Electrical Problems

dcj242

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Anyone experiencing electrical issues with their new CXS? I have my car at the dealer right now. On 2 separate occasions the instrument panel has shut off. When the panel comes back up, the air bag and tire pressure sensors fail. I have also had 2 occasions where a 2nd remote was detected while driving causing the electrical to shut off. My 2nd remote was 70 miles away at the time.
 
No such problem here. Good luck at getting yours taken care of.
 
Haven't experienced anything like that. So far the electrical has been 100%. Could be something as simple as a short somewhere which affects things under specific circumstances (body motion, temperature, etc)
 
I had the tone start sounding and a message in the DIC (center dash) telling me the TPM system needed calibrating and another message that unfortunately escapes me right now. I pulled over, turned the car off and then immediately back on and it was still there. I turned if off again and left it off for about a minute, started it and it was cleared.

Only electrical issues thus far.
 
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**UPDATE** Electrical Problems

Getting my car back this morning. Dealership worked with a GM specialist to reground all the wires. The error codes have cleared and I can turn in the rental this morning.
 
Anyone experiencing electrical issues with their new CXS? I have my car at the dealer right now. On 2 separate occasions the instrument panel has shut off. When the panel comes back up, the air bag and tire pressure sensors fail. I have also had 2 occasions where a 2nd remote was detected while driving causing the electrical to shut off. My 2nd remote was 70 miles away at the time.

My CXS has 4000 miles on it now and on two occasions I have experienced the same problem as you regarding the instrument panel, once in June and again last night. Stopping the engine and restarting fixed the issue - temporarily.

I'll be contacting my dealership later today and bringing it in next week for a look see.

Did your dealer give you any detail as to what was wrong?

By the way, the instrument light thumbwheel dimmer does not appear to work on my car (flicking the thumbwheel has no effect on the light intensity); does yours work?
 
By the way, the instrument light thumbwheel dimmer does not appear to work on my car (flicking the thumbwheel has no effect on the light intensity); does yours work?
You weren't asking me, but mine didn't work when I first got the car. It somehow healed itself.
 
Press and hold the wheel up or down for a couple of seconds. Works for me.

By the way, the instrument light thumbwheel dimmer does not appear to work on my car (flicking the thumbwheel has no effect on the light intensity); does yours work?
 
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Press and hold the wheel up or down for a couple of seconds. Works for me.

Thanks! I did not realize that you had to press and hold the thumbwheel. And no one at the dealership did either.
 
Don't worry about it... Even GM Customer Care doesn't know their own new vehicles, as proven when I tried to explain to them that the Remote Start Cooled Seats wasn't working. They ended up telling me that essentially the function does not exist an the manual needs to be updated. In the end, it started working.

Sad when the manufacturer and their representatives don't know how their own cars work.

Doesn't change the fact that I love my LaCrosse - I just have to figure out things on my own.


Thanks! I did not realize that you had to press and hold the thumbwheel. And no one at the dealership did either.
 
As much as I love my LaCrosse, I am sorry to say that the car has been fitted with substandard electronics/software.

In just over a month I have had 3 "ghost" warnings, all electronically related:

1) service suspension system
2) service parking assist system
3) the security icon came up when I started the car once

All 3 went away after turning off the car and restarting.

I am quite disappointed with these issues.

On a positive note, I just drove across the US and back and did 6200 miles with no "real" problems, the car took to the inclines and turns with no problem (despite being fully loaded with passengers and luggage). We hit 10,000 feet in Yosemite!
 
You may find this of interest in working
with your dealership. Have them refer to
GM bulletin #10-08-45-001 below:

Corroded or stripped electrical ground
connections can cause a loss of module
communication and other electrical
system malfunctions, leading to unnec-
essary repairs and parts replacement.
The electrical system relies on a secure,
corrosion-free ground connection in order
to function properly, so any damaged
ground connections must be repaired to
provide a good mounting point with a
low resistance ground path and prevent
future corrosion.

GM recently released a new bulletin
covering electrical ground connection
repairs. Refer to bulletin #10-08-45-001
for complete repair and installation
instructions. Here are the highlights.

The bulletin outlines ground repair
procedures using one of the following
replacement fasteners with a conductive
finish:
• Welded M6 stud and nut
• Welded M6 nut and bolt
• Welded M8 nut and bolt

Before installing a new fastener in the
current ground location or at a new
mounting location, remove any grease
from the repair area using a residue-free
solvent.

After drilling the mounting hole (for a
new location), remove any paint and
primer from the area until bare metal
is visible.

Install the appropriate new fastener
and check that it is securely fastened
without any detectable movement.
Cover the stud threads with protective
material and refinish the repair area
using an anti-corrosion primer.

TIP: The surrounding area must be
properly finished prior to the installation
of the ground wire terminal and conduc-
tive nut to maintain a secure, stable and
corrosion-free electrical ground.

Thoroughly clean the stud threads
using a residue-free solvent. Once dry,
apply dielectric lubricant to the threads to
reduce the possibility of fretting.

TIP: Fretting corrosion is a build-up of
insulating, oxidized wear debris than can
form when there is a
small motion between
electrical contacts,
causing electrical
resistance across the
connection.

Remove any corro-
sion or contamination
on the electrical
ground wire terminal.
Install the terminal,
tighten the conductive
nut to the proper
torque and verify
system operation.

Refer to the bulletin
for a list of part
numbers for the
replacement fasteners
and special tools.
 
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Electircal problem also on my 2010 Lacrosse AWD with 7K miles. Also posted in another posting

I have encountered a problem today. My son went to clean the garage and backed the car out this morning and left it in the driveway. When I got home I went to put it back in the garage and it wouldn't start (I have the push button start). If fact there wasn't any electrical power in the car, no light , no horn, I couldn't even use the On-Star. I checked the battery terminals to make sure they were connected. I called On-Star by phone and they are arranging to have it towed to the dealership tomorrow morning. I will let you know what they find.



Here is the update.

The car was jump started. They retreived various codes that only indicated low voltage. they let the car run to charge the battery and checked out the charging system and battery and everthing checked ok. The service adviser searched the Buick service site and found a bulletin #PI0073A related to engine no crank/jno start due to dead battery. The potential cause was due to push-button start ignition system being left in the run position which would draw parasitic current. The bulletin for also said that for cars build prior to Jan. 25 2010 the was a revised calibration developed for the Body control Module (BCM) and Keyless Control Moduel (KECM) to address this concern. My car was build Dec 9th 2009.

Hopefully this solves the problem.
 
Last edited:
The car was jump started. They retreived various codes that only indicated low voltage. they let the car run to charge the battery and checked out the charging system and battery and everthing checked ok. The service adviser searched the Buick service site and found a bulletin #PI0073A related to engine no crank/jno start due to dead battery. The potential cause was due to push-button start ignition system being left in the run position which would draw parasitic current. The bulletin for also said that for cars build prior to Jan. 25 2010 the was a revised calibration developed for the Body control Module (BCM) and Keyless Control Moduel (KECM) to address this concern. My car was build Dec 9th 2009.

Hopefully this solves the problem.

Interesting. Here is what is written on the service invoice for my Buick Lacrosse after having been at the dealer for three days:
4072 perform electrical diagnostics, code u0140, #pi0073a, revised calibrations for bcm and kecm 9999.00 reprogram bcm and kecm

Also interesting: http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/bu...e-no-problems-with-production-buick-lacrosse/

.
 
I have been experiencing some problems with my backup camera and HUD in the last several weeks. Every now and then when i place the car in reverse and the camera comes on it start to flash, almost like there is a strobe light behind it. If I flip back and forth between park and drive a few times it straightens out but it is still very annyoing for the price of the car. The heads up display has also started to flicker periodically. Has anyone else had issuses with these systems?

The car is a CXS and has about 10-11k miles. It was built in september or october '09
 
I have been experiencing some problems with my backup camera and HUD in the last several weeks. Every now and then when i place the car in reverse and the camera comes on it start to flash, almost like there is a strobe light behind it. If I flip back and forth between park and drive a few times it straightens out but it is still very annyoing for the price of the car. The heads up display has also started to flicker periodically. Has anyone else had issuses with these systems?

The car is a CXS and has about 10-11k miles. It was built in september or october '09

So far I have had only one issue with backup camera and it happened one time only. As I was backing out of the parking spot at the dealership (after servicing) the backup camera showed interference... like what you'd expect on an old TV running off an antenna. It lasted until I shifted out of reverse and hasn't happened since.

Otherwise both the backup camera and HUD have been fine. So far only only 3500km (2100 miles) on it.
 
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Today, after raining, my car died for a split second while turning left and recovered with all the service lights now on (check air bag, etc..). After a restart, everything was fine. Not too worried...just hope it doesn't happen again, and again...
 
Anyone experiencing electrical issues with their new CXS? I have my car at the dealer right now. On 2 separate occasions the instrument panel has shut off. When the panel comes back up, the air bag and tire pressure sensors fail. I have also had 2 occasions where a 2nd remote was detected while driving causing the electrical to shut off. My 2nd remote was 70 miles away at the time.

Okay, there is DEFINITELY something wrong with these cars - last night I stopped the car on the driveway to let the family out and my dash "turned off" and then came back on like I started the car, told me it found two FOBs and then told me that to service the air bag. I turned the car off and back on and everthing was back to normal, or is it???
 
Mad Max,
You can read my other posts detailing my woes with my CXS' electrical system. I've had a similar episode (minus the airbag warning) not long ago. The worst was when the car totally died stranding me and requiring roadside assistance to tow me to the dealership on 20 Sept. None of the explanations I've received so far make much sense so every time I get behind the wheel I wonder if the car will perform. Only plus is I don't have any of the vibration issues others have complained of (yet) and I don't use the memory seat function so don't care if it works or not. Having just moved I think my new job will be a long commute so I'll rack up the miles and when I get my money's worth out of it will trade it in... if it keeps running.
 
Mad Max,
You can read my other posts detailing my woes with my CXS' electrical system. I've had a similar episode (minus the airbag warning) not long ago. The worst was when the car totally died stranding me and requiring roadside assistance to tow me to the dealership on 20 Sept. None of the explanations I've received so far make much sense so every time I get behind the wheel I wonder if the car will perform. Only plus is I don't have any of the vibration issues others have complained of (yet) and I don't use the memory seat function so don't care if it works or not. Having just moved I think my new job will be a long commute so I'll rack up the miles and when I get my money's worth out of it will trade it in... if it keeps running.

Tduke, I hear you, like you I don't have the vibration issue but have a whole slew of "ghost" messages. Also, like yourself, I don't even bother to use the memory seat function. Just to add to your comments, I am glad that the car has a four year warranty.

The whole reason I had bought a Buick (first time in my life) was because of the quality ratings of previous models...
 
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