Dead/Dying in Sydney, Nebraska

[Ranger]

Truck's saying the batteries aren't charging.

Headlights stay bright, I get 14.5 at both batteries as per multimeter testing. Truck dies intermittently. All battery connections as well as alternator connections are as secure as secure can be.

Anyone in the area that knows what they are doing and are available to come try to troubleshoot, it would be greatly appreciated. My roadside assistance was of no F'ing use and we were almost stranded in 5 degree weather on the roadside thanks to them, I think the pure unadulterated fury of my rage made the truck realize it was about 30 minutes from being burnt in place for survival heat.

 

[GM Guy]

is this on the duramax or the blazer?

are you in Sydney or can you make it there?

If you can make it, I would say get a hotel in Sydney, worse case you can walk down to Cabela's to take your mind of things... or buy a gun to put the truck put of its misery, right between the headlights.

if you cant figure it out, pull the DRL fuse, get someone to charge on the truck for a while and try to run with as few accessories as possible. also, charge before going to bed, dead batteries freeze.

maybe a cell on one of the batteries is headed south. best decision I made on an iffy battery was when I was coming back from Idaho, the truck was dead when I got it out of the shed, and cranked slow after. swapped batteries with the other truck, and all was well. I assume one battery was shot.

absolute worse case, I can come after you, but I am a ways away.

 

[Ranger]

is this on the duramax or the blazer?

are you in Sydney or can you make it there?

If you can make it, I would say get a hotel in Sydney, worse case you can walk down to Cabela's to take your mind of things... or buy a gun to put the truck put of its misery, right between the headlights.

if you cant figure it out, pull the DRL fuse, get someone to charge on the truck for a while and try to run with as few accessories as possible. also, charge before going to bed, dead batteries freeze.

maybe a cell on one of the batteries is headed south. best decision I made on an iffy battery was when I was coming back from Idaho, the truck was dead when I got it out of the shed, and cranked slow after. swapped batteries with the other truck, and all was well. I assume one battery was shot.

absolute worse case, I can come after you, but I am a ways away.

Duramax. We're in a hotel in sydney, I drove braced foot, restarting the truck here and there as necessary on I-80 to get here. The batteries are fully charged, I checked with my multimeter w/ everything off. The batteries are also less than a year old, to boot. About 6 months thereabouts. Cranking when needed is as speedy as any other time, which is turn key 1/2 second crank start. Good to go there.

This shit is seriously going to make me flip the **** out.

 

[GM Guy]

maybe see if you can tell by isolating each battery. I bet a lukewarm duramax could still fire up on one good battery? tape up the connections if this is possible.

 

[WarWagon]

Fuel gelling?

 

[Ranger]

Running double strength power service in winter blend diesel, and changed out the fuel filter first thing as a "first thought" measure.

The batteries are newer, less than 6 months old... however, we did have the alternator go out on us last month. Starting is not the issue. The issue is randomly dying while idling and/or driving, then either restarting on its own or having to be started manually.

 

[WarWagon]

GM is famous for ign switches going out. However, fuel starvation or air in the system would limp you and possibly stall/no start. Cracked filter housing or in my case Wix fuel filters leak air at the WIF threads.

Does it crank after stalling? Not sure the exact thing you are fighting and what clues have you looking at electrical.

 

[Ranger]

GM is famous for ign switches going out. However, fuel starvation or air in the system would limp you and possibly stall/no start. Cracked filter housing or in my case Wix fuel filters leak air at the WIF threads.

Does it crank after stalling? Not sure the exact thing you are fighting and what clues have you looking at electrical.

Ok, so tooling along doing 75 in a 75 for once on I-80, cruise control on.

Cruise control cuts out. Ok, that's odd. reset, get back up to speed. Engine dies, then restarts on its own sans starter use. This repeats multiple times, I end up taking the first off ramp and riding the brake because it would restart on its own if I had it above 2k... blow a stopsign due to no traffic, get to a truck pullout.

Think it might be fuel filter, so pull, swap. No water in old filter, but engine will still die on its own at idle, if I high idle it'll sometimes die sometimes catch itself then die.

Tighten everything up w/ the help of a trucker who pulled in, check connection security of every connection under the hood. Drivers positive was slightly loose. Restart truck, runs fine. Try for Laramie, since we've got a hotel reservation and it's a large city albeit 200 miles away.

Multiple flat die-restart. Throttle response is normal. She will pull like a raped ape as per usual operation when running.

CEL and "Battery not charging" on DIC intermittently after/during when it dies. Hence, thinking it's electrical, checking all connections, breaking out multimeter to check battery levels when it was off as well as what they're getting when it's running.... 12.5 sitting, 14.5 running.

Milked it into Sydney, died in front of Days inn while wife was checking prices. Restarted, drove to motel 6, 1/2 the price for the same room quality... get room, pull and park.

Like I said, this is double strength power service in winter blend fuel and a brand new fuel filter. No change in anything from that. Acceleration and performance is normal for the truck, other than the whole random dying. Sometimes multiple times in a row, but we had a 15 minute stretch on the way here where it just drove like normal.

Having it be so random makes me think it's electrical compared to a specifically fuel related issue. It doesn't sputter and die, it straight dies. It cranks like normal if I have to crank it.

To ME anyway, this sounds/feels more like there's a short in something going to the ECM causing it to die.

 

[GM Guy]

where did you get the replacement alternator?

do you have a code reader/ is it even throwing a code?

Edit, its a long shot, but do you have enough tools to pull the battery cables for the night? I am showing my duramax ignorance here, will it have an affect on the glowplug timer like the 1st re-start on a OBDII 6.5L? if it does, will the duramax likely pop off still? obviously a long shot, maybe the disconnecting and resetting of everything would help.

 

[NVW]

I would check any fuse that would be needed to keep it running, fuse would be good but the connection may not be. Ign. switch is a good bet. Batteries sound good as well as connections being it starts for you.

 

[btfarm]

Check eveywhere on any wiring that is near to or could have been disturbed by replacing the alternator. The replacement could be bad internally on the connections. Not going into limp tells me it isn't related to any modules.

 

[Ranger]

Check eveywhere on any wiring that is near to or could have been disturbed by replacing the alternator. The replacement could be bad internally on the connections. Not going into limp tells me it isn't related to any modules.

Already have. No wiring seems to be damaged, everything is secure, plugged in appropriately. No hot spots, worn spots, or other signs of bad things. Tracing wiring at 5 degrees is a (*%(* too. SOoooo I'm gonna have the mechanic at the shop tomorrow double check everything just because A: he'll be able to do it in a warm garage and not be freezing his testicles off B: it's under warranty so I'm gonna get a new one under warranty since pulling and testing it is the only thing that makes sense.

Really, this ain't a fuel issue. The truck (since I got the MA upgrade done) runs fantastic. It just Dies. no sputter, no limping, no warning. Just cuts out completely. I am going off the assumption that air in the lines would behave along the lines of if a fuel filter isn't sealed right, or when you run out of fuel. Sputter, lack of power, then eventual dying once there's just too much air. Not happening here. it just goes *Off*. I keep gauges, everything else, which is why I don't suspect the ignition switch. Wouldn't make sense for power to get cut to the engine without everything else dying at the same time if it's a failing switch.

 

[btfarm]

Could you relist all the things Merchant's guys did? Might be something there that triggers a thought.

 

[Ranger]

Transmission
Pitmann
Idler arm
Tie rod ends
3x axle seals (both front one rear)
CV shaft
PCV valve

Everything worked just fine out of their shop. Alternator gave up the ghost about a week after, swapped it and a jump, tada golden. now this.

 

[Ranger]

In addition, I had about 1500 miles in michigan done over varying terrain roughness prior to departing back to NV (which is what we are enroute on) so I don't think anything can be attributable to Merchant's stuff. Those guys were hot shit and I'd have them work on it now if I was still in MI... but I'm not, i'm in bum-f nebraska.

 

[chevyCowboy]

if you where on this end of the state we have a great diesel shop that works on about 80% duramax trucks

 

[btfarm]

I'd say a bad alternator. Merchant didn't work on anything that could cause this.

 

[Ranger]

Yeah, it might be the alternator... we'll obviously be getting that tested, however it seems really odd. I can understand the truck throwing the CEL and telling me the batteries aren't charging, however it does seem odd to me that it'd flat cut out... you would think at least safety wise it would continue running as far as it could?

 

[btfarm]

I suspect it is a broken connection and not a short or a fuse would blow and probably throw limp mode. Bad windings in the alternator would show as a flat spot and act strange like that. Like the pole piece in an old HEI (HEI-old? yikes) where it would just cut out when the winding would have a dead section.

 

[Ranger]

Well, I forgot to add from today's drive around.... felt like seeing what was what and also exploring the town and conducting recon as to where I am taking the truck tomorrow.

Predator codes as follows

P0016- Camshaft position sensor
P0101- MAF sensor
P0335- crankshaft position sensor circuit
P0341- camshaft position sensor performance
P0374- high resolution system performance
P1093- fuel rail pressure low during power enrichment
P1172- Generator L Terminal Circuit
P1637- SEC Fuel pump/no fuel flow
P2066- fuel level sensor 2 performance
P2067- fuel level sensor 2 Circuit low voltage
P2068- fuel level sensor 2 circuit high voltage
ND099- *Unknown, cannot find online*

It blipped a couple times and died once today. The two "blips" were not full die, but it cut out and dropped cruise. The full die was parked across the street from my hotel, started, ran for 1 minute while loading the kid up then just cut out. Restarted with a 2 second crank.

Basically everything I am reading about this series of codes ends up being Alternator related, either it's not doing what it's supposed to and can cause the engine to die or otherwise causes some or all of these codes to get thrown... during the engine shutting down and refiring or whatnot, the fuel related stuff will get triggered.