Ok, here is whats going on. I have a 96 tahoe 4x4 Z71 offroad package. I am having a problem with the running lights and the door locks to begin with. The running lights work sometimes, but sometimes they dont. I cant figure it out, its like there is a short somewhere or something. I think whatever is causing that is also messing with my door locks. It just started recently where as soon as the truck starts up they lock. They use to lock when I put the truck in drive. This has cause me to lock my keys in it while running. Also, the interior light will flicker on and off. The next problem is when I start it up. Again, sometimes it will crank right up, and then I can shut it off and try it again and it will take it a few seconds to finally crank up. Im getting ready to drive this thing from GA to LA and dont want anything to go wrong on the way. Any suggestions would be helpful....Thanks!

 

Have you experience from the past in diagnosing electrical problems?

It really is going to require that you get ahold of the wiring schematic. It will show you what color wires are involved, the bulbs, switches, relays, etc., of the things you mention, and how they are interconnected. Often, several pages are used, and there is a wavy symbol that shows a discontinuation on that page, where then you have to pick up that wavy pattern at the same listed connection on some other page. So you have to be somewhat schemtic savvy.

If you are able to follow this,then you can trace and test.

But this still can be difficult because usually it does not say where all these parts are located, nor does it say where the wires are run. You have to have some knowledge or learn this knowledge where the parts are, and then by knowing which color wires are involved, that if you lose sight of where the one color wire is, you try to find it again at the next listed device/connection, and test again there. Etc.

Then ontop of this, you always need to think if there is possibly anything you may have done to contribute to this, like if you recently went off the road into a snowbank or did mudbogging, rooted around under the dash, fiddled with bulb sockets or something, where wires could have rubbed, shorted or come loose.

Keep us abreast of what you learn either on your own, from contributors here or somewhere else on the web or professionally. I'd be curious to learn exactly where your problem is.

 

My money is on a bad ignition switch. My wife's 95 Tahoe suffered some wierd electrical symptoms, some were similar to what you describe, and it turned out to be an ignition switch.

 

Ohhh good call. That is a good place to start it seems.

 

Im not sure but I think Its gonna take me awhile to figure it out. When I bought the truck it had KC lights on the top that the wires were cutt going to. It had a CB radio installed and has three TV's in it. So it could be anywhere..lol

 

I had a 1999 Tahoe that would not crank once in a while - it turned out to be the positive battery connector.(s) There were two connectors on one post from the factory, and it was difficult to get them tight TO EACH OTHER, so I replaced them.

After I replaced them - I really think the problem was that the insulator swelled so they couldn't touch.

 

Does it have a remote starter or aftermarket alarm? If so, that would be my guess.

 

Yes, it has both. The remote start has never worked but the alarm does.

 

It will turn over but it will just sit there and take a few seconds, I would say about 5 seconds sometimes. Im thinking wires, plugs, distributor cap maybe. If it was this though, wouldnt it be hard to start everytime?