Completely Dead Truck - 2016 SLT

[Mike Brewer]

Hey All,

 

So I just dropped off my 2016 Sierra SLT at the dealer and I have very little faith in the Service Writers ability to communicate the issue.  That aside, here's what's happening please let me know if you have any ideas.  I'm going to include all the things that could be related.

 

Last night driving home, I took a turn and the whole dash blinked out but I did not loose power steering or exterior lights.  I stopped at the grocery, and went home for the night without issue.  Then today, went to the eye doc, and stopped for food on the way home.  After eating I tried to remote start the trunk, I saw a brief flash of the yellows (like when you press lock) and heard the starter for half a second.  But the trunk didn't start, I could not unlock/lock it using the FOB, couldn't remote start, nothing.  I assumed it glitched and unlocked it with the key ready to start it to kill the honking but it didn't honk.  Nothing inside the truck worked, it was like the battery was disconnected, no lights, no buzzer, couldn't unlock the other doors, etc.  

 

I didn't have any tools with me so I walked over to the auto zone nearby and grabbed a cheap multimeter and a socket set came back to check the battery voltage.  It was at 4v so I was like damn how did that drop so fast???, so I started to remove the batter to replace it.  The positive terminal was super hot, and when it disconnected I heard a clunk.  The battery voltage disconnected was 12.8v.  I checked the terminals and saw a tiny bit of corrosion, so I cleaned them and put it back.  The voltage dropped to 4 again, and the truck still acted like it had no power.  I disconnected it again and it went back up to 12.8v. I don't think its the battery as I have had zero sluggish starts. 

 

Some history, I have the ghost in the radio issue where it will randomly scroll and act like someone is pressing the screen.  And last year I had to replace the HMI as the whole dash would shutdown and I would lose power steering randomly.

 

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

Cheers,
Mike

 

[silveradosid]

one of two things, diodes have shorted in the alternator or check wiring at the starter to see if it is shorting out on the heat shield, possible the starter is gone

[newdude]

3 common dead truck issues on these are bad starters, bad battery and bad battery cables (high resistance in the cables).  

[JonnyH]

I had bad starter in my last 2017 LT and it would do NOTHING when it went. No clicks. No turn over. No remote start. Nada. 

Had battery tested and was good and full charge. All connections looked good, solid and clean.

Replaced starter. Worked like a champ again.