Cyclops - Chevy

[Justwondering]

So I picked up my Chevy (2001) truck from the mechanic.
I have a question..

Other than the obvious that its a Chevy and not a Mopar, why do these Chevy trucks from the 1990- 2010's always seem to have one front light out?

Mine always seems to be the driver's side blinker.

Is there a design flaw? The gasket looks good, I've replaced the housing yet just after I got it inspected and had not even made it to the tax office to get a registration sticker... the dang blinker failed.

I even ran a bead of silicone down all the seams last time and yet it failed again and I swear, it has not been driven 30 miles since I last changed that bulb.

JW

 

[Sub03]

Well, I've had a '97 Suburban, '03 Suburban and a '09 Tahoe and never experienced any problems with bulbs burning out.
Could it be a vibration problem causing it? Either the socket being loose or the bulb rattling in the socket?
Could also be a overvoltage issue, but that should cause other bulbs burning out too...
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[Mikes5thAve]

I've never noticed that problem? Maybe some sort of wiring problem?
My 04 Yukon was the best Suv I had.

 

[Justwondering]

Well, it was my dad's truck.
Has over 301,000 miles now.
Maybe it was made on a Monday.
Dad never paid for dealer replacement -anything, so maybe the problem is chinese wiring.
I've never seen rat pellets near the lights so I don't think its vermin.
If it was vibration, wouldn't both filaments fail?
Perhaps I should try an LED.
JW

 

[Aspen500]

At work we replaced front bulbs on that era Chevy trucks all the time. DRL bulbs were the #1 replacement, followed by park/signal bulbs, and lastly the headlight bulbs.

It's kind of like if someone asks why the headlights burn out constantly on '98-'09 VW Beetle's. It's just what they do.

 

[Justwondering]

Planned Obsolescence?​

Planned obsolescence describes a strategy of deliberately ensuring that the current version of a given product will become out of date or useless within a known time period. This proactive move guarantees that consumers will seek replacements in the future, thus bolstering demand.

Kinda my feeling on the matter. Another way to shave a half-cent on production by the bean-counters (no offense intended to those of you that are accountants)

JW

 

[Aspen500]

Just wait until someone has the LED parking light or headlight fail on their 2023 whatever and has to replace the $2,500 lamp assy. Integrated LED taillamps are roughly $800 and up. If they fail, only repair is to replaced the entire assy. Yep, progress............

 

[AMC Diplomat]

Just wait until someone has the LED parking light or headlight fail on their 2023 whatever and has to replace the $2,500 lamp assy. Integrated LED taillamps are roughly $800 and up. If they fail, only repair is to replaced the entire assy. Yep, progress............

It's much worse than this already

 

[AMC Diplomat]

Planned Obsolescence?​

Planned obsolescence describes a strategy of deliberately ensuring that the current version of a given product will become out of date or useless within a known time period. This proactive move guarantees that consumers will seek replacements in the future, thus bolstering demand.

Kinda my feeling on the matter. Another way to shave a half-cent on production by the bean-counters (no offense intended to those of you that are accountants)

JW

Planned obsolescence is a get rich quick scam designed to rob money from average people. Buy buy buy, consume, buy more!

 

[kkritsilas]

In the case of GMs of that time period, I think GM started cutting corners on OEM parts quality at that time. My 2006 Monte Carlo SS had the same issue, but with the backup/reverseing lights. I ended up replacing the socket with a third party socket, and the problem went away. I looked at the factory socket, and couldn't see anything wrong, it just wouldn't make contact with the lamp base properly. Even the bulb was fine, and I reused it. GM has been using junky parts for years, and its getting worse.

As for headlight assemblies, I used to own a 2003 Lincoln Mark VIII. Best car that I ever owned. The 1993 had regular quartz halogen bulbs. In 1995, that model got a improved light bulbs, moving to the HID headlights, which was necessary, as the older model Mark VIIIs had a serious issue with the headlights at night, due to their only being about 1" high. I thought about doing the conversion, but the total cost was about $1500 at the time, mostly due to the "ballast" (that's what they called it on the message boards, it was actually a board that would take the 12V and boost it up to high voltage to fire up the filament and get the gas inside the bulbs to glow). I just ended up going with better quality quartz light bulbs (~$50 or so) and keeping the lenses spotlessly clean. After a few years, the "ballasts", and the bulbs. started to fail, as did the bulbs. Wait times was 3-6 months for replacement "ballasts" and HID bulbs. Ford had unique bulbs, and they were the only source for either the ballasts or the bulbs. And the prices on both kept increasing. When I got rid of my Mark VIII in 2010, a HiD bulb was in the $160 ea. range, and the ballasts were $800 each, if they were even available.

 

[Sub03]

Reminds me of my wife's Volvo.
One morning the electric parking brake was stuck on. I disconnected the brake motors and put 12 volts on them to get the brakes off so she could use the car to work. After that the dash displayed a backup sensor fault, system disconnected.
I found the backup sensors was connected to a box in the spare tire compartment. Followed the harness to another box under the floor. When I googled the number on that second box I found out it was controlling the electric parking brake...

I found the same box on a junkyard for $100 and replaced it. I lucked out because both the brakes and sensors worked fine afterwards. Apparently all this is controlled by CAN-bus or some other network sh*t, so one faulty box drags the next one down the toilet.
I mean whats the freakin' point in making these simple options so complicated??

 

[AMC Diplomat]

Apparently all this is controlled by CAN-bus or some other network sh*t, so one faulty box drags the next one down the toilet.
I mean whats the freakin' point in making these simple options so complicated??

This can-bus shit is why I sold my last town car. When one goes, they all go. Ford used the last two generations of town cars for all kinds of vehicle experiments (vehicle networks, aluminum body panels) before they pushed that technology into the rest of their line up.

I hate it.

 

[Aspen500]

Many times at work I ran into cars with multiple faults (customer complaints). On a vehicle scan 3 or 4 modules wouldn't communicate. Usually a matter of going over the module network schematics to find which one of the failed modules was first in the system and dissconnect it. Poof, the other midules came back on line. Order new module and install it, then the worst part, programming it to the vehicle. Requires a lap top, pass through interface box, and going through all the manufacturers bs on their tech site to buy the program, then wait for it to download to the module. A lot of times the programming took longer than the whole rest of the job. Ford isn't too bad, GM is a lot of screwing around with passwords so it takes longer, Chrysler, forget it. We always sent those to the dealer. Just isn't worth the hassle to do them in house, trust me.

Programming......Time to replace the trans on a newer Chevy 4x4 pickup (high trans failure rate), around 6-7 hours. Time to program the TCM (part of the valve body), 1 hour minimum on average plus the $60 charge to buy the program from GM. Man I'm glad I don't have to do that crap anymore!