She left to go to work about 7am this morning (me of course I did not need to be up til a lil bit later)(bye, bye sleep) well getting back to it...she knocks on door and says Sugar Baby wont start (ugh! again). I go out with my DVM and the battery is reading 5.79V and I say WTF!
We had this problem back at the start of the New Year on Jan. 1st-2nd and this was a brand new battery from Farm-n-Fleet. They were great at the store and got it all replaced under warranty.
Fast forward and same exact symptoms 9-10 weeks later. We used a jump box got her started and then of course the luv'ly window on driver side wont work and the check engine lite.
Plugged in code reader and p1516......all ready looked this up and the code makes some sense. Her battery fell low enough that upon start up it must have dipped below 5.28V. Unless I'm missing something.
MAF & TB were both cleaned within the last 12 weeks.

What I'm confused about is that the H3 has run awesome these many weeks and then just out of the blue bang...

What would be the most logical course of action?
Is it possible the battery is of that low of quality?
Is it possible a parasitic drain? Where to begin looking?

Any thoughts?

She luv's her H3 so selling it ain't happen (yet)!

Alternator is putting out 14.57V. Disconnected Neg. cable and code cleared but windows not working.

Chris

 

get a cheap digital meter and check battery drain with just the hood open.
lift one batt cable and read current in milliamps.
it should be 110 ma. thats .11 amp or just 1/10 of an amp.
you will see over 1 amp for a few seconds as the system settles down.
over 110 ma is trouble.

 

Question: Does the 3 still have the OEM battery terminals???? If it does, they are the single largest contributor to all H3 electrical glitches, hack them off right now and replace them with quality terminals. DO NOT wait!

Next, open up the back door, check the wire harness where it goes under the door sill and behind the bumper in the area where the license plate light wire feed would be. Common problem is those few wires rub against the vehicle chassis and wear through the insulation, causing a ground of that circuit, killing the battery. The harness should have been a bit longer right there so the wires will not rub on the truck, pull and maneuver them to avoid contact.

 

Thanks Guys,

We replaced the battery connectors the same time we did the battery.
I'll take a look at the suggested wires Doc.

She called 3 times the this afternoon to let me know (I forgot to check cell) she took it in to get it diagnosed. They wrote on the report they checked it over and they believe it to be the ignition switch is mess'n up. Have not looked at right up as of yet.

Is this easy to replace? Where is the least expensive place to get it?

Chris

 

Chris, there's a TON of good information on this site... Let your fingers do the work for you.



I will start this off for you,
Typed in the Search box---> IGNITION SWITCH:

Showing results 1 to 25 of 82
Search took 0.03 seconds

Look at this, I just posted your answer recently:

https://www.hummerforums.com/forum/h...t-start-21577/

 

Yes thank you Im really very well versed on searching and pride myself on doing so to great lengths. Ill litraly spend hours searching and then post where and how in threads to help myself and others. Im glad you were able to share this knowledge with myself and others in such a timely manner to assit a fellow enthusiast.
Chris

 

On further examination your post is some what related to my query.
A further search had all ready been done early this afternoon.
The switch is a seperate part # from the cylinder .
My question will relate to the cylinder and what the likelyhood of this being the issue?
What proceedure would be best to follow in replacing it.
Would you happen to have the procedure for doing the cylinder and / or the cylinder / switch.
The report was read when she got home tonight and tech labels the area of concern as cylinder. May be though he is interchanging switch with cylinder.
Chris

 

Also how were you able to get the BCM to relearn the switch/ cylinder assembly without a gm computer? Perhapsed you know of a procedure or own such a device?
Chris

 

Or may be I have misunderstood the other many threads dealing wit passlock.
Chris

 

Slept little and got up pretty darn early to chase this problem down.

Lifted hood of H3 and promptly tested battery voltage after sitting since 10:30pm last nite at below freezing temps.... (12.59V)

Tested across pos. & neg. (removed from battery) ohm reading about 4.9-5.9 ohms fluctuating.

Checked amps with neg. battery cable connected and pos. battery cable held at distance from battery. 1.89A for brief period then drops to 70-80mA and fluctuates.

Cleaned post and cable end (+ - bat connectors)

It may be feasible that the switch/cylinder are slightly askew and this is causing problem.

Two tech's chased this problem together.

Chris