I've got a 2001 Tahoe LTZ. This weekend, I had to replace the transmission shifter linkage inside the steering column ($250 for the part -- ouch). That's all back together, but now all my electricals are dead. I'm guessing a blew a fuse or shorted something when I was dismantling the dash. This is our only vehicle that will hold our entire family, so I need to get it working ASAP.

Headlights, dome lights, dash indicators, door locks, nothing works. When I hit the door lock button on the drivers door, I hear the relays inside the other doors click, but the locks don't move. When I turn on the hazard button, I get a solid buzzing from the interior fuse panel. It doesn't matter what position the ignition key is in. My dash gauges used to work part-way through the steering column disassembly process, but now they're all dark.

Battery shows 12.2V. I checked all the fuses both by the drivers door and under the hood, and all are good. The relay box (?) on the firewall above the e-brake pedal is emitting a click on regular, 5-second intervals. I tried removing each of the four relays, one at a time, but none made any difference.

What did I do, and what needs replacing to fix it? This really sounds like I either yanked out a wire or shorted a connection & blew a fuse, but I can't find where. I need ideas ASAP!

Disassembly photos are online at
http://photos.jedi.com/2010/20101009/
in case you see something that I don't.

 

Wow that is a good one. Was there any ground wires that you removed or could have knocked loose?

 

I didn't intentionally remove any wires. I've looked, but can't find anything that might have gotten knocked loose.

The fact that the headlights and door locks (items that normally work regardless of the ignition key position) don't work makes me think there's a fuse or something farther upstream that's damaged, and that my problem doesn't lie in or near the steering column.

My wife just informed me that Saturday (when the truck refused to start), she turned the key, and the dash lit up for only half a second before going dark. Perhaps this wasn't my fault after all.

 

I would start by checking both the engine bay fuse/relay box and the fuse box under the dash. I assume you already took a look through the fuse box under the dash, but may have overlooked something whilst doing so. It's situations like these where I thank my dad daily for drilling into my head that everytime I touch anything in my car I should disconnect the battery.

As for your wife having turned the key and seeing light that makes it seem as if there may be some sort of short in the wiring either between the wiring to the harness, or from the harness to the fuses. But like I said take a look at both fuse panels and see if anything comes out burned up. If it doesn't take a test light to the wiring coming from the fuses that run your instrument cluster and accessories to check for hot coming in and out.

 

As an I.T. guy, I've been trained to be very suspicious of coincidences. However, this time, that's exactly what it was. It turns out that the positive battery cable was pretty corroded, but that wasn't visible (side post connection) until the terminal was disconnected. Once I cleaned that up with a wire brush, everything sprang to life. It was purely coincidence that the corrosion become "too" bad at the same time that I was monkeying with the steering column. I wasted way too many hours on that one.

 

The Big 3 on all my vehicles helps this not become an issue. Glad you got her fixed!

 

I'll have to remember that one - "Be suspicous of coincidence". Glad you got it fixed!