JPTL

'07 Suburban LTZ (bought used):
This morning my wife hopped in her Suburban to go to work and got a click-click from the starter. Interior lights on, etc. but not enough CCA to turn over the engine.
This (was) a healthy Optima Yellow Top. Until this morning, it was behaving as it should (cranked just fine, even on cold mornings). The contacts are as clean as they should be. No aftermarket accessories. Although I have a spare, healthy battery installed the Aux. battery tray, there's no harness & therefore it's never been hooked up.
She swears that she didn't leave anything on last night when she parked it, and I believe her...
..unlike 4 years ago when the same thing happened to my wife:
A different '07 Suburban that we bought new. After sitting in a parking lot for only 4 hours, her Suburban with less than 20k miles on it had a dead battery. I accused her of leaving something on. She swore up & down that she didn't.
We later were notifed of an issue with the '07 in which the BCM needed to be reprogrammed to remedy a battery drain.

Is anyone familiar with the details/circumstances surrounding the BCM reprogramming?
Is there anything specific that brings on this battery drain?
Are there any symptoms that start popping up prior to an issue? My wife has mentioned quirky radio and blinker behavior in which the radio won't come on at all and the turn signal indicator doesn't 'click' when blinking.
Were all '07's affected?
How can I find out if ours has/had this issue and if it was addressed by the dealer before our ownership?

Thanks,
J.P.

Chevrolet Customer Service

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I would like to investigate further into the issue regarding your 2007 Suburban. Could you please PM me your VIN number so I may proceed.

I look forward to your reply.

Louis
GM Customer Service

73shark

The NBS lets the computer manage the charging system and supposedly contributes to increased gas mileage but from what I've seen and heard so far all it does is cause early battery failure and quick rundown.

blueinterceptor

I had the same problem with my 07 suburban. I left my hazard lights on for 10 minutes and that's all she wrote. Computer was reprogrammed and problem was fixed.

JPTL

Since my first post, I looked into this a bit more. My urgency has been precipitated by my wife now refusing to drive this Suburban since she has a legitimate fear of being stranded.. and the fact that I'm going out of town right after Christmas.
I pulled the service records from our first '07 Suburban and lo and behold, in Sept. of '07 we had the following service performed on the vehicle after the battery rundown episode:
When we purchased our current '07 Suburban from the Chevy dealer in Dec. of 2010, I inquired if all recalls had been performed. I was assured that they had. However shortly after our purchase, we got a recall notice re: 10153 - the heated washer module issue.
Since this recall was issued in July of '10 and we bought the car 5 months later, clearly all recalls hadn't been done when we purchased the car.

I decided to contact the service department at the dealership where we bought this Suburban. I told the service tech what were experiencing with our current Sub and that we had gone through a very similar situation in '07 with our previous Sub: complete drain of a healthy battery in an '07 Suburban. I told him that we had taken it in to his dealership immediately after it occured in 9/07 and had Recall 07033 performed, and that cured the issue.
He said that it was performed at no charge because it was under warranty. So let me get this straight: I'll be charged for the recall to be performed because my current '07 Sub is out of warranty?!!!
EDIT 12/22/11: Even though my old service invoice refers to 07033 as a "RECALL/CAMPAIGN", according to GM, 07033 is not a recall, but a Service Update. Therefore it's coverage is only within the warranty period. Oh well.

Louis, that would be great if you could look into this from your end. I have an appointment with the service dept. tomorrow morning. I'd like to know where we stand on this issue & if in fact my '07 is under this recall campaign.
PM sent.

JPTL

I was starting to think that this 'no radio' thing was in my wife's head.
But after driving to the grocery store, I got back into the Sub & although I'd left it on when I parked, the radio was off (CD/DVD, no Nav) when I started it. It wouldn't power back on by pressing the power button. No lights on the radio..no nothing.
Although there were no visible sign of power, I heard whirring coming from the head unit - as though a CD was being read, or an MP3 was being "sorted". It was constant & louder than a nav disc running. Based on the loudness & consistency, there was clearly power being used. Probably enough to drain a healthy battery over time.
There was a DVD & an MP3 disc in the head unit, BTW.
I checked the blinker 'no sound' as my wife had mentioned, & although the dash indicator was flashing, there was no audible "tick, tick".
I cycled the ignition a few times and the radio powered back up & blinker audible returned.
I strongly believe that this glitch is causing the battery drain - or at least a symptom of it about to happen.
Could this have something to do with an MP3 disc getting stuck in some kind of "sorting" loop in which it puts the other accessories in some sort of standby power while it does it's thing?
I'm going to remove the MP3 disc to see if this recurs.

lenore

did you ever find the problem JPTL? My friend has the exact same indications....

JPTL

I did.
I was hoping that it would be something that I could do myself. No such luck. I resigned myself to having the dealer do the two 'service updates' which are essentially reprogramming/reflashing both the BCM and the radio with updated versions of their respective software. This is not a labor-intensive job. Something like $75. It's just a matter of hooking up special equipment and running the reprogramming sequence.
Prior to leaving it with the service dept. I described the issue with the MP3 disc running continuously, even when the ignition was off, and the weird radio power behavior coupled with the silent blinker. The service guy confirmed that the blinker sound actually comes through the speakers, but said that he hadn't experienced a Suburban/Tahoe with the same behavior. However he didn't rule out a radio software glitch as being the battery rundown culprit.
He felt that the radio reprogram would likely correct the issue.
I believe that he & I were right, in that a radio reprogram did correct the issue - since we haven't had any battery rundown issues since.
My advice for those with unexplained battery drain issues like mine who haven't had the radio update done:
Have the BCM and the radio updates done by the dealership.
In the mean time, take special notice of the radio's behavior. If the radio randomly and without reason doesn't power on; and there's no sound when a blinker is activated, avoid parking the vehicle for an extended time in that state.
Before leaving the vehicle parked for an extended period, listen for a whirring sound coming from the radio/CD player when the ignition is off. If you hear the constant whir, try to restore the radio power by cycling the ignition/accessory on-off. Check to see if an Mp3 disc is playing or an Mp3 disc is in the CD drive. If it is, eject it.

It's my opinion that a software glitch puts the radio into an Mp3 read/sort loop that scans the disc continuously even when the ignition is off. The process uses enough power to drain a healthy battery over a several hour period.

73shark

Thanks for reporting back. Will help others in the future.

Aussie John

Hi,
My '07 Tahoe is doing the same thing (battery dies) at 119K, thank you all for pointing me in the right direction. I did a parasitic battery draw test and confirmed that the radio/nav circuit is operating when the rest of the car is "asleep". I found a 2 to 3 Amp draw and by pulling fuse '41' (15 Amp RDO fuse) of the engine bay fuse compartment you will get the draw down to about 16 to 17 milliAmps which is totally acceptable. I have booked my Tahoe in at the local GM shop for a body control module reprogram / flash today for $90 and have my fingers crossed. By the way, if you want a great explanation of the parasitic battery draw test that I did, look up Eric the Car Guy on Youtube. He is great, accurate and a funny guy too.
Cheers,
John.