Suburban Blues

Yeah it seems the past couple of days I've hit a minor speed bump on my happy little journey. The upside though is that I now have a 2001 Suburban to drive for a few days! Not that I don't enjoy my vehicle at all, I do, I like driving a diesel.

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a point A to point B person. I spent a few years in a body shop and as a result looks of a vehicle just don't really thrill me anymore. If it runs and is reliable I'm pretty happy. I'll drive it until the wheels fall off.

I start up my Suburban at work and about half way home I notice it is overcharging. There's a problem! I don't know what, the alternator is less than two years old and I know it is good after that rash of having bad ones a couple of years ago. So I get home and turn it off. I was planning on turning it back on again to see if it would have fixed itself, that maybe the gauge was glitching or something. I turn the key back on and NOTHING. It is now doornail dead.

Now with a new mechanical mystery to solve I pop the hood and start to sleuth it. A diesel is a pretty simple engine. You only need electricity to start it, you happen to need quite a bit as the compression on this engine is about 22 to 1 but you need it. Now I didn't have any which is a problem. I turned on the lights, check! They worked! Ok I know that the batteries are alright. I put the charger on them anyway and they are good according to the fancy gauge! Ok I'm getting closer now! I have a suspicion that it might be the glow plug controller on the back of the engine. I push on it a couple of times to make sure the plug is properly seated and WOW the console lights back up and I start it again!

So within about a half hour of pushing, prodding, and doing mechanic things I think I have the problem narrowed down. I turn the engine off and try again.....NOTHING. So now I am pretty sure that is the problem.

I'll have to call my garage this morning after I get to work and tell them what is going on with it. I'm sure that the controller has gone bad for some reason even though it was new. No big deal it should still be under warranty now.