The_Stees

hey everyone,

i have an 07 Tahoe LS with the manual liftgate. all the forums im finding are issues that are strictly with the power lift gate, so i am here to ask for help.

back liftgate button did not work at all (glass and wiper still work fine), checked the fuse it was blown. put in a new one pulled the lifgate switch and it blew again tried this a few more times to be sure. took out the latch motor and tested it by attaching it to a dewalt battery. latch worked fine. took the switch out cut it at the wires and tested the latch with raw wires . everything seemed to work great. so i bought a new latch switch. installed the latch switch and it worked wonderful i probably tested 100xs just to make sure it wouldnt blow the fuse. worked good for a few days then didnt and checked the fuse it was blown. put a new fuse in and it worked again for a few days with me checking the hatch every chance i could throughout the days. then wake up one morning and it doesnt work again with another blown fuse.

i do not have the money right now to bring it somewhere and need my full hatch for my job. if anyone has gone through this issue or knows how to fix or can just point me in the right direction THANK YOU!!!!

SWHouston

I hate to even mention this, and it may be nearly imposable to find, but...
It sounds like you got a bare wire rubbing up against the frame somewhere. The right temperature or shake, it shorts and takes the system out.

My best guess.

The_Stees

Right now ill take any options to keep me pushing forward. im going to look at all moving areas first where wires might rub sharp aluminum. thank you for the input.

73shark

The_Stees: Welcome to the forum.

First place I'd look is where the wires pass from the hatch to the body. They may be taped up so you'll have to untape to check.

in2pro

I'll third that notion....
Sound like the wire harness is pinched or worn somewhere in the line, and possibly close to the handle as it stopped for a while when you moving things around to replace the handle... I'd follow the wire harness in the gate with your hand as well as check where it enters the gate as 73shark suggested...

The_Stees

Thanks guys for the input, I briefly looked tonight in areas of concern pretty much thee
3 areas where the wires pass through the hatch to the main body. Everything seems to be in order but I did not remove any electrical tape yet .that is my next step. Any suggestions on what I might be looking for if it isn't obvious from a bare wire etc. I'm pretty damn good with my hands but electrical is my weakness.

Again thank you all for the help.

73shark

Not knowing what the latch mechanism looks like, there's a possibility that there's an intermittent electrical fault occurring inside it.

The_Stees

to me the latch mechanism sounds weak when opening the door. i put in another fuse just to see if the timing of when the fuse blows is random or simultaneous with my 3 days.

im going to try and see if i know someone around with another tahoe and see when opening their lifgate to see if the motor sounds like mine does.

thank you and again if you have any other suggestions throw them my way