2001 Chevrolet Suburban electrical problems

Filed Apr 28, 2017 · Electrical · 180,000 miles · CA · fire

On march 16, 2017, I was travelling on a mountain highway in northern california in my 2001 suburban with the driver's seat heater on. I was sitting on a thin seat cushion. Twenty minutes into the 40 minute trip, I turned my seat heater off. Ten or so minutes later, I smelled a horrible rubber/plastic burning smell. When I reached my destination, I lifted my cushion and saw that the seat had a burned hole through the leather and into my seat cushion. It was warm, but I did not see a flame. When I got home in the bay area, I contacted gm, and they opened a case number and told me to take my vehicle to a dealer, and they would investigate. I received a call yesterday from the customer service rep., and she told me that they would not be covering this as my car was out of warranty, in so many words. I asked what the dealer had found, and she couldn't tell me. I reiterated to her that this is a safety concern for me. My passenger side seat heater is now getting very hot, and I am concerned now about that. Please note, the driver's seat heater is still working if you accidentally hit the button on the door. Today, I found out from the dealer that they were not instructed by gm to look into the seat to see what caused this, only to take pictures, etc. Nobody knows why it happened. How can they deny anything without determining the cause is my thought. Aren't they concerned their seats overheat? Should they be warning the public? My seats are in very good condition, even though it is an older vehicle. Interesting to note when we picked the car up from the dealership that the service writer said I shouldn't worry since it is not working now because a wired probably broke (everything is probably or maybe). I corrected him and showed him that it does. He was very surprised to see that it still did. So, the question is why did it overheat. Please advise.

Filed Mar 14, 2014 · Electrical · LA

Tl* the contact owns a 2001 chevrolet suburban. The contact stated that while traveling various speeds, the vehicle stalled. The contact also mentioned that the ignition was abnormally loose. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted about the failure. The failure mileage was not available.

Filed Dec 2, 2013 · Electrical, Engine · 124,000 miles · WA

Tl* the contact owns a 2001 chevrolet suburban. The contact stated that the vehicle failed to start without warning. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic, who diagnosed that the came shaft needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired because the replacement part was not readily available. The manufacturer was made aware of the problem. The approximate failure mileage was 124,000. Updated 04/15/14 ma

Filed Aug 21, 2013 · Electrical · 104,500 miles · CA

My vehicle's "service engine soon" light continues to light up even after having the code erased. Many other owners of chevrolet suburbans have the same issue. Obd code p0332 states the knock sensor has low voltage. The problem many people have is when water or moisture gets into the engine compartment water begins to pool over the sensor and seep into the sensors. The lacking of water seal in this pooling area damages the sensors. The vehicle thus cannot pass it's bi-yearly smog test and also creates a false sense of vehicle reliability. If other issues come up other than the bad sensors the driver would never know.

Filed Jul 12, 2012 · Electrical · 115,000 miles · NC

Tl* the contact owns a 2001 chevrolet suburban. The contact stated that while driving 55 MPH, the lights on the instrument panel stopped illuminating. The vehicle was taken to the dealer. The dealer stated that the instrument panel needed to be repaired. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was contacted and offered no assistance. The failure mileage was 115,000 and the current mileage was 145,000.

Filed Sep 14, 2011 · Electrical · 190,000 miles · OH · fire

Tl* the contact owns a 2001 chevrolet suburban. The contact stated that he noticed smoke emitting from under the hood and after opening the driver side door, he realized that the driver heated seat had caught on fire. The fire department was contacted who filed a report. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure who did not offered any assistance and file a report. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure and current mileage was 190,000.

Filed Nov 12, 2010 · Electrical, Fuel system · 143,000 miles · WY

First incident: veh. Would crank but not start. Turned out to be fuel delivery fuse. Replaced, and ran fine for several weeks. Second incident: driving at approx. 55 MPH, vehicle lost power, started sputtering as if out of gas although it was 1/4 full. Unable to exceed 25 MPH due to little/no power. Was towed to autoparts store, cleared codes, veh ran fine for about 2 days, then lost power. Towed home. Looked up info on internet, found recalls for fuel pump. Called local chevy dealership, inquired about recall, was told that recall was only on half-ton suburbans and since mine is 3/4 ton, it was not covered by recall. I replaced fuel module myself and discovered the covering of the wires inside the fuel module assembly had melted, allowing the bare wires to rub against each other, shorting out the fuel delivery system (which likely caused the blown fuse to begin with). I am very upset that my suburban is not covered by the recall, even though it is virtually the same system as what is in the the 1/2 ton suburbans, and the same problem exists (as evidenced by not only my own experience, but many others' experiences as well). I am extremely disturbed that under the right circumstances, fuel vapors, plus spark of bare wires touching, could ignite, causing fire and/or explosion. Possibly with my family of six in the vehicle.

Filed Jul 1, 2010 · Electrical, Fuel system · 69,000 miles · UT

Tl*the contact owns a 2001 chevrolet suburban. The contact was driving approximately 55 MPH when he noticed that the fuel gauge displayed empty which was inaccurate; however, the vehicle suddenly stalled. The vehicle was towed to his residence. The contact repaired the vehicle by replacing the fuel pump module. The failure mileage was approximately 69,000. Updated 08/24/10 *lj the consumer stated the electrical wring in the fuel pump module had melted the insulation and was causing a short in several placed. Updated 08/24/10

Filed Dec 3, 2005 · Electrical, Visibility · 142,500 miles · KY

We noticed that the driver's side mirror of my wife's 2001 tahoe appeared to have a melted place on the bottom of the plastic housing. There was a green/yellow circle in the center of the mirror where it appeared to have gotten to hot. I removed the mirror which was connected by four wires. Two wires went to the heating element and the other two controlled the automatic dimming feature. On the inside of the dimming feature wires there appeared to be black residue. You could clearly see that the molded plastic on the back of the mirror had melted along the outside edge (digital pictures available if needed). I called the dealer and ordered a mirror that only had the heated feature without the dimming effect. I installed this on the logic that I could leave the defective wires disabled. So far everything seems to be working just fine. The price of the replacement was $35.00 (heater only) and if I had ordered the dimming feature with it ($267.00) "which I think is ridiculous". Even though I was out the expense and time spent fixing the mirror my hope is that you can research this and possibly keep someone else's vehicle from the potential of burning up or worse yet burning up in there garage and catching there house on fire.

Filed Oct 17, 2005 · Electrical, Fuel system · 52,000 miles · NY

Dt: the consumer owns a 2001 chevrolet suburban. In october 2004 the vehicle quit. A fuse was replaced at a cost of $137.75. This amount included the towing fee. On 12-07-04, the vehicle experienced the same problem. The consumer had to pay $306.00 to have another fuse replaced. This included diagnostic fees. On 12-14-04, the same problem occurred and the dealer replaced the fuel pump at a cost of $567.55. The contact received recall campaign# 05v155000 concerning the fuel pump about three-four months ago. The dealer and general motors refused to reimburse the consumer for the aforementioned work performed because the recall hadn't occurred. The recall stated that the consumer would be notified on 10-19-05 because the parts were available. The consumer thought that this was a very unusual amount of time for him to wait for reimbursement. *ak (11/22/05)