HELP! 99 Tahoe Shuts Off Electrical Problem

[gutsco37]

I'll be driving down the road and the vehicle shuts off or stutters and almost shuts off. I also lose all electrical power in the vehicle while this is occuring. Its almost like somebody is shuttting a light switch on and off.

If the vehicle stalls, I am able to restart the car the issue goes away, and eventually comes back randomly...

I've checked the terminals and they look good... I've read that these vehicles are prone to bad ignition switches... Could this be the problem? Or is there some kind of relay I should be looking for?

 

[73shark]

Welcome to the Tahoe Forum. Might get more answers in the section for older Tahoes.

 

[MikeyG79]

had the exact same thing happen to my '99 and all it was were loose battery cables.

 

[TahoeGoBoom]

i had it happen in another car, not my tahoe, but it ended up being that the ground to the car itself (not the battery ground, the chassis ground) was bad. mine eventually quit starting until i had the ground completely replaced.

 

[gutsco37]

A closer inspection today revealed that a ground wire is totally rotted off! The ground is in the lower left hand side of the firewall/engine compartment area. It is a braided wire. It actually looks like there is 2 of them. What exactly do these ground? Could this be my problem?

 

[73shark]

Usually this type of ground strap is to ensure that all of the metal in the vehicle is at the same ground level. That way lites, ECM, etc just need to grounded to the body and don't have to have a ground wire all the way to the battery. Bad grounds are a tough nut to crack as can cause some strange problems like your dome lite comes on when you hit the brakes.

 

[gutsco37]

Unfortunately replacing this faulty ground did not fix my problem? Any ideas what to try next? It shut off again yesterday (lost all power as it was shutting on and off)

 

[treepete]

does the engine kill at the exact same time, or just after this occurs?

 

[gutsco37]

Its all happens at the same time. I would describe it as someone shutting a light switch on and off rapidly. Engine and ALL electric die and come back, die and come back. Sometimes it stalls the engine, and then I can pull over and restart. However when I restart after this occurs I would describe the shifting as clunky in the transmission like the ECM got messed up during the power cycles. After I shut off the vehicle for about 5 to 10 mins and restart it this corrects itself.

 

[DJTricky]

had the exact same thing happen to my '99 and all it was were loose battery cables.

this also happened to mine it was after hot import nights(thay have you disconnect the negative bat. cable) and i just put it back on and forgot to tighten it down

 

[gutsco37]

I actually checked this out, took the terminal off and screwed it back on. Didnt see any signs of corrosion. However, someone told me there is a fusible link in the positive connector than can separate from time to time if it has opened up in the past? Any truth to this? Maybe I need to cut the end off and put a new one on?

 

[aquaholic]

burnt contacts in ignition switch. grab one from a junk yard and try it.

 

[tahoelt53]

Did you ever get this issue fixed my 2004 tahoe seems to be having a similar issue