bad350trk

I was going through the TPMS relearn process and during that process my battery drained to the point that it would not start the vehicle. When I tried to start it I got the service system indicators on the readout for basically every system. It tried to crank once and then the second time I tried it the vehicle went completely dead. I cycled through all of the displays to check everything and the engine hours were reset.

I have searched a few other forums and gotten nothing. I came here and searched and saw that at least 2 others have had this phenomena occur on their trucks. It appears from reading one of the other posts that this occurs when the battery is drained and you try to start. That is how mine happened. I am just curious if any one has ever figured out a reason for why it would reset.

I am thinking that it has to do with the display itself and not the computer since the engine hours should be stored in the ECM along with the mileage etc. I called the dealer to discuss and nobody there had ever heard of this happening. Is it possible to reset the display to read the correct value? Is it worth going in and having them correct this?

EDIT: I should have mentioned that this is on a 2007 LTZ Tahoe. Early build, the original purchase date on my registration is Feb '06.

Thanks,

Jeff

e

Its happened to me as well. Pretty much the same way yours did but my died from leaving the truck parked for a week and a half. I have it noted at the dealer but everytime I bring it in for oil changes either I or the dealer can't get together to get it fixed. I have to bring it in next week foran alignment and a oil change so we're going to check it. If I get some news I'll post it.

bad350trk

e,

Did you ever get anything figured out with the dealer on your engine hour meter?

Just thought I'd check.

Thanks,

Jeff

bad350trk

Sorry to dig up an old post but I have a new development with this issue. Here's the scoop. The long version is below, the short version is that the engine hour meter reset once again today.

My wife took the tahoe to the dealer today to have the 50k transmission service performed. I had her inform them about the engine hour meter resetting and asked them if they could take a look at it. I told her to ask if there was any way that they would be able to reprogram the correct value, or a close guesstimate, into it.

She then decides that she doesn't want to wait on the truck and that I needed to come pick her up and let her have the Jeep for the day. No problem. The service writer calls me later in the day to talk a little bit about the engine hour meter and to tell me that it is ready to pick up. I went and picked it up a few hours later and had a nice conversation with him, although no headway was made on the engine hour meter issue.

They performed the transmission flush and there was a software issue that was causing a Service 4WD indicator (code 0327) to come on, so they reprogrammed the computer to prevent this.

They looked into the engine hour meter issue but could not figure anything out. He questioned me a little bit on it because he thought that 1600 hours (which is about what it should have) was a lot. He thought that the 300 was closer to correct. I explained to him that with 300 hours and 49818 miles that would equate to an average speed of 163+ MPH. He said that he was going to talk to a different tech that was a little more saavy with the computer stuff and what not. He did tell me that they had to send the clusters out to be programmed to ISSA or something like that and that they could not change the display of the meter in house. He informs me that he is going to look into it a little more and get back in touch with me. I thanked him, paid for my service and left.

Well, as I was pulling off the lot, the truck doesn't go, kind of like the transmission is severly slipping. I think to myself great, now the transmission just blew up. I look down and the engine is running but it won't go. Then I try to accelerate and it dies. Well, it turns out that my wonderful wife took it to the dealer with NO FUEL in it and when I made the turn, it ran out. Well, I tried to restart it a few times because my initial thought was the transmission, not that it was out of fuel. This successfully drained my battery to the point that nothing but the check engine light would come on when I turned it on. That and the DIS or whatever was telling me to service the traction control system. (EDIT) I just realized that everything on the dash and in the interior goes extremly dim, but that the exterior lights still work. I had my flashers on the entire time and they never slowed down. I also noticed that the exit lighting was on while I was trying to get the back hatch to electronically open, which BTW didn't work.

So I am fortunate enough to have a police officer pull up behind me and he pushed me about a 1/8 mile to the nearest filling station. I filled up and had to beg for a jump start. Once I got it fired up, I left and as I was leaving became curious, since the last time the hour meter reset the battery was just as dead, so I decided to check the hour meter. Sure enough, it reset to 0.0 hours. So when I left the dealer I had 305.4 hours and now it has again reset to 0 hours. So I immediately call the service writer and inform him of the situation and that the engine hour meter had reset once again. I informed him that it seems to do so when the battery is completely dead and you continue to try to start it.

Seeing as both I and 'e' have had the same issue with the hour meter resetting, and both meters reset with about the same circumstances (dead battery and attempt to start) it would appear that if a battery is dead, still has a little juice, but dead to the point that essentially nothing lights up, and you are attempting to start it, that the engine hour meter will reset.

Does anyone care to go pull their fuel pump fuse and try this to verify? I think that is what I am going to suggest my dealer try.

e

bad350, I did have it checked out at the end of 07, and I pretty much got the same response. They didn't know if it could be reset or corrected. About 2 hours after I brought it in they called me and asked if I knew how many hours I had on the truck before it reset. I was thinking they might of had a fix but nope they just wanted to know.......I have a customer that has a bone stock tahoe, and his has done the same thing.

bad350trk

I wonder how many people have had this happen and don't realize it because they don't normally pay attention to the engine hours, they just scroll through and see a value and assume that all is well?

I've talked to 2 dealerships around here and neither had ever heard of it before. I hope that the service advisor gets somewhere on this. At least an answer as to what is causing it. I have had a dead battery before and tried to start but I cranked it once and it didn't start so I stopped immediately and jumped it. Then I checked the hours and they were still good. It has to have something to do with a pretty substantial drain on the battery.

Jeff

73shark

Pretty sure mine has reset/changed at least once as my average speed is ~55 mph. I know that's not possible. Wonder why that value isn't in non-volatile memory like the odometer?

addkev

I am in no way trying to be a smart a$$, but why are you so concerned about the hours? As long as your mileage stays accurate for warranty issues.

bad350trk

Addkev,

It isn't so much that I am concerned about the hours, its just that it isn't right. I personally use the engine hours as another piece of information that can assist with monitoring my fuel consumption, service, etc. I actually have considered using hours instead of miles for maintenance on my Dodge. I haven't made that change yet because I can't come to a good conclusion as to how many hours is the 'right' amount.

For me it is more about the fact that something is wrong. I expect my equipment to function as intended and when it doesn't, I like to know why and take the measures to correct it.

I think I have decided that the next opportunity I get, I am going to pull the fuel pump fuse and try to get the engine hours to reset again. That way I at least know what triggers it.

lpmZ71

Engine hours are stored in the vehicles PCM and the dealer should be able to obtain this info with the Tech 2. T
he hours resetting to zero is a cluster probelm and should be repaired with a exchange cluster if a programming update is not availiable.

Mike