[mackerman22]

Our 2011 Terrain SLT has just over 5,000 miles on it. We have witnessed a really strange electrical "event" with the Terrain on three separate occasions. The first time, I tried to start the car with the remote start and noticed that nothing was happening. So, I went out to the car and noticed that it would not unlock the doors with the remote. I opened the door with the key and the car was completely dead. Not even the Onstar SOS button worked. I tried putting the key in the ignition and it would not start. It would also not release the key from the ignition. Within 10 minutes, the car just turned back on and I was able to start it. But I noticed the clock on the radio moved ahead two hours and the DVD system would paly audio, but there was no picture on the screens. About two hours later, the screens started working again. This has since happened two more times. The DVD system was not affected the other two times. But, again the car was completely dead. What is going on? Anyone else have this issue? ???

 

[Terra-Nox]

First (and obvious) guess would be a battery issue. perhaps its a bad one.

If happens after many hours of not being started I might wonder about the ambient light thing mentioned in a recent post involving a Nox ( I'll try to find that and include a link), guessing that problem may go away if door is opened and closed and allow the battery to recover.

Its not unusual to get the key locked when there are power issues (don't know if there is an overide for that on the Terrain)

http://www.terrainforum.net/index.php?topic=2206.0

 

[mackerman22]

My wife used to work at GM and is personal friends with the Theta Platform Manager. GM is sending the field Quality Manager to look at her car at the dealership on Friday. Initial report is that they have not seen this issue before. They are speculating that the car is having serious "electrial events". They feel it should be an easy fix...that a wire was not properly grounded. I will post an update after the dealer visit tomorrow.

 

[RIT333]

I had the same thing happening when the car was parked at the airport for 2 weeks. I couldn't even open the power liftgate to get at my jumper cables, so GM had to jumpstart it. Aargh. I left it at the dealer and he said everything was "normal" - BS, not normal to me !

 

[WD80PD]

My Terrain is in the shop right now because when I make hard left turns in to parking spots the car will just shut off.. Happened twice already, cant wait to hear the BS once I get the car back..

 

[mnussbaum]

Probably pinching a wire somewhere, maybe in the steering column.

 

[lb_12]

this used to happen on my old car, not a GM model. The battery contacts had a little corrosion or something on them. Some days it would start and others it wouldn't. I'm betting it's a battery issue.

 

[WD80PD]

So the dealer drove the car around their parking lot and tried parking it and the problem would not happen.. So therefore there was nothing they could fix.. They updated the PCM saying that the amps might be dropping too low when using full power steering and driving on idle.. We'll see what happens..

 

[mnussbaum]

Typical. They don't spend any time verifying the problem and so it doesn't exist. Grrr...

 

[mackerman22]

Had our Terrain fixed on Friday. The Field Quality Manager for GM went to the dealership and confirmed that one of the wiring harnesses was routed incorrectly causing it to be pulled loose and intermittently lose contact. He stated they had not seen this issue before and it was not caught through the on-line checks in the plant becasue it happens intermittently. Only time will tell if it really fixed the issue. I will let you know if it happens again.