Well, to be honest the subject say's it all. Ever since I have owned the vehicle I've had the bad light deal where all the light (ineterior/exterior) flicker. Damn that is annoying and unsafe if you think about on coming traffic that thinks your flashing them or something. If anyone know's the fix please let me know cause the dealership sure doesn't wanna help.

The start ups are a little rough. It kinda reminds me of when a car diesel's when you turn it off, but in this case when you start it and it doesn't start. Again, if anyone know's the fix please feel free to let me know.

Thank's alot for what may be the fix to my headache!

 

1) On the flickering issue, I have the same thing on my wife's 2005 uplander LT. I am going to try replacing the battery before winter anyway, but I don't think it is the battery. Best thing you can do is submit a complaint to the NHTSA about the headlights flickering which is what I did....if they get enough complaints GM will have to do something about it. Flickering headlights are a major safety issue....it almosts seems like the vehicle is loosing all electrical powre for a split second...like maybe a bad ground or something.

2) On the hard start issue, I have the same thing as well. It only seems to happen after the vehicle is warm + has only been turned off for a short time. For example, if I drive the vehicle for half an hour and then go into the store for 15 minutes, then come back out it doesn't want to fire up. My brother-in-law has been a chevy mechanic since 1974 at the same dealership. He says that these cars are notorious for burning up fuel pumps...but that usually causes a no start condition....but we were talking and thinking it may be possible that the fuel pump has a bad motor and just isn't building enough pressure...the car also seems to have no power at all...but then if you step down on the gas hard....about 10 seconds later it will give a surge of power. It's not bogging down or hesitating at all though and I have cleaned the throttle body recently which hasn't fixed either issue.

Some other issues with the uplanders in general are

-warped rotors/pulsating brakes, this fix being new rotors

-Fuel guage goes crazy....drop the tank and put in a new sending unit....haven't done this yet on mine...but will eventually and I will also plan to do a fuel pump while I have the tank down just in case.

-The strap for the lift gate is so poorly designed that it brakes very eaily.

-Strut mounts and struts are garbage....don't count on them lasting longer than 60k miles.

When I slap in a new battery, I will let you know if that fixes it...but this car would be gone if it weren't for the fact that my wife loves it so much. I wlil not own another GM product that is for sure.

 

please see my post titled Uplander Gremlins, a poster replied with the flickering lights is the voltage regulator...makes sence to me..my voltage reads from 14.2 to 15 volt on the info center..

my gas gauge will read empty if the van is backed into the driveway (up hill) and is hard to start in that position, seems the float kills the fuel pump if the gas reading is low..maybe its a safty feature, I think its just crap parts from Mexico..

 

I have had 2 Uplanders as company vans, and both are crap, terrible how the new engineers DO NOT learn from previous engineers. The alternator on my 1st van was pulsing the lights so much and so much of a voltage that sometimes cars approaching would flash thier lights back as a greeting! The dealer would not correct the problem since there were some LED flashing lights for traffic control mounted on the van, they said those lights were causing the problem, but i had not installed the lights until the 3rd week running, the alternator was bunked from the 1st night out! even still, just wait until you find out that GM now uses Plastic encased bearings on the front end ! good luck, hopefully GM and Chrysler will both go the way of the BETA VCR.

 

i think you will find that the bouncing voltage is the alternator, the voltage indicator inside the cab cant act fast enough to show the dips. if you watch it even when accelerating to cause a voltage flash the reading inside stays normal, least on mine it did. on my new 08 i have installed a 2nd reserve battery to power the traffic lights and computer, this battery is properly installed and gets the charge from the vehicle system. Other than the electrical failures my new 08 so far has not shown this issue. but it still has plastic wheel bearings! YaY for GM

 

have 2006 uplander been prob since day one brakes lights flickering it overstarts they told me at dealer computer and sending unit out of sink nothing they could do.they put new module on for lights quit until warranty up now back worse than before.had to replace tie rods at 39,000 mi. then front wheel bearing.stalls when first start up plus the overstar....also dealer replaced knuckles was in shop 15 times with little results a lot of excuses.brakes totally froze melted hubcap the day after they fixed notified gm did zero still owe one year wothless on trade stuck any good solutions would be appreciated....