Quite a few electrical gremlins...

[SoCalChris]

Recently, I've been having quite a few electrical gremlins showing up in my truck. Some of them have happened since the truck was new, others seem to be happening more frequently now in the cold.

 

Are any of these fairly common, with an easy fix? Will the dealer even look at them with the mods I've done to the truck?

 

Problems:

1) The dinger dings sometimes when I turn the truck off. It doesn't do it every time, but when it does, it dings 3-4 times. Also, about half the times that it does that, the DIC will display "SERVICE BRAKE SYSTEM". The message disappears in probably half a second though. It's so fast that you don't see it, unless you're looking right at the DIC as it happens. This has happened since the truck was new, I always assumed that there was dirt or something on the ABS sensors, considering I drive about 60 miles of dirt road each day.

 

2) Lately, the radio turns itself on occasionally, while no one is in the truck, and the keys are not inserted. It seems to turn itself on when I shut the door as I'm getting out. This started happening fairly recently after I changed the radio (See below). Before I changed the radio, the original radio wouldn't come on some times. It usually happened when it was cold. Once the truck started warming up, the radio would turn itself on. The clock was still set properly, so I know it was getting power, just not the signal to turn on. The problem with my new radio turning itself on might be related to the cold too, it seems like it's happening more frequently when it is cold outside (-20F to 20F). The radio hasn't been in any time when the temperature is above 30F, so I can't tell if the cold is affecting it. Also, when it happened the last time, the dash lights came on also.

 

3) The mirror resets itself, usually when cold out (Below 20F). I'll be driving along, and the compass & temp display on the mirror will turn off, then the mirror goes through the display that it does when I first start the truck. Like I said, this usually only happens when it's pretty cold out.

 

4) I've got a CB radio installed. It is hooked to the mid-BEC connector for the switched power, the constant power, and the ground. Lately, it has been resetting itself, which tells me that the constant power isn't always constant.

 

These are the things that I've done to the truck since I've had it...

1) Swapped stock AM/FM radio with stock AM/FM/6CD changer. The new radio is out of a new GMC truck, and was reprogrammed by the local dealer.

2) Added an ipod interface to the radio (PAC GM-11 adapter)

3) Swapped the plain mirror with one that includes the compass & temp display

4) Added the CB radio. I bought the stock wiring harness from the dealer that plugs into the mid-BEC, so I didn't have to splice any wires into the truck.

5) Added the 4HI mod from MrTailights.com. This adds a relay to the lowbeam that keeps the lowbeams on when the highbeams are turned on. I was having all of these problems before adding this mod.

 

Does it seem like these could be connected in any way? Like I said, almost all of these problems seem to happen in cold temperatures. Most of them start happening when the temp is below 20F, but they happen more frequently as the temperature goes below 0F.

 

I'm afraid that if I take the truck to the dealer for this, they won't cover it, and claim that the mods I've done are causing the problems. Does anyone know if they will hassle me about things like the radio being installed? I really don't want to have to pay out of pocket for the items to be fixed, since I'm pretty sure that the mods that I've done aren't the cause of the problems.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions about what to look for that could be causing these problems? It almost seems like the computer is acting up.

 

Thanks,

Chris