Truck is Possessed

gioacchino · August 30, 2016

Ok I'll try to make a long story short;
Bought an '08 GMC Sierra about a year ago. When I bought it the radio wasn't working. I figured no big deal, probably just a loose ground or something. Well I never got around to diagnosing it. Fast forward to this past week. Fired the truck up one day after work and the radio came on. Huh? It ran and worked fine until Sunday morning. Got in the truck to head to church and it cranked real slow, but fired up. Figured I left a door cracked or something. Well, we get out of church and get ready to come home and the battery was DEAD. Got a jump from a buddy and threw a new battery in it ($184 by the way). Put the new battery in, radio quit working. Got in the truck yesterday and the radio came back on, huh? Drove to Taco Bell, ate inside, came back out and the radio was off. Turned the truck off at a red light and the radio came back on. It's still working today.
It's not turning off and on sporadically so I don't think it's a short. But I'm stumped. Any ideas??

Truck runs fine, all lights and everything work fine. Just this radio anomaly.
When the radio isn't working, the door chimes and things don't work either (turn signal click, etc.)

ifixedit · August 30, 2016

Pull the radio out of the dash and check the plug and wiring to it on the back. Sounds like an intermittent connection issue, that or maybe a previous owner installed some kind of extra stereo equipment, hacked into a few wires to do whatever it is they did, then decided to remove and or change things back to stock when they sold the truck and perhaps weren't too careful about how they did things. If the door chime doesn't work then for sure the radio is not just working, it's not getting power.

gioacchino · August 30, 2016

Pull the radio out of the dash and check the plug and wiring to it on the back. Sounds like an intermittent connection issue, that or maybe a previous owner installed some kind of extra stereo equipment, hacked into a few wires to do whatever it is they did, then decided to remove and or change things back to stock when they sold the truck and perhaps weren't too careful about how they did things. If the door chime doesn't work then for sure the radio is not just working, it's not getting power.

Thanks for the reply. Previous owner told me he took it to the dealer to have it looked at and they put a new radio in it. I know the previous owner, so I don't think he would have any reason to lie to me. And the radio is a 6 disc, so I think it is a new one vs stock.