Not strictly GMC, but related. Got a call before noon this morning -
wife's on the cell phone telling me her 98 Silhouette "quit"(I love her
grasp of technical subjects). Upon further interrogation, I find out
that it wouldn't start after a trip to the Post Office and was totally
dead - not even a door chime. It had started three times before this
morning with no other symptoms. Left work early and took the Cherokee
over to attempt a jump start. The van fired right up with the cables
and kept running when they were disconnected, but several "idiot lights"
were on(but not the "Alt" light). I figured it was likely that the
alternator wasn't charging and told Sharon to drive it home as quickly
as possible and was surprised when she made it all the way there.
My first try at trouble-shooting was hooking up a battery charger to see
if the battery would take a charge. The Silhouette is like many new
cars in that the battery is "buried" in the engine compartment and
there's a positive "jump terminal" on the relay pack above the battery.
The ammeter on the charger wouldn't even come off the peg, but I got
sparks when removing the clips. I decided that I needed to try the
charger directly on the battery. I reached down to pull the terminal
cover off the positive side and the terminal came off in my hand!
Diagnosis complete!
The real chuckle came when I finally dug the busted battery out and in
bold type across the top were the words "Maintenance Free"
)
Patrick
- --
Patrick Flowers
Mailto
atrick
The GMC Motorhome Page
http://www.gmcmotorhome.com
wife's on the cell phone telling me her 98 Silhouette "quit"(I love her
grasp of technical subjects). Upon further interrogation, I find out
that it wouldn't start after a trip to the Post Office and was totally
dead - not even a door chime. It had started three times before this
morning with no other symptoms. Left work early and took the Cherokee
over to attempt a jump start. The van fired right up with the cables
and kept running when they were disconnected, but several "idiot lights"
were on(but not the "Alt" light). I figured it was likely that the
alternator wasn't charging and told Sharon to drive it home as quickly
as possible and was surprised when she made it all the way there.
My first try at trouble-shooting was hooking up a battery charger to see
if the battery would take a charge. The Silhouette is like many new
cars in that the battery is "buried" in the engine compartment and
there's a positive "jump terminal" on the relay pack above the battery.
The ammeter on the charger wouldn't even come off the peg, but I got
sparks when removing the clips. I decided that I needed to try the
charger directly on the battery. I reached down to pull the terminal
cover off the positive side and the terminal came off in my hand!
Diagnosis complete!
The real chuckle came when I finally dug the busted battery out and in
bold type across the top were the words "Maintenance Free"
)Patrick
- --
Patrick Flowers
Mailto
atrickThe GMC Motorhome Page
http://www.gmcmotorhome.com
