Silverado Blues

[SilveradoBrett]

So two weeks ago I was up in the mountains elk hunting and a very sad thing happened. My good ol chevy broke down on me. I was about 10 miles up a 4X4 only road and it just shut off and would not start again. Worst part of it was that my father and I were the only ones up there on that day and we could not get cell reception. So we decided to make the hike of hope and walked about four miles until we got some service and made the call to the towing company. So long story short they finally show up (about 11pm by now) and get the truck loaded by some expert backing by myself. The tow truck driver does not have a CDL because state law does not require it on tow units. I happen to have a CDL from being a part time school bus driver and manage to back the truck up the 4X4 road and get to my chevy. When we finally get out of there the operator tells me the off road rates and my heart hits the floor. $250/hr for the tow and right now we are right around four hours from the time he left the shop until he gets back. Luckily the driver was impressed with my backing skills (and an old family friend) and hooks me up with a total bill of $150. Thank heavens! So I left the truck in Salida with my cousins husband (for lack of a better term) who is a mechanic in Buena Vista to take care of the electrical problems that caused it. Apparently it needs a new fuel pump (which I knew and should have fixed prior to going, rush and lack of time prevented me from doing it) and a new dash. The weird thing was that when the truck was dying the high beams and left turn indicator lights were glowing when the key was completely out of the ignition. Thats why it needs a new dash. After he looks at it for a few days he talks to his boss who thinks there is a recall on the entire dash assembly for the year of my truck. So I am hanging out waiting for a call to let me know on the recall. So right now I am vehicle free and having the Silverado Blues, so I thought I would vent a little. Have a great night guys!

[dwill3015]

What a bummer! Hopefully your story will have a happy ending. Keep us posted!

[MWright936]

That sucks! But you can look at the bright side...at least the tow didn't cost you $1000!!! Good luck gettin it fixed!

[retired]

If you hurry you can go to the dealer and get a new one. That'll make you feel better and poorer.:lol:

[SoonerSilverado11]

Wow, what a break! Hope all goes well!

[95CTburb19]

aww man that sucks. My friends truck broke down once and he had to show the tow truck driver how to load it and secure it on the trailer. :gasp:

[04sierracrewcab]

aww man that sucks. My friends truck broke down once and he had to show the tow truck driver how to load it and secure it on the trailer. :gasp:
wow man thats a bummer. I hope things go welll.

And ya gotta watchout for those tow truck drivers!

[bry2500]

That's a story I hope I never experience. I would of probably snapped and had to bury the tow truck drivers body somewhere along the trail.

Just kidding.

Sounds as if you handled everything pretty well. Hope all turns out ok.

[SilveradoBrett]

So its been awile since I posted an update on this matter so here is one. So I got the truck back a little before christmas and it ran fine. My cousins husband fixed the fuel pump and took apart the whole dash to look for shorts and the not. All in all he could not figure out the electrical problem that has been making me pull my hair out for months now. Anyway when I got the truck back it was running great, no problems whatsoever. But after a few weeks it started acting up again by doing the same weird stuff that it did before. I continued to drive it even though the radio would shut off every few seconds and would grind my teeth the whole way on my 45 minute commute. Then one day about a two weeks ago it started working again. (I don't have the slightest idea of why or how) It worked amazing all the way until last night on the ride home. Then it started acting up again and continued today. I am so frustrated that I took it into the chevy dealership in boulder, co today and they are going to take a look at it for me. Hopefully they can figure it out and get it all taken care of. So I still have the silverado blues!:grrrrrr:

[cascott325]

dang dude, what a bummer. had to drive my bosses jeep for a day, and the radio kept shutting off, so annoying.

ha that happened in my jeep too. The person before me took out all the speakers but left bare wires. The wires in the door would short to the inside of the door and the radio would stay on but no sound.

[SilveradoBrett]

So here is another update. I took it in to McCaddon Chevrolet on wednesday and they had their wire tech take a look at it. The wire tech comes out and tells me that he is honestly afriad of the problem. He doesn't want to touch the truck. And thinks it would cost around $2000 to fix it. What is that about? Anyway they didn't charge me the diagnostic fee for taking a look at it and he told me to start with the dash circuit board. So this is what I ended up working on last night and wednesday night.

Put in brand new positive and negative battery cables

Had alternator tested and it passed the test putting out 13.8 V at 40 amps.

Put a new dash in (Got it off ebay with a 100% guarantee that there are no problems with it) and problem still persiss.

Took out and replaced the multi function lever (Cruise, turn signals, brights, hazards, windshield wipers) and also no change.

Replaced the cuircuit boards in the tailights and still nothing.

So I am starting to get more sad but I am going to continue trying to figure it out and I will keep you all posted.

I found out if I disconnect the brake light switch the dimming does't happen but as soon as I turn the turn signals on it does. I think there is a short in the lighting system that is causing a back feed into the dash and that is what is making the lights in the dash half glow. But I will keep you posted. So far this is the hardest bug I have ever tried to solve on my chevy.

P.S. That multifunction lever was the hardest part I have ever replaced in my life! You can't pull the steering wheel because it has an airbag in it and there is a T25 head screw holding it in behind the wheel. I finally got it out to find that the junction connector where the wires plug into has a bolt as well as 5 pins to hold it together and you can't reach half of them. But I got it out with some time and a lot of swear words.

[tlperry68]

Wow thats a bummer. No elk to boot. Hope everything goes OK.

[mozartjbu]

bad news! hope you get it running again. It's nice to see all the different styles still driving up and down the road....

[SilveradoBrett]

So months later I have figured out the problem! YAY! The whole time it was a problem with main grounds. Found out it was missing the battery to body, body to frame and body to motor. Replaced all those and it is running fantastic! It has been great for a month now, I just havent been around. YAY! I am so excited!

[Thundare]

That really sucks, but didnt you try to do anything to fix it when it broke down?

[SilveradoBrett]

Yeah I tried to do a bunch of things when it broke down in the mountians, but the reason it would not run was not the ground problem. The real problem was that the fuel pump went out while I was up there. There is not much you can do when something like that happens. It was just a bad experience but it turned out the best for the situation. Now the truck is perfect once more and I am such a happy person! It took a while to go through everything and get the problems nailed down but in the end it cost me about five hundred (with the tow, fuel pump and bew dash) for what the dealers wanted thousands to do. Well worth the pain and the time! I especially like that my silverado blues are gone and life is excellent now!