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Chevrolet Uplander won't start problems

23 of the 584 owner complaints about the Chevrolet Uplander describe won't start, most of them for the 2005 model year.

owner complaints
23
worst model year
2005
typical mileage
40,000
Is there a fix? No recall or service bulletin covers this area of the car yet.

By model year

What owners say

Filed Sep 10, 2019 · Electrical, Steering · OR

Vehicle wont start at times: after driving for an hour or so and making several stops such as shopping starter will not engage opening the hood to allow motor to cool down seems to help. Trying to start vehicle takes up to 15 to 25 tries. All battery connections seem to be secure. Starter was replaced thinking that was the problem, but the problem continues. Other issues power steering leaking from under carriage. Problems started shortly after I bought the vehicle february 2019.

Filed Jun 18, 2014 · Fuel system · 19,000 miles · VA

Purchased used in november 2007 and shortly had trouble as when vehicle parked slightly downhill with fuel gauge showing 1/3+ vehicle would not start and gauges show zero fuel. Driving down hill engine will quit for lack of fuel. Gm told me in writing that they know of this problem and considered it to be normal. Only yesterday was stranded in parking lot of fast food lunch place with gauge showing 1/3+ fuel level but car would not start. Fuel pickup is in rear of long 25 gallon tank. Design defect that presents a safety hazard as engine will stop with loss of steering and breaking. Gm knows about this and I feel this is another safety life issue for which they have ignored.

Filed May 24, 2014 · Brakes, Electrical · 50,000 miles · NC

Ignition switch will not start engine periodically...stuck in key switch. Have to start vehicle inbetween drive and neutral. Have to roll backwards in vehicle while trying to get gear in drive can only park with vehicle front end at upward slant or vehicle will not start at all. Abs light on and off all the time. Do not know if uplander van is a suburban or not, so not sure if on list provided on this form. This been going on for years, and I was told it was a known problem by others, but have not had the ability to get it fixed purchase vehicle in pinehurst north carolina thank you

Filed May 5, 2014 · Driver assistance, Electrical · 92,419 miles · PA

1st time wife driving in parking lot. Engine shut off, no power steering, brakes, dash board instrument panel went off. Total power failure. Couldn't start, not sure what she did to finally get it started. Not serviced @ this time. 2nd time vehicle would not start. Towed to pepboy's. Could not diagnose problem, but upon putting back together it started working. I drove to gm dealership. Could not diagnose because was not displaying issue. I had their master mechanic drive for week and he claims everything running fine. 3rd time < than month after 2nd time I'm driving +/- 40mph. Come up to intersection, pump brakes twice in quick succession and dashboard emergency light comes on along w/ other warning lights. No time to tell what they were. Depress brake to come to stop @ intersection and dashboard goes back to normal. I start out when light turns green and I get to +/- 30mph pump brakes twice again and engine shut off, no power steering, brakes, lights turned off "driving at night", dashboard instrument panel went off. Again total power failure. I put in park, would not start, turning key did nothing, no power whatsoever. I pulled key out and went to open door but could not open or unlock door. I could not get out of vehicle!!!! At this point I managed to flag someone down to assist me. They suggested to push off to side of road. I put key back in and put in drive "hard to do because everything is digitally displayed" and got to side of road. I tried to open door again and this time it opened. As of 04-05-14 vehicle back at same gm dealership where they claim before gm will even consider any defective parts & paying for anything. I first have to pay them to remove after market radio that previous owner installed to return vehicle back to factory condition. I'm still not sure what gm will take responsibility for even after they do this & when it happens again.

Filed Aug 11, 2013 · Electrical · 112,380 miles · IN

Car will not start without revving engine, sliding doors quit completely by both cables breaking within 2 weeks of each other. I come from a long line of gm family workers and I will never buy gm again!

Filed Jul 29, 2012 · Engine · 17,402 miles · GA

The check engine light has come on and stayed on since this date. It was a fleet car that was serviced by a dealership for 161,000. My husband told the dealership every time the check engine light is on, but they never would fix it. We bought it from fleet company and we took it by the same dealership to ask them if they could help us and the owner proceeded to tell me that it has too many miles on it and it is out of its warranty. I told him you are the dealership that serviced it for all those miles and you knew about it and have many records of the complaint and did not fix it. I then contacted gm and they would not help me either. It is wrong. It also has a problem with the fuel system too. I was stranded at work one time. If you park on a slanted hill and you have a quarter of a tank of gas it will not crank. You have to bounce up and down on back to shift gas and it will sometimes crank.

Filed Jun 30, 2011 · Electrical · 92,226 miles · VA

Purchased 2005 chevy uplander april 2010. Not even a month or less having it had to replace voltage regulator/alternator/radio/starter. The lights would dim, flicker, wouldn't start. Now one year later the same problem as return and this time it cut off going down the road. It wont start sometimes and the voltage reader goes up and down. It is the same problem occurring. This is very unsafe to be doing this and you should have not to replace the same parts every year!

Filed Dec 22, 2010 · Body, Brakes · 60,000 miles · TX

Tl* the contact owns a 2006 chevrolet uplander. The contact stated that whenever the vehicle was parked on an incline, the fuel level indicator would display that the fuel tank was empty and the vehicle would not start. In addition, the brakes were worn prematurely, the ABS warning light would illuminate intermittently, both driver and passenger sliding doors were malfunctioned and the headlights would fail intermittently. The vehicle was taken to the dealer several times in regards to the failure but to no avail. The manufacturer was contacted and offered no assistance. The failure mileage was 60,000.

Filed Dec 13, 2010 · Engine · NC

My van will cut off while sitting still in park and also when I try to crank it sometimes it won't crank and then if it does it will cut back off.

Filed Feb 3, 2010 · Fuel system · 999,999 miles · VA

Have a 2007 chevrolet uplander van. When parked slightly downhill with gauge showing 1/3 full of fuel, vehicle will not start and will shut down if running. Gm states that this is a normal feature of this vehicle and nothing is wrong. I've been stranded 5 times with this problem. What if the engine quits while going down a long hill, engine stops so no steering or braking and I run off highway, investigators would never look to see if the vehicle was at fault only that the old man ran off of the road. I consider this a major problem and have spoken to other owners of this and related vehicles and they have the exact same problem. One should expect the vehicle to run with 1/3 or even less fuel in the tank.

Related recalls

No recalls on record for this model year.

Questions about the Chevrolet Uplander won't start

Which Chevrolet Uplander years have won't start problems?

The model years with the most reports are 2005 (13 complaints), 2006 (5 complaints) and 2007 (3 complaints).

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