This defect pertains to gear indicator on the instrument panel. During the daylight hours the light indicating the gear the car is in (park, neutral, drive, etc.) is impossible to read. At night you can just barely read the gear indicators. The dimness of the lights behind this gear indicator gauge is a safety hazard because you cannot tell what gear you are in during the day. It is an expensive repair because the instrument panel needs to be removed to fix the problem.
2005 Chevrolet Suburban electrical problems
36 complaints (28% of all complaints for this car). Typical mileage when it fails: 69,720.
- owner complaints
- 36
- of this car's complaints
- 28%
- typical mileage
- 69,720
- crashes
- 0
- recalls
- 0
Which part fails
- Instrument cluster/panel15
At what mileage
Complaints by mileage at the time of the problem.
Chevrolet Suburban electrical problems in other years
Related recalls
No recalls on record for this model year.
What 2005 Chevrolet Suburban owners say
Most recent owner complaints, unedited.
Started with driver side heated seat randomly turning on and off. Going from high, medium, low. No way to turn it off just comes back on. Can hear clicking coming from under dash. Lift gate wiring that goes into body, ground wire burnt. (Replaced) but ground wire has power. (Wiring issue) so rear wiper doesn’t work. “Reading” Lamps only work when door is open. After replacing life gate connector, says lift gate open. Started the repair, which leads to more wiring issues! Needs a recall! Unsafe
Heated seats randomly turn on and off and goes thorugh the diffeent levels of heat and then off and then back on repeat for hours while driving and is very distracting as have to turn off every 10 sec and have almost crashed multiple times taking me eyes off the road but have to turn off as heat is too much in summer months, this is a known issue in almost ever suburban 01 to 05, how is this not a recall yet, there is massive amount of documentation of this issue online.
The wiring for the lighters, power ports and computer link melted. It's all part of the under-dash wiring harness.
Driver side seat heater randomly comes on and goes off. Majority of the time the heater stays on constantly and becomes uncomfortable. This happens more especially in wet conditions and when you attempt to turn the heated seat off, the controls won't work. This issue happens when the SUV is started, continues while idling and while driving. Some days it is hours before it will go off. Other days it will not go off. The scary thing is you can hear the dashboard clicking when the heater turns on and off, constantly cycling though high to low, back of seat to bottom of the seat. Adjusting the seat in any way does not help. I think this is a concern due to the fact that it turns off and on and you can hear it cycle through. It's also a major concern because the heat stays on without any way to turn it off. This started a week after I purchased this vehicle and has continued since october 2016.
Tl* the contact owns a 2005 chevrolet suburban. The contact stated that after starting the vehicle, the two wheel or four wheel drive light failed to illuminate. The failure prevented the contact of knowing which gear the vehicle was in. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was unknown.
2005 chevrolet suburban. Consumer writes in regards to vehicle odometer problems. *smd the consumer began having problems with the speedometer approximately 2 years ago. Intermittently, the needle on the odometer would climb above the actual speed he was traveling, then move up and down tens of miles above the actual speed, at times, it would rise to 120 and remain there. When he turned the vehicle off and on again, it worked fine, until the next time.
Speedometer stayed at speed I was driving when I stopped the car. When I restarted the car it did not return to zero but started at last speed I was driving, then increase from there. Speedometer finally stayed at 100 MPH, it did not return to zero and I was unable to determine speed of car when driving. Rpm also malfunction, it stayed at 1.5 when driving and didn't vary when I increased or decreased my speed. Had to have it replaced as I could not determine speed I was driving. No official recall, only a class action suit. My make/model/year was part of the cars affected in the suit, only I didn't qualify for reimbursement of repair because the problem occurred outside of the 7 year 80,000 mile parameter gm set up for reimbursement.
At approximately 4 years and 45,000 miles after purchase of my 2005 suburban, the tachometer began failing with intermittent low readings or no reading. Since the vehicle was out of warranty and the tachometer isn't really very useful for an automatic transmission vehicle, I was not overly concerned and I did not bring the vehicle in for repair due to the anticipated high expense. Shortly after the tachometer failure (about 55,000 miles) the gas gauge began failing with erratic readings. Ultimately the behavior degraded to a pegged counter clockwise condition where the reading now stays at all times. Although inconvenient, the 'miles to empty' information display seemed to continue to work normally and I decided I could use that method instead of having a repair performed. I've been using that method ever since without any issues, but I tend to be conservative and fill up before I come close to being empty. Within the next six months after the gas gauge failed (about 60,000 miles), the volt meter began giving erroneously high readings of about 20 volts. It was a pretty rare event. When it showed this over voltage condition, I checked the charging voltage at several locations and found the voltage to be normal. When I determined that there wasn't an actual over-voltage condition, I wasn't too concerned about this infrequent issue. Several months after the gas gauge failure, the speedometer began failing with low or no readings. It started out to be a very rare occurrence. The issue now seems to be occurring with greater frequency. The increased failure rate concerns me since it can result in a safety hazard as well as could result in a costly speeding ticket. I was not notified of any of the gm campaigns for this issue on the same model vehicle on different vins. Gm's position is any repair will be at my full expense (approx $600).
Attempted to lock the vehicle using the key fob - all four doors locked - the rear hatch did not - tried the key fob several more times with the same result - opened the driver's door and used the manual lock button - got the same result, the four doors locked but not the rear hatch - for my 2005 model, and for several model years other than my 2005, I read many complaints about the same problem on this website prior to sending this - and many complaints about the opposite problem, namely, the rear hatch door locks and cannot be opened - there is no key hole in the door, only the key fob operates locking and unlocking the door - obviously a design problem that you ought to issue a recall on - and, read many, many complaints about the instrument cluster over many model years - again, obviously a design problem - why don't you folks make gm fix these faults ? - they are not few in number - they are not isolated - they certainly are not owner generated - make gm fix them - isn't that your job? Thanks for your help and good luck, waiting to see in alabama
Questions about the 2005 Chevrolet Suburban electrical
Does the 2005 Chevrolet Suburban have electrical problems?
Owners have filed 36 complaints about the electrical of the 2005 Chevrolet Suburban, 28% of all its complaints, more than any other problem.
At what mileage do 2005 Chevrolet Suburban electrical problems start?
The typical (median) mileage in owner complaints is 69,720 miles.
Was there a recall on the 2005 Chevrolet Suburban electrical?
There is no recall for this problem on this model year.
What year does the Chevrolet Suburban have the most electrical problems?
The Chevrolet Suburban model years with the most electrical complaints are 2003 (81 complaints), 2004 (72 complaints) and 1999 (58 complaints).
Other 2005 Chevrolet Suburban problems
Brakes 25Transmission 15Body 11Airbags 10Acceleration 8Engine 8Fuel system 8Locks 6Steering 5Visibility 5Seats 3Tires 3Suspension 2Wheels 2Driver assistance 1Lights 1Seat belts 1
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