[RAS22]

Hello 355Nation, I'm new here. So happy I found the Nation. I'm the original owner of my 2004 Colorado. It has 163,000 miles, been easy on the pedal. So it seems to have some crazy electrical issues now. Lights on dash work on and off, one of the blinker lights comes on and off but no blinker. The CD player stopped working a few years ago and then the AC blower only works on the highest setting, The Air bag red light indicator on the dash stays on. Windows stopped going up and down now. Any thoughts??
I have seen members talk about the ignition switch being issue, and mention of the BCM and the splice boxes.
I appreciate any suggestions. I am trying to explain all of this about my truck as close to how the guys talk. Unfortunately I do not have any guys to ask about this and want to be prepared before taking it to a mechanic. This was initially my husbands truck, I sadly lost him to a devastating illness last year, he used to fix our trucks, he was our mechanic.
I want to keep the Colorado but do not want to get taken advantage of by a mechanic for a bunch of "unnecessary" repairs...... I am very nervous driving the truck with the Air bag light on and the electrical issues but it is the only vehicle I have now. unfortunately I have no mechanic skills but my husband taught me enough to talk with some intelligence about cars and trucks
Thank you so much, I appreciate any suggestions.
RAS22

 

[cart7881]

Welcome to the Nation.

Looks like quite a few issues to iron out.

First a few questions. Is the truck a 2 Dr Reg Cab, Extended Cab, Or 4Dr Crew Cab? Is it 2 wheel drive or 4 wheel drive?

Do you live in an area where the roads are salted during winter (adds to possible corrosion problems)?

Is the radio not working at all or just the CD player portion?

When you say "dash lights" are you referring to the background lights and are all of them intermittent including the door switch panels, headlight switch panel and a/c control panel?

Regarding the blinker (turn signal?) problem. You mentioned that one light comes on and off, but no blinker. Do you mean the indicator lights in the instrument panel?

Did your husband have any kind of device (scan tool) that he plugged in, under the dash, tto check for info?

Do you have access to some basic tool i.e. wrenches and screwdrivers?

Sorry for the interrogation, but troubleshooting from a distance is a bit difficult. The issue with the blower is related to a part under the dash in front of the glove box. We can give you instructions on how to tell if the fix will be easy or more expensive.

If your husband didn't happen to have a scan tool you can drive to most any auto supply stores (Advance Auto/AutoZone/O'Reilly) and ask them to scan your truck for codes. They normally do this for free and ask them for the specific codes (ex.P0301,B0015) We will need that info to help determine what is causing the Airbag light to stay on.

You might not have any experience, but there are some steps that you can take to further identify and possibly correct some of your issues.

 

[spaddman]

Welcome to 355Nation. I would think the first thing is to check all the ground paks, or splice boxes. The two major ones are on the passenger firewall and passenger inner fender (close to the air filter housing). There are allot of postings here on the forum about those. Also go to YouTube, lots of helper videos there.

 

[Unfettered]

Greetings and Welcome.

Sorry to hear your husband passed, and glad we may be of some help.

Cart7881 is pretty well on things as he's been digging into these rigs a lot more than I have. His suggestion of taking it to one of the larger auto parts chains to get any codes read would be a place to start. With any codes, we can give you an idea of what issues are and how to correct them.

 

[RAS22]

Welcome to the Nation.

Looks like quite a few issues to iron out.

First a few questions. Is the truck a 2 Dr Reg Cab, Extended Cab, Or 4Dr Crew Cab? Is it 2 wheel drive or 4 wheel drive?

Do you live in an area where the roads are salted during winter (adds to possible corrosion problems)?

Is the radio not working at all or just the CD player portion?

When you say "dash lights" are you referring to the background lights and are all of them intermittent including the door switch panels, headlight switch panel and a/c control panel?

Regarding the blinker (turn signal?) problem. You mentioned that one light comes on and off, but no blinker. Do you mean the indicator lights in the instrument panel?

Did your husband have any kind of device (scan tool) that he plugged in, under the dash, tto check for info?

Do you have access to some basic tool i.e. wrenches and screwdrivers?

Sorry for the interrogation, but troubleshooting from a distance is a bit difficult. The issue with the blower is related to a part under the dash in front of the glove box. We can give you instructions on how to tell if the fix will be easy or more expensive.

If your husband didn't happen to have a scan tool you can drive to most any auto supply stores (Advance Auto/AutoZone/O'Reilly) and ask them to scan your truck for codes. They normally do this for free and ask them for the specific codes (ex.P0301,B0015) We will need that info to help determine what is causing the Airbag light to stay on.

You might not have any experience, but there are some steps that you can take to further identify and possibly correct some of your issues.

Thank you so very much for responding and for so quickly! Please do not apologize for anything, I am blessed that you have responded to me and took time to do so, My Colorado is a 2 door extended cab. it is a 4x4, it was purchased in Asheville, North Carolina in 2004 brand new and has stayed in North Carolina. Yes they do salt the roads in the winter. Up until recently, we didn't drive it during the winter much, we had other trucks for that. But now it is all I have left to drive. Its been driven the past few winters.
The radio works, its just the CD player. Its been that way for several years, it will try to start to play then stops.
The dash lights are the background lights, they work sometimes and sometimes not. They will actually flicker on and off sometimes as well.
So I can see the light that shows when its in drive, and the seat belt light and airbag light and the blue light when the bright lights are activated. The headlight switch panel and a/c control panel I'm not sure about, I do not think they are working but I will double check and let you know. The over head light will only stay on a few seconds when you remove the key.
The blinker light (turn signal) indicates it is working on the instrument panel but does not work at the light itself, the 2 orange light bulbs are working but sometimes they do not come on at all, its intermittent. The blinker doesn't work on the orange lights but it does work in the rear light and blinks faster than normal when activated.

No, my husband do not have the scan tool, he would go to Advance Auto if needed. I did go there about 8 months ago and the guy was new and could only tell me the crank shaft sensor was throwing a code and there were some other codes but he did not know what they were and there was no one else to help me working there that day.
I do have wrenches and screwdrivers, but I tend to be very timid with this stuff, witnessed some things as a kid that scared me about working on cars. I am all girl, I am a nurse and can handle blood but not so much with car stuff. So my husband Rick handled all that and he was very skilled and now I am completely in the dark. I;m apologize if that is TMI, just want you to know a little about me and my lack of repair skills.
My husband did say that the wiring under the glove box was affecting the blower and just needed a simple fix. But he was too sick to do it.
I am scared to death of the Airbag issue. I read about the Takata air bags deploying for no reason and then now i saw a video about newer colorados having air bags deploy when do light off road driving. I was wondering if it could be removed permanently, probably a stupid question. but its scary to drive not knowing why that lights on.

One last thing, the truck will act like it is going to stall when slowing down to stop. the rpms drop a little then while sitting at stop it stabilizes. It does not do that when I am driving. I was wondering it the alternator was going out,

I think I answered all of your questions. I made an appointment with the Chevrolet dealer that we took it too a few times and its $100 for a diagnostic assessment.
I can not thank you enough for trying to help me, Without Rick, and limited funds, I landed in an awful situation not knowing anyone that can help me here in NC. I see you are in homestead. Rick and I grew up in the Hollywood, Ft. Lauderdale area. He would tell you thank you very much for trying to help me. I am blessed to have your help!!
I am supposed to take the truck to the dealer this Thursday but I can hold off if you think this could be something I could try? Thank you so very very much. Have a blessed and safe day,

 

[RAS22]

Greetings and Welcome.

Sorry to hear your husband passed, and glad we may be of some help.

Cart7881 is pretty well on things as he's been digging into these rigs a lot more than I have. His suggestion of taking it to one of the larger auto parts chains to get any codes read would be a place to start. With any codes, we can give you an idea of what issues are and how to correct them.

Hello, thank you and I appreciate that, He was a talented mechanic and would be grateful to you for trying help me.
Yes Cart7881 asked some great questions. I am a woman, but I am trying at least. Rick, my husband, he did teach me a few things, enough to talk some of the talk..... for the age of the truck its been a good a truck. Its all I have and cant afford much in repairs right now, So thank you for your guidance and help!
I will see about getting it to Advance Auto again for the codes. or OReilly, And I will let you guys know.
Thank you again, have a blessed and safe day.

 

[RAS22]

Welcome to 355Nation. I would think the first thing is to check all the ground paks, or splice boxes. The two major ones are on the passenger firewall and passenger inner fender (close to the air filter housing). There are allot of postings here on the forum about those. Also go to YouTube, lots of helper videos there.

Hello and Thank you, I am so glad I joined! Ok, thank you for the advice, I truly appreciate it!! I am praying this is something easy to fix,
Have a blessed and safe day, RAS22

 

[cart7881]

Thank you so very much for responding and for so quickly! Please do not apologize for anything, I am blessed that you have responded to me and took time to do so, My Colorado is a 2 door extended cab. it is a 4x4, it was purchased in Asheville, North Carolina in 2004 brand new and has stayed in North Carolina. Yes they do salt the roads in the winter. Up until recently, we didn't drive it during the winter much, we had other trucks for that. But now it is all I have left to drive. Its been driven the past few winters.
The radio works, its just the CD player. Its been that way for several years, it will try to start to play then stops.
The dash lights are the background lights, they work sometimes and sometimes not. They will actually flicker on and off sometimes as well.
So I can see the light that shows when its in drive, and the seat belt light and airbag light and the blue light when the bright lights are activated. The headlight switch panel and a/c control panel I'm not sure about, I do not think they are working but I will double check and let you know. The over head light will only stay on a few seconds when you remove the key.
The blinker light (turn signal) indicates it is working on the instrument panel but does not work at the light itself, the 2 orange light bulbs are working but sometimes they do not come on at all, its intermittent. The blinker doesn't work on the orange lights but it does work in the rear light and blinks faster than normal when activated.

No, my husband do not have the scan tool, he would go to Advance Auto if needed. I did go there about 8 months ago and the guy was new and could only tell me the crank shaft sensor was throwing a code and there were some other codes but he did not know what they were and there was no one else to help me working there that day.
I do have wrenches and screwdrivers, but I tend to be very timid with this stuff, witnessed some things as a kid that scared me about working on cars. I am all girl, I am a nurse and can handle blood but not so much with car stuff. So my husband Rick handled all that and he was very skilled and now I am completely in the dark. I;m apologize if that is TMI, just want you to know a little about me and my lack of repair skills.
My husband did say that the wiring under the glove box was affecting the blower and just needed a simple fix. But he was too sick to do it.
I am scared to death of the Airbag issue. I read about the Takata air bags deploying for no reason and then now i saw a video about newer colorados having air bags deploy when do light off road driving. I was wondering if it could be removed permanently, probably a stupid question. but its scary to drive not knowing why that lights on.

One last thing, the truck will act like it is going to stall when slowing down to stop. the rpms drop a little then while sitting at stop it stabilizes. It does not do that when I am driving. I was wondering it the alternator was going out,

I think I answered all of your questions. I made an appointment with the Chevrolet dealer that we took it too a few times and its $100 for a diagnostic assessment.
I can not thank you enough for trying to help me, Without Rick, and limited funds, I landed in an awful situation not knowing anyone that can help me here in NC. I see you are in homestead. Rick and I grew up in the Hollywood, Ft. Lauderdale area. He would tell you thank you very much for trying to help me. I am blessed to have your help!!
I am supposed to take the truck to the dealer this Thursday but I can hold off if you think this could be something I could try? Thank you so very very much. Have a blessed and safe day,

Thanks for the quick reply. It would probably be best to concentrate on your most urgent issue, the AirBag light. There are quite a few causes for it to illuminate and it really requires someone with a scan tool to get more information stored in the computers in the truck. Obviously it would be better to get it done as cheaply as possible. Wherever you go, the person doing the scan will see some "codes" on the tool. Make sure to get those numbers. Some places just try to tell you what part(s) you need. The codes should be a letter followed by a three digit number. AirBag codes typically start with a B (i.e. B0053). If we have those codes we can probably tell you how serious the issue is and what might be required to fix it.

One common AirBag problem with extended cab models is the wiring going to the rear door on the driver's side. The wiring going from the body to the door, in the area of the hinge, flexes and breaks. There are wires going in the door that go to the seat belt retractor that is in the door. If one of those wires breaks, the AirBag light will come on. That situation would not trigger an airbag to deploy. That would probably show up as B0065 on a scan tool.

 

[RAS22]

Thanks for the quick reply. It would probably be best to concentrate on your most urgent issue, the AirBag light. There are quite a few causes for it to illuminate and it really requires someone with a scan tool to get more information stored in the computers in the truck. Obviously it would be better to get it done as cheaply as possible. Wherever you go, the person doing the scan will see some "codes" on the tool. Make sure to get those numbers. Some places just try to tell you what part(s) you need. The codes should be a letter followed by a three digit number. AirBag codes typically start with a B (i.e. B0053). If we have those codes we can probably tell you how serious the issue is and what might be required to fix it.

One common AirBag problem with extended cab models is the wiring going to the rear door on the driver's side. The wiring going from the body to the door, in the area of the hinge, flexes and breaks. There are wires going in the door that go to the seat belt retractor that is in the door. If one of those wires breaks, the AirBag light will come on. That situation would not trigger an airbag to deploy. That would probably show up as B0065 on a scan tool.

I truly can not thank you enough for being so kind and helpful. It is rare to find people so kind anymore. I am very blessed that you are taking the time to help me. Yes, I agree. I did see a few months ago in my research a youtube video showed this "boot" that is covering a button type area that affected some electrical areas in the truck. its located at the bottom of the seat around the seat belt area. I plan on taking it to Adv. Auto or someplace tomorrow to get it scanned. You had asked if the lights go out on the A/C controls and light adjustment switches for headlights and dome light? So last night all the lights were working on the dash, then I turned off the truck and then when I restarted it the background dash/gauge lights were out and the radio control lights were out but the A/C control lights and the light dimmer switches were working.
I hope all that makes sense. I apologize if it sounds all over the place.
I work at night 12 hour shifts so it takes me a bit of time to respond to you.
After I get it scanned I will contact you with an update.
Have a good and blessed day and and I am so grateful to you. Thank you

 

[cart7881]

Thanks for the additional details regarding the lighting. It will help narrow down the possibilities.

Regarding the wiring I was referring to. Open the rear door on the driver's side. Look in the hinge area betweer the door and the door frame. There will be a bundle of wires, covered by a boot, going from the frame to the door. The broken wires, if there are any, would be inside that boot.

Don't feel pressured to immediately respond to replies. I am old and retired so I have the time to come by here more often than most. Just post updates when you have the time.

 

[t-bone]

Welcome 2 the nation

 

[RAS22]

Welcome 2 the nation

Thank you

 

[RAS22]

Thanks for the additional details regarding the lighting. It will help narrow down the possibilities.

Regarding the wiring I was referring to. Open the rear door on the driver's side. Look in the hinge area betweer the door and the door frame. There will be a bundle of wires, covered by a boot, going from the frame to the door. The broken wires, if there are any, would be inside that boot.

Don't feel pressured to immediately respond to replies. I am old and retired so I have the time to come by here more often than most. Just post update s when you have the time.

Thank you so much. I need to figure out how to remove the boot so I can see behind there. I do know where you are talking about. I took the truck to ORiellys and the guy said they could only check the engine codes, not able to read the airbag codes. The codes he told me about were the the crank shaft sensor and something to do with the Emissions. He said there is a leak in the emissions part/valve. It needed a new gas cap, so I replaced it. He said that might fix the emissions codes. I have an appointment with the dealer this Thursday for a diagnostics service. Thanks to God the truck is hanging in there. But the Airbag light is un-nerving for sure. I greatly appreciate your time and help!! Have a blessed week! I will let you know what that diagnostic test says. Not crazy about going to the dealer but I figured I could start there. They have serviced the truck a few years ago. Thank you for being so kind!

 

[cart7881]

Thanks for the update. Disappointing that O'Reilly's couldn't get the codes for the Airbag. They sell a wide range of scan tools capable of doing that, so probably a management decision. Now, you haven't mentioned any actual codes, so we are still mostly helpless. Did they give you any of the codes or did they just pull the old trick of guessing what parts you need, or just give you a description of your problem? There are very few actual mechanics working at auto parts stores.

To make an educated guess regarding the crankshaft sensor issue we need the code. When any customer has an emission related problem the store will try to sell them a gas cap.

Please, please, please, get some code numbers! On modern vehicles, unless the problem is obvious, like a flat tire, the first step in troubleshooting is to scan the computers for codes that give clues to the problem and possible causes. We have access to all of the codes, by description and possible fixes. We can continue this conversation for weeks and not be able to get any closer to helping, if we don't have that info. The Dealer will scan the truck and will get the same codes that O'Reilly's got, plus any Airbag codes. Make them give you the codes!!!!

The Airbag light is priority, so hoping the Dealer can help with that. Hope their Customer Service is better than most.

 

[RAS22]

Thanks for the update. Disappointing that O'Reilly's couldn't get the codes for the Airbag. They sell a wide range of scan tools capable of doing that, so probably a management decision. Now, you haven't mentioned any actual codes, so we are still mostly helpless. Did they give you any of the codes or did they just pull the old trick of guessing what parts you need, or just give you a description of your problem? There are very few actual mechanics working at auto parts stores.

To make an educated guess regarding the crankshaft sensor issue we need the code. When any customer has an emission related problem the store will try to sell them a gas cap.

Please, please, please, get some code numbers! On modern vehicles, unless the problem is obvious, like a flat tire, the first step in troubleshooting is to scan the computers for codes that give clues to the problem and possible causes. We have access to all of the codes, by description and possible fixes. We can continue this conversation for weeks and not be able to get any closer to helping, if we don't have that info. The Dealer will scan the truck and will get the same codes that O'Reilly's got, plus any Airbag codes. Make them give you the codes!!!!

The Airbag light is priority, so hoping the Dealer can help with that. Hope their Customer Service is better than most.

Hello, ok thank you. I will get the codes. My apologies, I understand what your saying. I will be back in touch soon. Thank you so much for your help and patience. I will be back in touch very soon.