07 Trailblazer Acting all Kinds of Funky

Envoy_04

Original poster
Member
Jul 1, 2013
749
Sorry for the length of this one, it's complicated and I'm confused!

I got a call earlier from a lady I know in my community who has an '07 TB 4x4 4.2. She said that earlier she tried to start it up and it wouldn't start, acted like it had a dead battery. She had her neighbor jumpstart it, but that was a no-go too. She also mentioned that before the initial time she tried to start it that when she opened the door she could smell what smelled like something electrical burning.

I went down to see if I could get the thing to do anything, and as soon as I opened the door I was hit in the face by an AWFUL smell of burnt electrical wiring/equipment. Just for kicks, I tried to start it, and whaddaya know? It fired right up! After I let it run for a few minutes, I noticed that ALL the "idiot lights" in the dash were on and the only gauge working was the tach. Also, her front door window and lock controls on BOTH front doors and also her radio were not working - the radio was being really goofy, the display would light up and then go away.:weird: I shut it down and checked all the fuses and wiring I could think of, but nothing. All were OK. At this point I realize that 1) I am an idiot and 2) I should follow my nose to the burnt smell origin.:duh: Smell was coming from the driver's side door controls.

I realized at this point that she was probably the victim of the GM recall on the faulty seals on the door which can cause the window controls to act up, and upon asking her if she had gotten a letter about it and I found that she had. What I don't get is why the thing is acting so crazy. :confused: I talked to a buddy at our local GM dealership - he's the head service tech and has always been very honest with me, and he's never heard of the door problem causing other electronics to act funky.

Any thoughts about what's wrong/going on would be appreciated. She's having it towed to the dealership in the morning since after I turned it off it would restart no more. :no: I'll be sure to post up results as soon as I know them. Also, for those who will likely ask: The last it ran was last evening and it ran and smelled fine. The smell showed up this morning, she noticed it when she went to start the vehicle and it would do nothing. It rained HARD in the late evening/night here: the meteorologists are calling it a minor derecho.
 

MAY03LT

Member
Nov 18, 2011
3,431
Delmarva
Envoy_04 said:
What I don't get is why the thing is acting so crazy.

The drivers door module is on the vehicles data bus, which all the modules use to talk to each other. So having one module go up in smoke (in this case literally) can cause issues with all modules, including the cluster (acting nutty), radio (acting nutty), passenger door module (not working), pcm (truck not starting), etc. I suspect that if the ddm was unplugged, the other symptoms would have went away. Since it's covered, I wouldn't mess with it.

Envoy_04 said:
Sorry for the length of this one, it's complicated and I'm confused!

I commend you for being thorough with your explanation of the symptoms and other observations. Sure beats "truck don't work wat do?":thumbsup:
 

Envoy_04

Original poster
Member
Jul 1, 2013
749
MAY03LT said:
I commend you for being thorough with your explanation of the symptoms and other observations. Sure beats "truck don't work wat do?":thumbsup:

I used to be a full time and still am a part time golf cart mechanic. The one thing that always annoyed me to no end was someone calling me up and just saying "It's broke" and not knowing anything else, and yet expecting me to tell them exactly what was wrong. :banghead:

And thanks for the info! I told her just as you suggested, let the GM dealership handle it since it's covered. :thumbsup:
 

The_Roadie

Lifetime VIP Donor
Member
Nov 19, 2011
9,957
Portland, OR
Envoy_04 said:
...one thing that always annoyed me to no end was someone calling me up and just saying "It's broke" and not knowing anything else, and yet expecting me to tell them exactly what was wrong. ...
You too?!? It's the norm around the forums, except the velocity of communication is slower. :confused: And noobs often use PMs instead of posting up. :lipsrsealed:

Welcome!
 

Envoy_04

Original poster
Member
Jul 1, 2013
749
Roadie, thanks for the welcome! I've been a lurker for a while, especially on the OS, but I decided to join the Nation and I've been blown away by the responsiveness here! Great and helpful advice over here from members who really know their stuff! :yes:
 

Envoy_04

Original poster
Member
Jul 1, 2013
749
Well, my neighbor got her TB to the dealership today and had them take a look. First thing they did was unplug the driver door module and the truck went back to acting normal. They threw in a new set of driver door controls, didn't charge a thing, and off she went. Truck still smells like smoke inside, definitely going to be a windows down only ride for a while lol. Main thing is my neighbor is happy - she loves her TB, bought it new in '07 and plans on having it for a long time.
 

Ryda55555

Member
Apr 11, 2013
1,111
Happy to see how fast this got resolved, i think its gotten to the point where there are no problems that cant be resolved here :rotfl:
OTHER THAN THE RED WIRE
 

Envoy_04

Original poster
Member
Jul 1, 2013
749
I was glad the fix was so easy. And wait, you mean the red wire isn't the hookup for the particle accelerator?!?
 

meerschm

Member
Aug 26, 2012
1,079
the roadie said:
The particle accelerator option was deleted after a rash of thefts in the Caltech area. Now it's used to attach the more common flux capacitor. :wink:

I am gonna need a bigger fuse.

[video=youtube;mjCRUvX2D0E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjCRUvX2D0E[/video]
 

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