H3 Some very weird issues

[altide8]

So I was camping this weekend about 2 hours from home. We were all packed up and starting to leave Sunday morning. When I slow down to stop at a stop sign, suddenly my h3 dies. I coast to the shoulder of the road. I try to crank it back up and nothing happens. Starter doesn’t engage, a buzzing from the fuse box, and abs light come on the dash. I give it 10 minutes or so and it cranks up as if nothing was ever wrong. When I go to put it in drive it dies again.
Now I’m not sure what to do. So I give it another 20 minutes to sit. I try it again and it cranks. I let it run in park for 10 minutes then start to drive it. I am able to drive it 2 hours home with no real issues. I park in the driveways and cut it off. After I unpack everything I go to move it and it won’t turn over at all. No dash lights, nothing. I’m honestly not sure what to look at. Any one experienced this? Or anything close?


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[alrock]

Battery terminals (and cables) are always the first thing to look at on the H3. I would also check the wiring harness under the fuse box in the engine compartment - some have had those break loose, or maybe it was removed before and not reseated properly. Make sure there are no bent pins.

I also wonder if it is two different issues - one stalling one and maybe isolated to one time, and then a Passlock issue on the ignition. But it sounds a bit like the non-starting issues have different symptoms on different times whereas with Passlock it would act up in the same manner each time.

 

[Jeepwalker]

Jeeeez, sounds like the ghost of Pontiac swooning over your vehicle!

This may not be it, but you might investigate starter switch issues on the Colorado forums (tied to the Pass system). I've read where worn keys can cause issues. A lot of Colorado owners claim the key cylinders can cause problems with the starting and eventually need replacing. I guess this happens with H3's too. The starting is computer controlled, when you engage the key, the (BCM?) takes over. I'm not sure what module but I've read about it some time ago. Common on most new cars/tks ..that's why many just have a button now. Wouldn't hurt to check for any corroded pins as Alrock suggested.

How old is your battery? Connections and battery condition (and good grounds) are more important than ever. When I removed the carpet on my wife's H3, one ground on the floor was strangely corroded at the wire connector.

 

[altide8]

The battery is 2 months old. I’m checking out as many grounds as I can tomorrow. The stalling along with the ignition issue is what is so hard to figure out. I can’t think of what might be causing it. Considering it will run in park fine. Just stalls in R or D


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[rascole]

Like alorck said.
1. battery terminals are junk.
2. wire harness under fuse box. I had to redo mine once.

 

[altide8]

I was getting nothing in terms of ignition. Then I hit the brake and gas a few times and gave it a go. It is running in park but I had no dash lights. After running for 5 minutes I have abs light on and the emergency brake light. Also it says abs fault. And fluid low. Which it is not.
It runs perfect in park. As soon as I put it in reverse it stalls


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[rascole]

Clean your battery post and terminals until they look like new, better yet, replace them. Corrosion can be hidden below the insulation out of sight, gremlins hide there.

 

[Jeepwalker]

Might wiggle the switch a few times too. Did you check the fusebox and fuse terminals?

 

[chad]

So I’m having a similar issue. I just had my transmission fixed for the second time, only 112k miles. But the issue is after I got it a couple days later I drove it to work no issue. Then I tried to go get food and nothing. All lights and everything does it’s cycle when the key turns but no engaging of the starter. It doesn’t do anything at all. Few hours later I got back in and no problem started right up and drove it no issues for last several days. Then just now it did the same thing. Won’t start nothing from the starter or nothing trying to turn the engine over. What suggestions you guys got, just dropped over $1k last week on transmission, now this starting issue happens.

 

[amrg]

Your issue sounds like passlock....search master cylinder instal for more info

 

[chad]

Found my issue, when the shop worked on my transmission they broke a wiring harness connector so it didn’t lock in place, it worked itself lose and the car wasn’t registering it being in park or anything.

 

[scoreh3]

Glad you found the problem, just another thing to store in the back of our mind if the truck won’t start. Where was the connection located? Thanks for the update.

 

[chad]

Was near the shifting cable where it goes into the transmission.

 

[scoreh3]

Ok , thanks ...