2017 Sierra 1500 Denali 6.2 L Random Electronics Problems

Tony Ratagick · October 9, 2020

First post, Apologies if this is duplicated elsewhere (I didn't see one on my search)

So my truck has some odd electronics issues, intermittent all of them, and none really what I would call terrible. But when you think about all of them together, it gives me pause for concern.
Things like:

The object avoidance alerts constantly beeping, when nothing is in front or behind the vehicle. When that happens, I shut the engine off, wait a few secs, start up again, all good.
I have a gravel driveway, and it seems to detect the gravel as an obstruction sometimes.
The retractable running boards - sometimes they don't retract. They always do when I put the vehicle in drive, but when parked, engine off, they will just randomly decide not to retract.
Slow reaction on the radio when changing stations from the steering wheel controls.
Lane keeping just shuts off randomly. (Nevermind that it barely works when its on - I dont really depend on it, but it's annoying to have a feature that doesn't work).

Like I said, I can live with all of these. I take it to the dealer and of course they cant replicate the problem. For what a truck like this costs, this seems to be kind of shoddy.

Did I get a lemon, or does this sound familiar to anyone else.

JimCost2014 · October 9, 2020

1 hour ago, Tony Ratagick said:

First post, Apologies if this is duplicated elsewhere (I didn't see one on my search)

So my truck has some odd electronics issues, intermittent all of them, and none really what I would call terrible. But when you think about all of them together, it gives me pause for concern.
Things like:

The object avoidance alerts constantly beeping, when nothing is in front or behind the vehicle. When that happens, I shut the engine off, wait a few secs, start up again, all good.

I have a gravel driveway, and it seems to detect the gravel as an obstruction sometimes.

The retractable running boards - sometimes they don't retract. They always do when I put the vehicle in drive, but when parked, engine off, they will just randomly decide not to retract.

Slow reaction on the radio when changing stations from the steering wheel controls.

Lane keeping just shuts off randomly. (Nevermind that it barely works when its on - I dont really depend on it, but it's annoying to have a feature that doesn't work).

Like I said, I can live with all of these. I take it to the dealer and of course they cant replicate the problem. For what a truck like this costs, this seems to be kind of shoddy.

Did I get a lemon, or does this sound familiar to anyone else.

How old is the battery in the truck?

rav3 · October 9, 2020

4 hours ago, Tony Ratagick said:

First post, Apologies if this is duplicated elsewhere (I didn't see one on my search)

So my truck has some odd electronics issues, intermittent all of them, and none really what I would call terrible. But when you think about all of them together, it gives me pause for concern.
Things like:

The object avoidance alerts constantly beeping, when nothing is in front or behind the vehicle. When that happens, I shut the engine off, wait a few secs, start up again, all good.

I have a gravel driveway, and it seems to detect the gravel as an obstruction sometimes.

The retractable running boards - sometimes they don't retract. They always do when I put the vehicle in drive, but when parked, engine off, they will just randomly decide not to retract.

Slow reaction on the radio when changing stations from the steering wheel controls.

Lane keeping just shuts off randomly. (Nevermind that it barely works when its on - I dont really depend on it, but it's annoying to have a feature that doesn't work).

Like I said, I can live with all of these. I take it to the dealer and of course they cant replicate the problem. For what a truck like this costs, this seems to be kind of shoddy.

Did I get a lemon, or does this sound familiar to anyone else.

Have you looked at "ground issues"? Several video's on youtube concerning electronic issues due to bad grounds. Here's one to watch. Also saw some having an electric steering issue. Good luck & Keep us posted on what you find.

https://youtu.be/cwAmoPHnxG8

Edited October 10, 2020 by rav3

Joe98 · October 10, 2020

Hey Tony,

I’ve owned an 18’ Denali Ultimate with the 6.2, for about 14 months now since it was new(July 2019)and haven’t really experienced any of the issues you’re dealing with. The only time the radio is slow to change is when I’m playing music through my IPhone saved music. Other than that the radio is fairly quick to change stations. The retractable running boards have been great, no problems whatsoever even in slushy ice conditions. The object avoidance, parking sensors did give me a lot of issues whenever they’d get snow or ice around them. The message would come up on the information cluster saying “ park assist disabled “. The lane departure or lane keeping device works awesome, but kinda freaked me out on the test drive when my wife and I took the truck out at dealership for the first time. Thought an alien took the wheel....lol.

Hope you get some help at the dealership. Good luck...

Colossus · October 10, 2020

Our trucks with all the gadgets and gizmos are very fussy when the battery is low on voltage or starts to go out. Expect about 3-4 years life out of batteries from 2014 vehicles. EVEN IF battery testing says the battery is ok.

LDM · October 10, 2020

Check your battery and then check all your grounds. If that still doesn't help, replace the negative battery cable. I was having an issue where my truck would just randomly shut off for no apparent reason. After replacing my negative battery cable the issue hasn't happened again for months. Not sure if its an issue with the cable itself or the sensor for the cable but these negative battery cables seem to have some quality issues.

Tony Ratagick · November 3, 2020

Thanks for all the replies - I suspect its a battery issue. I'm starting to get some slow or hard starting now that cooler weather has arrived. The battery is original, so its been in there 3 years. Going to replace it this weekend.