Purchased my 2008 gmc sierra truck in november 2015 after having for only 5 months driver side door lock will only lock or unlock sometime, making it unsafe if you needed to exit quickly due to accident or fire. Seen many other post about same problem. Should be a recall on this.
2008 GMC Sierra electrical problems
15 complaints (22% of all complaints for this car). Typical mileage when it fails: 71,500.
- owner complaints
- 15
- of this car's complaints
- 22%
- typical mileage
- 71,500
- crashes
- 0
- recalls
- 2
Which part fails
Owners did not name a specific part.
At what mileage
Complaints by mileage at the time of the problem.
0k-25k
25k-50k
50k-75k
75k-100k
100k-125k
125k-150k
150k-175k
175k-200k
200k+
GMC Sierra electrical problems in other years
Related recalls
Electrical system
- What is wrong
- Gm is recalling certain model year 2006-2009 buick, lucerne; cadillac dts; hummer h2; model year 2008-2009 buick enclave; cadillac cts; model year 2007-2009 cadillac escalade, escalade esv, escalade ext; chevrolet avalanche, silverado, suburban, tahoe; gmc acadia, sierra, yukon, yukon xl; saturn outlook; and model year 2009 chevrolet traverse vehicles equipped with a heated washer fluid system (hwfs). A recall was implemented in 2008 to add a fuse to the control circuit harness to address the potential consequences of a printed circuit board (pcb) electrical short. However, there have been new reports of thermal incidents on hwfs modules after this improvement was installed. These incidents resulted from a new failure mode attributed to the device's thermal protection feature. The significance varies from minor distortion to considerable melting of the plastic around the hwfs fluid chamber.
- Risk
- It is possible for the heated washer module to ignite and a fire may occur.
- Remedy
- Dealers will permanently disable and remove the heated washer fluid module. An updated page for the owner manual will be provided and inserted in the owner manual to document that the feature has been permanently disabled and removed from the vehicle. The safety recall began on june 11, 2010. Owners may contact buick at 1‑866‑608‑8080, cadillac at 1‑866‑982‑2339, chevrolet at 1‑800‑630‑2438, saturn at 1‑800‑972‑8876, gmc at 1‑866‑996‑9463 and hummer at 1‑800‑732‑5493 or at the owner center at www.gmownercenter.com.
Recall number 10V240000 · Recall details
Electrical system
- What is wrong
- Gm is recalling 857,735 my 2006-2008 buick lucerne; cadillac dts; hummer h2; my 2007-2008 cadillac escalade, escalade esv, escalade ext; chevrolet avalanche, silverado, suburban, tahoe; gmc acadia, sierra, yukon, yukon xl, saturn outlook; and my 2008 buick enclave vehicles equipped with a heated wiper washer fluid system. A short circuit on the printed circuit board for the washer fluid heater may overheat the control-circuit ground wire.
- Risk
- This may cause other electrical features to malfunction, create an odor, or cause smoke increasing the risk of a fire.
- Remedy
- Dealers will install a wire harness with an in-line fuse free of charge. The recall began on september 12, 2008. Owners may contact buick at 1‑866‑608‑8080; cadillac at 1‑800‑982‑2339 or http://www.cadillac.com; chevrolet at 1‑800‑630‑2438; saturn at 1‑800‑972‑8876 or http://www.saturn.com, gmc at 1‑866‑996‑9436; or hummer at 1‑800‑732‑5493; or through their website at http://www.gmownercenter.com .
Recall number 08V441000 · Recall details
Related investigations
Non-crash engine compartment fires
In a letter dated august 27, 2008, general motors corp. (gm) notified the federal safety agency that it will conduct a safety recall (the federal safety agency recall number 08v‑441) to address a safety relateddefect that can result in engine compartment fire in approximately 850,000 vehicles equipped with a heated windshield washer fluid option.the subject vehicles of this investigation comprise over three-quarters of the recall population. According to gm, a short circuit on the printed circuit board for the windshield washer fluid heater module may overheat the control-circuit ground wire. This may cause other electrical features to malfunction, create an odor or cause smoke and in rare cases it may cause a fire.as a remedy, gm dealers will install a wire harness with an in-line fuse. In addition to the subject vehicles, several other gm models with the heated windshield washer fluid option are included in recall 08v‑441: my 2006-2008 buick lucerne (manufactured august 2005 through november 2007); my 2008 buick enclave (manufactured february 2007 through april 2007); my 2006-2008 cadillac dts (manufactured may 2007 through november 2007); my 2007-2008 saturn outlook (manufactured august 2006 through april 2007); and my 2007-2008 gmc acadia (manufactured august 2006 through april 2007) vehicles.gm is instructing owners to take their vehicle to a dealer for service if they experience symptoms of windshield washer heater module short circuits. Gm's recall resolves the safety defect concerns pursued by this investigation.this engineering analysis is closed.
EA08010
Non-crash engine compartment fires
In response to an information request letter sent by the office of defects investigation(odi) during preliminary evaluation pe08-010, gm provided odi with 41 allegations of non-crash engine compartment fires including 16 allegations of fires originating with the ignition in the off position.one of the fires was determined to be caused by an arson event.odi has also received 5 reports, 4 of which are of duplicative of reports provided by gm, alleging non-crash engine compartment fires in the subject vehicles.in total, odi is aware of 41 non-crashengine compartment fires in the subject vehicles that are unrelated to arson.eight of the 41 fire allegations also allege property damage as a result of the fires.this preliminary evaluation has been upgraded to an engineering analysis (ea08-010) to further assess the scope, frequency, origin and cause of the alleged non-crash related engine compartment fires in the subject vehicles.
PE08010
What 2008 GMC Sierra owners say
Most recent owner complaints, unedited.
Door locks don't work.
Driver front door does not lock or unlock.
All 4 door locks do not lock/unlock unless done manually. Big safety issue!!! Notice a lot of complaints on this maybe it is time for a recall.
Airbag service light and message appeared. Defective 15297468 sensor caused system failure. Part badly damaged by corrosion.
All four door locks were intermittently inoperative & only able to function manually from the inside. Taken to dealer and diagnosed as internal failure in door lock assemblies/actuators. All four door lock assemblies were replaced at a customer cost of $900+. This is my second gmc vehicle that has had the same problem and after searching the internet this seems to be a fairly common problem. Even the dealership mechanic mentioned surprise that it has not been recalled or gmc has not been forced to fix the problem considering how often he had personally diagnosed & fixed this same problem. This is definitely a safety issue as the customer is unable to rely on the door lock system or lock/unlock the doors as usual. Multiple times, my vehicle sat at the airport for days unlocked because of this failure. Similarly, my toddler-aged children were able to open the doors to the backseat with the vehicle in motion due to the failure in the automatic assembly.
This is not an official complaint however as the ignition problem unfolds with the gm products I wanted to take the opportunity to bring to the attention a very serious problem that occurred approximately a year or so ago with my 2008 gmc sierra. I typically park my truck in the garage with the key in the ignition. We have a live camera in the garage and one morning around 7 am after a severe thunderstorm around 3 am I found on the camera the truck running with flashing headlights. I went to garage immediately and was hit with very high heat due to the truck running. With the carbon monoxide potential I did not go into the garage. I got my wife's keys and tried a "remote stop" and the headlights stopped flashing but the engine continued to run. I open both garage doors and went outside so I could enter the garage from the outside. I opened the truck door and barely touched the key in the ignition and the truck shut off. It was not turned on! Without a doubt it had been running about four hours since the storm. I contacted gm and was told to take it to the local dealer. After telling the dealer the story they basically laughed at me and said that I would have to bring it in when the next storm came thru. They later run a diagnostic test at gm request and found a mysterious ignition code but no solution. What makes this even stranger is that we also had a 2010 yukon that started on its own one afternoon when myself, a sheriff deputy and three other neighbors were standing next to it during a severe lightning storm. The garage door was open, the keys were "not" in the ignition but when there was a loud lightning strike it started.to run. I did not contact anyone and it never happened again until the truck started after a lightning storm. I have since sold both vehicles but they are still in the local area. I really feel the gm ignition problem goes a lot deeper!!
We have had three of the power locks go out - first was front passenger, which was under warranty and covered free of charge, so was the second - the front drivers side. But, the rear passenger side went out a year later and now they will not cover it under warranty. My concern is that, having small children, I have had them locked inside the vehicle and the unlock doesn't work, so I have to climb through to access the door lock. In an event of an emergency, where time is of essence - this is a severe issue.
Erratic door lock behavior. Passenger and rear driver side door will not lock or unlock consistently. The passenger side lock not locking resulted in the theft of a handgun from my vehicle. This deficiency leaves the vehicle susceptible to theft, carjacking, doors coming open on impact. Passengers, especially children are at risk of opening the vehicle door while in motion. In the event of an emergency the doors effected can not be unlocked from other than the manual latch button to aid passengers.
On the morning of april 11 we had a severe thunderstorm at approx. 3:00am. Later in the morning at approximately 6:30am I found my 2008 sierra truck running in my garage with the garage doors shut. The headlights were flashing and the garage was extremely hot due to the engine running. There was a lot of water condensation on the floor indicating that the engine had been running for quite some time. The temperature gauge was at running temperature. My keys were in the ignition so I opened the garage to air out the carbon monoxide and took my wife's keys and tried to stop it remotely but it would not stop. A few minutes later I went outside and came in thru the garage door trying not to breath the fumes. By then the truck was not running. I found the check engine light on. When I touched the key in the ignition the check engine light went out. The seat presets were messed up and the clock was several hours off. There was absolutely no way the truck was remote started. Even if it was it should only run for 10 minutes. This was a very serious and dangerous situation! Continuing on with a similar situation a year ago, there was a severe thunderstorm coming thru. Our neighbors had come to our house during the warning since we had a basement. We were all standing in the garage with the garage door open and our 2010 gmc yukon started up like someone turned on the ignition. There were no keys in the ignition. The electrical storm was on-going when this happened. We saw our neighbor leave in her yukon so we thought maybe she remote started hers so I followed up with her to see if she had remoted started her car and she had not. She tried to remote start her car and it did not affect ours whatsoever. It appears that both incidents seem to be storm related. It is a very serious and dangerous situation knowing this could happen while we were asleep or away for a few days.
Questions about the 2008 GMC Sierra electrical
Does the 2008 GMC Sierra have electrical problems?
Owners have filed 15 complaints about the electrical of the 2008 GMC Sierra, 22% of all its complaints.
At what mileage do 2008 GMC Sierra electrical problems start?
The typical (median) mileage in owner complaints is 71,500 miles.
Was there a recall on the 2008 GMC Sierra electrical?
Yes, 2 recalls: 10V240000, 08V441000. Check your VIN to see if your car still needs the free repair.
What year does the GMC Sierra have the most electrical problems?
The GMC Sierra model years with the most electrical complaints are 2004 (39 complaints), 2003 (31 complaints) and 2005 (23 complaints).
Other 2008 GMC Sierra problems
Airbags 29Body 12Locks 11Brakes 2Driver assistance 2Fuel system 2Steering 2Transmission 2Acceleration 1Engine 1Suspension 1
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