Tl* the contact owns a 2003 chevrolet suburban. The contact stated that the interior lighting, onstar device power in the rearview mirror, fan motor, and door locks lost power intermittently. The failures recurred on numerous occasions. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed that an electrical short in the dashboard needed to be repaired. The failure was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 100,000.
2003 Chevrolet Suburban electrical complaints
Page 2 of 4: complaints 11 to 40 of 81, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Tl* the contact owns a 2003 chevrolet suburban. The contact stated that while driving 50 MPH, the instrument panel failed. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for inspection where they stated that the instrument cluster needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired but the contact stated that every electrical component failed in due to poor grounding. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 348.
I was driving my suburban back from work one day and my front A/C blower stopped working. I turned A/C off and reached home. When I took the plastic cover over the blower motor apart to see what is going on I figured that the electrical connector to the blower motor resister has heated up and melted. I replaced the blower motor resister thinking something was wrong with that only to find out it happened again 15 days later. I searched the problem online and found that yet another engineering disaster by gm. It appears to be a known problem in gm trucks. For some reason the blower motor resister is overheating and melting the plastic connector and wires connecting to it. This is a fire hazard. I called up a chevy dealership near me to find out if there was any recall on this they said no. Hence reporting this to you.
Tl* the contact owns a 2003 chevrolet suburban. The contact stated that the instrument panel failed and was providing inaccurate readings. As a result, the contact was not able to determine the speed in which he was traveling. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for inspection where they stated that the instrument cluster needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified and stated that there were no recalls for the vehicle. The failure mileage was 90,000. The VIN was unavailable.
My electric is all messed up ,works don't,radio turns on after driving awhile,4x4 sometimes works,airbag light ,they wanted 150 to reset,I talk to so many same problem,same year ,online,I bet there is recall ,there must be I paid a lot for this truck to,when get cold out wont start,nothing works,I'm disabled,so it's hard for me to do anything,it's all about money,so many with same problem online.
I'm filing a complaint because of an issue with the instrument panel cluster. My car has had this issue for the past few months. Anytime the car goes over bumps(no matter how big or small the bump is, it could just be a crack in the cement) the gauges on the dash will go crazy, sensors will so off. Specifically the speedometer will stop working or go all the way to 120 MPH. The fuel and oil gauges will not be accurate (for example it will say the tank is empty when it's full). But the most disturbing problem is that while driving no matter how fast the anti theft will go off and shut the engine off in a matter of seconds and the car loses all power. A few times I have been driving 55 MPH on the expressway and it will just shut off. So far I have been lucky enough not to get rear ended, I don't know when my luck will run out. There was a recall on the car for this problem but it was only until 2010 or if the odometer was between 70,001 and 80,000 miles. My car is eight years old and over 100,000 miles. We bought this car used in 2009 from a chevy dealership (dick wickstrom's chevrolet). When we talked to the dealership about this and complained that it wasn't fixed when they had it, they said it wasn't having problems at that time. It will cost approximately $600 to $800 to fix. I don't have the money to fix it or to buy another car so I must continue to drive a defective unsafe car. If a part is defective how can that expire. Gm should be responsible for the safety of the cars they sell and to fix any defective parts no matter how old the car is. I hope that you can help us as I need a dependable safe car and can't afford to buy another one or pay out the kind of money it will take to fix this one when I feel this should have been taken care of by the manufacturer because it is a part that was defective no matter how long it took to go bad. Thank you.
I have 2003 suburban 1500, that keeps getting a error message "reduce engine power". The vehicle will all of sudden while driving, reduce speed and I can't accelerate above 25-30mph. I will have to pull over and turn car off for 10-15 seconds before it resets, however it will continue to happen over and over again! It is very scary and dangerous when I have my kids or my wife drive it because you never know when the car will have this happen. Strangely, when we drive on the highway we can use the "cruise control" feature when we reach 25mph and use the cruise control to accelerate that way with minimal occurrences. I have taken the car to "2 chevy dealers and 3 mechanics" neither can tell us what's wrong! This is frustrating because we only have on car, and we know this a "safety hazard" and extremely dangerous and somebody has to look into this! I only hope someone who reads these complaints has the power to help me and everyone with this problem.
I was driving my suburban when a message reading "reduced engine power" came on and my car cut off. I was very lucky to only be going 20 MPH in my neighborhood. Had I been going faster and had a car been following close behind, we would have caused an accident. This problem still persists and stops every 2-3 miles. We have to pull over, leave the car off for 5-10 seconds and then restart. We are then able to go another 2-3 miles. This is our only vehicle so we have no choice but to drive with our hazards on because we have 4 kids at 3 different schools to drop off and pick up each day. After researching this issue online, I am seeing that this is occurring in hundreds of chevrolet and gm cars. It is my understanding that these 2 are the same company. I do not dare get on a major highway or interstate because of the fear of the car shutting down and causing an accident. Chevrolet and gm are aware of this problem, as many people have filed complaints with both the company and the federal safety agency. Why is there no recall to fix this? This is a very dangerous situation and could likely lead to a deadly accident. I am discussing a class action lawsuit with a number of people and once the info is collected, I will contact an attorney. Please help get these unsafe vehicles off of the road and into the dealerships to be fixed. Thank you.
My suburban goes to reduced power unexpectedly and the engine will stall causing a loss of power steering and control of the vehicle. My suburban has been taken in to the dealer I purchased the vehicle from on five occasions and the dealer is unable to fix the problem.. The most recent time was 9/1/2011. It went to reduced power 10 miles after leaving dealership and stalled as I pulled out into traffic from a restaurant. A number of cars had to brake excessively and swerve around me until I could angle my suburban off the road without power steering. The truck weighs 6700 lbs and I needed all my strength to turn the wheel enough to get off the road. I am fearful about driving my suburban and the high probability of injury to myself or others.
Tl*the contact owns a 2003 chevrolet suburban. The contact stated the all gauges on the instrument panel have stopped working. The digital and mechanical gauges failed and the contact does not know how much gas was in the vehicle or how fast they were traveling. The contact stated that the light in the gear shift indicator failed first. The vehicle was not inspected, but the contact was concerned that the failure was a wiring problem. The failure mileage was 99,000 and the current mileage was 103,000.
Speedometer goes to 120 randomly.
The speedometer on my 2003 chevy suburban is off by over 50 MPH. I had the same problem on 2005 silverado. I see alot of complaints over this same problem with other owners, why is gm not held responsible for a recall. There is no way to know how fast I am actually going, if that is not a safety concern then I'm not sure what is.
Tl*the contact owns a 2003 chevrolet suburban. The contact stated that while driving 25 MPH the speedometer would malfunction leaving the contact unaware of the speed that the vehicle was traveling. The contact also stated that the speedometer malfunctioned when the vehicle was in park. The speedometer would display 60 MPH when the vehicle was not moving. The contact took the vehicle to the dealer who stated that the vehicle had under 80,000 miles. The dealer also advised the contact to file a complaint with the manufacturer to have the vehicle repaired at no cost, but since the contact did not file a complaint with the manufacturer and has high mileage the contact was responsible for the repairs. The contact stated that the manufacturer should issue a recall since the issue with the dashboard was very common. The VIN was not available. The failure mileage was 128,000.
My 2003 chevy suburban's speedometer and volt meter indicate wildly false readings. I never know how fast I am really driving and I don't know if my electrical system is really at 30 volts or 0. I believe this is an unsafe condition.
2003 chevy surburban speedometer failure. Speedometer fails to give accurate reading while stopped or while driving. This causes the hazard of not being able to gauge speed accurately and makes it impossible to comply with local, state and federal speed laws for public roadways.
The speedometer indicates incorrect speeds. Shows I am going 30 MPH sitting still or 120 MPH while driving 65mph.
I have a 2003 z71 suburban. The speedometer broke today all of a sudden, said I was driving 60mph when I was barely doing 25. When I shut the car off it remained at 30mph. I called the chevy dealer and they knew right away what the problem was and how much to fix it. $600.00. Now I know why, after reading the complaints on here. Everybody has the same problem. My truck has 91,000 miles on it. Why won't gm repair this regardless of how many miles the vehicles have on it. A defect is a defect, regardless of what the mileage is when it occurs! Let's see, food in my kids mouth and a roof over their heads, or $600.00 to repair my defective truck. No wonder why gm is going under. I know I will never buy another gm vehicle. You people should do something. I see there a tons of complaints for the same thing. This obviously is a safety issue.
Revving of engine to point of screeching tires. Sometimes feeling of being in neutral for a second then clunk in tranny/rear end? Acts as engagement of cruise control increasing speed, not able to disengage by hitting brake. Computer did not show anything. Next time putter "locked out" tech's. Puter replaced. Worked good for two weeks. Engine revved, hit patch of ice, totaled out z-71. Thank god, no injuries. Fighting it for appx 16000 miles. 72000 to 88000.
2003 chevy suburban speedometer has been experiencing issues since I purchased used over 2 years ago. But it outside of the manufacturers warranty period. So I decided to leave it until it stopped working all together. I was notified that from chevy that this an issue fall of 07, but by that time the vehicle had already surpassed the mileage restraint that gm put on the recall. Now the speedometer stopped working today. The speedometer is stuck at 70, and is not reading correctly. I called my dealer and they told me to call chevrolet. After stating my case to the first representative I was told there was nothing we could do.
Speedometer started going crazy. Now reads 25 when in park.
I bought the suburban new in 2003 and as I was driving it home off the lot, I looked down at the speedometer and it was showing "0." I was, at the time, driving down the highway! I pulled off the side of the road and stopped, called the dealership and they said that if it did it again to call them. It did not do it again until today. I have been noticing, though, for a few weeks that the speedometer is clicky when it goes up in speed, it is not a smooth movement, it jumps or clicks up. Then, the other day, I was driving home and looked down and the speedometer was at "0" again. As I proceeded to drive and accelerate and slow down, it was giving erroneous readings. I called gm but there was no recall on this, but there has been recalls on it, "juse not on mine."
We purchased a 2003 chevrolet suburban z71 in january of 2007 with 70,900 miles. About 3 months after we purchased it we started experiencing intermittent issue with the speedometer where it will show the vehicle going 120 MPH when the tack indicates we are at 1900 RPM on highway or approximately 60 to 70 MPH. We received a letter from gm in january informing us that they would replace the instrument cluster if we have less than 70,000 miles. They indicated that it was not a recall but, a warranty extension. Well we are have over 90,000 miles so they will not do anything for us. We got an estimate of $500 to fix this issue at a local dealership. I have started researching this and have noticed that there have been a few lawsuits filed in various states. I am requesting that the federal safety agency require general motors complete a recall on this issue. This is ultimately a safety issue and it is impacting many vehicle owners. This should be a recall. Any help you can give us would be appreciated!!!
2003 chevy suburban with speedometer problems. Consumer states she received a notice for a voluntary repair but the vehicle had too many miles on it. Consumer is very upset that there was not a recall for this repair. *kb the consumer stated for over 3 years, she has had an intermittent problem with the speedometer.
The issue started with the drivers memory seat not remembering the seat position and the easy exit pushed the seat forward in to the steering wheel instead of back. Then came the issue with the speedometer. I received the letter identifying this problem however like so many other people my vehicle has more than 70,000 miles and although it has been identified as a problem gm will not consider it a recall and I would have to pay to have it fixed. This is obviously a wide spread problem that gm should fix free of charge no matter the mileage. My husband also has the same issue with his 2005 3/4 ton silverado.
The speed odometer sticks, chevy will only replace cars less than 7 yrs or under 70,000 miles. They claim that this is not a recall. My car has 108,000 miles and is not eligible for the repair. The chevy customer service manager claims that it is not a safety issue and they are voluntary replacing cars within the 7 yrs 70,000 miles . If my car is speeding in a school zone and hits a child because I am going to fast I would say that it is a safety issue. If the speed limit is 45 miles around a curve and my speed odometer is no correct I could flip my car. I would call this a safety issue. This is not about the money but the safety of the consumer. We need to put the public safety first.
My 2003 chevrolet suburban has developed a condition where the speedometer has become inoperative. The readings are very inaccurate. For example, while traveling at low, in town speeds, the speedometer will have readings in the 60s, 70s' and 80s. While in the park position, the speedometer will read 55mph. I consider this to be a safety issue because the driver has no idea how fast or slow the vehicle is going. Without a sense of speed, the driver (my wife, or I) may unknowingly go much faster, or slower than the posted speed limits allow. The maker of the vehicle, general motors is aware that this is a wide spread problem, as I have received a letter from the general director of general motors stating that this could happen to my 3003 chevrolet suburban. General motors has even offered to provide owners with a special coverage that extends the warranty on the instrument panel cluster for the condition described above, as long as the vehicles age and mileage falls within certain parameters. Those parameters are the main reason for my complaint. Those parameters are 1) 7 years of the in service date, and 2) 70,000 miles, which ever occurs first. My claim to have the instrument cluster in my vehicle repaired under the special coverage was denied on 2/6/08 because the mileage of my vehicle was 89,000 miles at the time of my request. I believe that this is a large scale safety problem that warrants a recall by general motors rather than an extension of warranty with unreasonable mileage parameters.
The instrument cluster on my vehicle quit working when my 2003 chevy suburban had about 48600 miles on it. I contacted a friend with a dealership and he told me it was a common problem and wiuld cost about $500 tp get it fixed. I recently received the recall letter but now have too many miles to qualify.
Tl*the contact owns a 2003 chevrolet suburban. While driving at various speeds, the instrument control panel failed, and the fuel gauge became inoperative and displayed inaccurate readings. The dealer stated that because the vehicle exceeded 70,000 miles, the contact would have to pay for the repairs. The vehicle has not been repaired. The contact filed a formal complaint with the manufacturer. The failure mileage was 54,000 and current mileage was 96,000.
Speedometer has erratic operation. Shows a speed of 70 MPH when actually going 56. Parked in driveway shows speed of 35 MPH.
Periodically our car's gas gauge and speedometer stick. It is intermittent and we cannot find a connection as to when/where. We recently received a letter from chevy recognizing there is a defect in their manufacturing but also includes a refusal to fix our suburban because it has more than 70,000 miles on it. This is a safety issue and should fall under a mandatory recall. Cars have to be able to know how fast they are going and if they have enough fuel to get there.
VIN decoder
See the problems and recalls for an exact car
Buying a used 2003 Chevrolet Suburban?
Check the exact car before you pay: accidents, salvage or flood titles, odometer readings and previous owners.
Check its history