jeffsw6

I've got a 2005 K1500 Suburban LTZ w/5.3 and ~105k miles. A year or two ago, the voltage gauge on the dash stopped working. Recently the oil pressure gauge started showing 0 PSI but there is no "Low Oil Pressure" warning on the digital DIC display, and no unusual engine sound. I suspect the instrument cluster problem is just getting a little bigger; would you agree? I think if it was the oil pressure sender, the DIC message would show up and probably CEL come on. This might be what forces me to finally spend the money to replace the cluster.


In addition, this truck has an electrical mystery. It will sometimes drain the battery completely, to the point that lights don't work & radio loses memory; this can happen just a day or two after driving it. Even worse, jump-starting it won't work or I'll have to charge the battery for a real long time before it will attempt to start, and sometimes the cabin lights, etc. won't work even with a charger connected (sometimes they will but the engine won't crank.)

I've replaced the battery around 5 times in the past two years before I finally had the good sense to ask the auto parts store to test one for me, and their print-out showed my battery was in almost-new condition.

I thought I had a short draining the battery but I placed my volt-ohm-meter in series with the positive battery cable and it reads 0 amps of draw unless I open a door or something to cause lights to activate.

I think my gremlin is an anti-theft system malfunction. I believe my "problem jump-starting" or recharging the dead batteries was really anti-theft crap as the most recent "failed battery" definitely didn't have a dead cell and was perfectly good according to the auto shop's load test device.

Would an anti-theft system issue store a code that could be read by an OBD II reader? How else could I diagnose this problem?

Thanks & happy Thanksgiving

Scotiapilot

do a search for "dash" or dash board problems, you cluster is likely bad and needs fixed. I forget the exact issue but it is common