I am new to the forum....after making the plunge to buy my "dream car" and ridding myself of the old minivan...I seem to be having nothing but troubles for my decision. I am hoping someone here can point me in the right direction. I purchased a 2012 chev.suburban 1500 LTZ with 73000 miles in feb. On the way home from the dealership I discovered the cruise control did not work. One month later the "service suspension"light came on. Car had ran great for me...decided to get the light checked out at a local chevy garage and the said they could not find a recent code..they deletes the "history" and greased the connection, telling me if it came back on I needed a new shock...it has sporadically but I haven't decided if was worth the expensive price quoted. Now with that prob.on hold I make the trek back to the dealer where I puchased my car to have the cruise control fixed. They informed me they had changed the "module" and it was ready to be picked up..this was 5/22/15..I traveled from PA to NJ dealer and discovered on my way home...it does not hold the speed once the steering wheel button is lit up. They agreed to pay a local dealer for the repair. I took it to a local GM dealer and they informed me it needed a "body control module" which they could order and have the next day..this was a thur. 5/28/15. I couldn't leave my car overnight so they agreed to call on friday. No word from them on friday. I drove my car Friday and no issues. Saturday the car sat all day. Sunday car was slow to start but got me to my destination then left me sitting once I attempted to restart it. Used a battery box to start it..drove to auto zone and was told battery and alternator were fine. Took the car home it sat for Sunday night in to monday..dealership said they wouldn't have the part until Tuesday 6/2/15...so we left the car on the trickle charger Monday night into Tues...attempted to start the carbon tuesay and nothing left the quick charge plugged in for 10-15 and it started. Drove about ten miles to the dealership and shut the car off (whoops) it took the tech. Using jumper cables while keeping his rpms up and placing a battery pack on my car until it would finally start. So now it is in the garage for cruise control and for them to diagnose the dead battery but supposed "good" battery. Garage replaces the "body control module" and it won't program...informed that they had to escalate it to the "tech support" and told the car needs a clock spring assembly. They worked on this from supposedly tues-fri.night. and the cruise now works but as for the battery...their 45.00 diagnosis..i need a new battery due to a bad cell. Picked the car up this am 6/6/15 and it was slow to start but it did.(I refused to pay them 280.00 for a battery and install) drove to advanced auto they tested my battery and informed me the battery did need a good charge but it was alright..they did tell me after testing the alternator that once shut off with nothing plugged in that my car is pulling 4.37amps...how does this happen. I had my car from the end of Feb. And have not had a problem until this cruise control fix...any ideas on where to start..has this happened to anyone else? Oh and the dealerships blame for the long diagnosis/original cause...found soda spilled in the ? Steering wheel or where ever they replaced parts that seemed to be the original issue for the malfunctioning cruise control. Thanks for any tips!!

 

Welcome to the forum.

Now that the cruise control appears to be fixed, you need to find out what's drawing the 4+ amps. You can do that by having an ammeter in series with the positive cable on the battery and pulling one fuse at a time to see what circuit is drawing the extra current.

 

I will add that before measuring the current draw on the battery a couple of things should be considered
1. is the vehicle still in RAP (retained accessory power) when the measurement was taken.
2. How old is the battery.

To release the RAP the keys must be out of the ignition and the drivers door opened and then closed ( opening the door releases the RAP relay, closing the door will allow the lights to turn off inside after ~45 seconds)

If the battery is more then 3 years old, replace it, I just went through this with a battery that was only about 3 years old.

Here is a link to a clamp on meter that I used to help diagnose issues...
https://chevroletforum.com/forum/tah...p-meter-64993/



Please keep us updated on what you find !





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Find a reputable shop that can check your ALTERNATOR. I know the parts store said it was ok, I suspect the RECTIFIER is going bad. Look for a place cose by that rebuild's alternators, they will check it for you. Just recently, one of those rebuilders rebuilt my alternator for $59,00, try and find one for that @ any part's store. That's how much profit there is for them. JMHO
Davig g.