery. That was only possible on old vehicles. If replacing the battery and inspecting the cables for corrosion did not fix it, then you have a wiring problem somewhere. Most likely a ground problem. There are several grounds on the engine, location depends on which engine is in your truck. On the back of the passenger side cylinder head, on the fenders, on the drivers side engine block below the exhaust manifold, etc. you can try to duplicate the bump that causes these problems by having the truck running at idle, and move around all the wiring harnesses under the hood. Do one section at a time. When the truck acts up, then you know you are in the general area and can now try to narrow it down. Have the system scanned for trouble codes as well.


Related Articles

Please login to comment

Comments (4)
   ---Subscribe To Your Comment   

  • Guest - Valerie york

    2003 chevy thoe. When driving hit a pump the locks will unlock and lock on their own. The dash lights willl flicker. The peepping sond like you left the key in. Then loose oower. It might crank up after a few min. Took it to a nechanic he out 70 hours and wasnt abke to figure this out. Checked all grownd wires. A freind suggested the bcm body control module. Dealership no longer has the diagram of the electrical system. Where do i go from here. Said a waist if time to replace the bcm. Please help. Cant afford another car payment

  • Guest - Donny

    I have a 2003 Chevy Tahoe VIN Z Flex Fuel. Within the last year I have myself, rebuilt the transmission heavy duty (red eagle clutches, sonnax valve body parts, the "Beast sun shell", triple disc torque converter, etc.) rebuilt rear drive axle (Yukon Brand Ring & Pinion 3:73s), front 4x4 axle tube (4x4 locking gears & actuator, not ring & pinion or bearings) new oil seals inner & outer, replaced intake gasket & oil pressure sender, backward & forward flushed the fuel injectors. My wife drove over a set of moderately rough railroad tracks & the truck died & ABS warning light, anti theft light, door locks actuated, chime sound came on, message scrolled across message center saying something about ABS. I repaired the G103 Ground by GM standards using ALLDATA, remove ground, clean to shiny metal, apply dialectric grease, reconnect & paint for rust protection. cleaned & Repositioned the ground strap on fire wall.this started after I removed the intake so I will start looking at wiring I might have disturbed when doing the gasket. The ground points are always a first GOTO check when a problem like this occurs by GM, Ford, Dodge. If you do not know where these connections are go to the parts counter at the dealership & ask the parts guy if he can print you up pictures of the main grounding points on your vehicle, he should be more than willing to do that for you. Donny

  • Guest - Travis

    This must be a common problem with Chevy suv,s. I have a Tahoe and went through the exact same problem. All I can say is thank you for this post. I did the exact same thing he said and found my ground wire in the back of the motor. Passenger side. I fixed it myself and truck runs great now. THANK YOU!!!

  • Guest - Brigit

    Thanks! Did just what you said. Wiggled the wiring while idling and was able to locate the area. There are 2 or 3 "bundles" of wiring that criss-cross each other (near the back of the engine and then they disapper into the back of the dashboard area). They have electrical tape. Having them taped together makes it's hard to tell which bundle is the culprit. I'll take it in to have it scanned for codes. Surprisingly the area is not near the battery.