general problems of the 2003 Chevrolet Tahoe - part 1

I bought my 2003 chevy Tahoe used and as is at a dealership for $10,000. Yes, I've been robbed. The truck is in great looking condition. Has a little bit of superficial dings and a couple dents but overall exterior is great. Interior isn't shabby. Has wear on the driver's seat but not bad. The first thing that happened, I was on my way to work at 4 in the morning, turned on right blinker to change lanes, about blinded the guy in front of me with high beam lights. I thought I had bumped the switch, I took the right to get off at my exit I was more mindful. Definitely not a me thing. The high beam came on with the right blinker. So, the next thing. Cd player runs continuously without a disc in. I cannot put a disc in. There may be discs already in there, it is a 6 disc changer, but it will not play. The radio has a mind of its own. Plays what it wants at anytime its on. My husband drove it, tried to adjust the driver's seat and all it did was growl at him. It doesn't move except forward and back. My speedometer had a glitch one time. I was driving at 35mph and it showed 60mph. I turned it off, then back on, hasn't done that again. My heater works but it's difficult to change the individual temp settings. Almost as if the push buttons are worn inside or have a bad connection. The air conditioner only works when I'm on the freeway and not in stop and go traffic. The first time I turned on the ac, it blew all hot air for longer than 10 minutes. Halfway home I turned it on again but kept the button in off setting, I have cold air. There is a loud popping underneath when I turn left. Also, dropped into 4h driving down the highway at 65mph. Thought I was going to die. I have to drive in auto all wheel because the buttons are messed up. In 2h or 4h I get 4l. It is a mess. The dash is confused. 4 wheel does not go in easily, it bangs when it goes in and comes out. It really isn't safe but I was soaked on the price, I am female and first purchase. Should have bought a Ford.

Takata recall, today, may 31, 2019, I drove my truck to a meeting at 1:30 in the afternoon and parked my vehicle in the parking lot (it was stationary in a city parking lot). When I returned to my car after the meeting at 3:30 in the afternoon I open my car and the interior was engulfed in smoke. A component of the power seat on the drivers side started the fire. It was fortunate no one was in the truck at the time and the windows were closed. After the fire ignited and used up all the oxygen in the interior the fire burned out on it's own. I did call the fire department he had never seen anything like this before. (I've included the fire department investigators card and I can obtain a report if needed). The investigator was the one that determined where the fire started. He explained that the top layer of the seat upholstery has some fire retardant but the underside does not. You can see that the seat was burned from the bottom to the top, the electrical was still operational as you can see from the lights that are on in the photos. I can find no recall on this issue and your assistance would be appreciated. I can only imagine what would have happen if I had been behind the wheel while driving and or had my daughter with me. I am the sole owner of this chevy Tahoe since 2003. I was completely stock and no outside work has ever been done to it. I have had it regularly serviced and it was running great. I have never noticed any problems with my seats. I do not smoke and had no other combustibles in the car. Please see photo's attached. ## VIN passed ## chevy Tahoe 2003 ##.

While driving my instrument cluster stopped working pulled over unplugged battery started working but been happening a lot it has 180,000 on it.

My Tahoe caught fire inside the driver side dash. It was parked, no one had driven it that day. I put in a claim with gm (claim #sr 8-2955875514) and it was denied as they said there are no recalls for my Tahoe. This fire started out of no where. Thank goodness our neighbor came banging at the door to let us know that our Tahoe was on fire. We weren't home at the time but my son was, we arrived to find him with the water hose extinguishing the flames that were coming from inside the vehicle. I sent the pics to gm and they just denied it with no other explanation other than there was no current recall. They didn't even tell me why the fire started no one came out to see the vehicle.

While driving on the interstate at 70 mph the car switched to reduced engine power and reduced speed immediately to 25 mph, leaving me in the position to navigate through rush hour traffic to get to the side of the road. After happening a couple of times over a 30 period, it is now a regular occurrence. Each attempt to take the car in to a mechanic to be repaired results in the same issue occurring afterwards. Mechanics seem not to be able to determine the cause resulting in a completely unsafe car. The throttle body has been replaced, wire harness, pedal sensor, and throttle body sensor. Nothing has solved the problem!.

Speedometer quit working. Gm needs to step up and fix this problem.

When I when to pull out of my drive way 3 or 4 weeks ago I turned on my left turn signal and the four hazards started flashing! it stopped and started back up again and now does it all the time!.

Abs, brake service light comes, door locks cycle repeatedly, loses power and won't start.

The contact owns a 2003 Chevrolet Tahoe. The contact stated that smoke came from under the hood. The contact took the vehicle to the dealer where it was determined that the blower relay resister module failed. This failure caused the air conditioner to fail and it smelled like plastic was burning. The vehicle had not been repaired. The failure and current mileages were 135,000.

Tl-the contact owns a 2003 Chevrolet Tahoe. The contact was driving approximately 30 mph when the front passenger's side door independently opened whenever the power window device was activated. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer for diagnosis. The technician failed to mention which part would need to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the problem. The approximate failure mileage was 73,430. Kmj.

When driving, I noticed my speedometer registered around 80 and it was on a road that I normally go about 55. Many others were passing me, and I couldn't believe people would be going 90 or 100. And I certainly didn't feel I was going 80. I slowed down to 55, and I was crawling. I came to a stop light, and my speedometer went down to 15 at a stand still. I sped up again, and the same thing. Now it is stuck at 40 when sitting still and goes to about 100 when I drive. Apparently googling this, it appears to be a massive problem and no one can understand why a recall hasn't been issued. The dealer told me a bad cluster at $650 to repair. This needs to be escalated and Chevrolet needs to cover this problem. It is an extreme hazard on the road, and probably has caused many accidents and fatalities because of faulty readings. Please let me know what else I can do to get resolution.

I was driving my 03 Tahoe, when an explosion went off in my vehicle. My entire back end of my Tahoe was literally blow to bits. There were no other vehicles or people around me. I immediately called the police dept. They were shocked to see the condition of my vehicle and said it looked to them, that it was a chevy malfunction of some sort. I called my insurance company right away. They came out and towed the vehicle. They were also shocked to see the damage, and had no idea what or why it had happened. After assessing all the damage they found it would cost $2000 to fix the damage. Ins. Said they were willing to cover the damage, we had to pay a $500 deductible. I have five kids who are normally in the truck with me, thank god that morning, they were not. Glass was blown all over the inside of my truck, the noise alone would have damaged their ears, mine were ringing all day. I also contacted chevy's customer service line. I spoke with an agent there who as no help, asked to speak to her supervisor, and she was no help. I then asked for whoever was above her, and I was told there was no one else to help me. I asked for a name, a phone number, an email anything for someone with more authority and was told that there was no one. This is wrong! what if I had been driving down i95, or what if I had my children with me?? then id be suing chevy for millions! im asking is that they cover the $500 deductible since this is obviously something that is a safety issue. This wasn't normal wear and tare, this wasn't something that was just out of warranty and isn't covered. This is crazy! this is obviously a chevy defect and needs to be addressed. I am sending pictures so you can see how horrible this was. This wasn't just the back glass shattered, this was like a bomb literally blew off my back door, while I was driving. Chevy needs to take responsibility for this.

The contact owns a 2003 Chevrolet Tahoe k1500. The contact stated that the heater failed and would only emit extremely hot air. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where they advised the contact that the blower resister and plug needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and offered no assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 130,000. Updated 05/21/12.

I have noticed several complaints about this issue and it appears gm does not care. My speedometer is never correct. It runs 20-30 mph over (and sometimes under) what we are actually doing. This first was noticed several weeks ago (prior to actually failing) when it appeared that the needle would jerk (or step action) up or down, I know Chevrolet sent out a notice on this a year or so ago, but my vehicle was beyond their (gm) mileage requirement. I feel that their "bean counters" knew this at the time and it was against the american consumer. Anyway, this should be a safety concern by not only gm, but dot as well simply on the fact that one does not know how fast they are going. If caught off guard - thinking they are going 70 mph but doing 90 mph, loose control or run into someone. On the opposite side, doing 70 mph, glance down and see that they are doing 90 mph, they may hit the brake too hard to sloww down and loose control or get rear ended. I could go on more with this issue, but it will probably not help (except add to the piles of complaints you are already receiving), so I'll quit for now. Thank you and please "light a fire" under gm's corporate people before someone gets killed over this.

The speedometer failed - indicating incorrect speed. For example, driving through town at the normal flow of traffic (20-30 mph) the speedometer indicates 50+ mph.

03 chevy Tahoe with 28000 miles,all gauges quit working,have no idea how fast we are going,no idea on gas,oil pressure etc. I am afraid to drive this and can not afford 700. To fix what should have been a safety recall.

My control panel lights and heat and air control knobs are going out. My back seat seatbelt sometimes want latch and my 3rd row seating will not latch to the bracket. My stearing is bad it will not line up and thats just the begining of the problems that should not happen. My grandkids ride in this vehicle.

The contact owns a 2003 Chevrolet Tahoe. The contact stated that the speedometer would intermittently read inaccurate speeds. For instance, when driving 10 mph, the vehicle would read that the contact was traveling over 50 mph and vice versa. The contact had previously received notification of a manufacturer's extended warranty offer for vehicles experiencing the failure with less than 70,000 accumulated miles. The contact stated that because his vehicle was over 70,000 miles they would not be liable for the vehicle. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure and current mileages were 120,000.

The gas guage reads 1/4 full when out of gas. . . Once on highway and once at home. . . Now I fill up at when guage reads 1/2 full. . .

Our 2003 Tahoe has strange speedometer readings that are not correct. It caused us to travel faster than was safe on the road. When noticed we slowed down pulled over and waited for another car to follow.

I bought a 2003 Tahoe with 69,000 miles on it and about 20,000 miles later the speedometer stops working it is hard to drive this way. I found out that there was an issue with this on other g. M vehicles and was covered if the miles were under 70,000 miles. Now I am struck with the repair costs. If there was some sort of recall then my truck should have been fixed before I bought it, but nothing was said about it.

My husband and I were traveling to houston this past weekend, when we looked down at the speedometer to see that we were traveling at a rate of 120 mph. Since flow of traffic was passing us quite easily, we were assured that we were not, in fact, traveling 120 mph. When we parked the car, we were still traveling at 120 mph. Gm is aware of this issue with their product, but has not done a full scale recall. Instead, they have a 7 year/70,000 mile warranty extension. The issue with that is that we purchased this car with more than 70k miles on it. The dealership knowingly sold us a vehicle that had major issues with the speedometer.

Speedometer on 03 Tahoe stuck on 90mph. Have heard tons of complaints on this and still no recall issued. What to do???????.

I purchased a 03 chevy Tahoe that currently only has 45,000 miles. Recently, my speedometer intermittently stops working. I notice it happened once on a trip out of state, now it is happening more frequently. I am also experiencing my radio changing stations on its own at the start up of my vehicle. I also have the left thermostat adjuster lighting that went out about the same time my speedometer started acting up.

Engine light ,oil pressure gauge dropped to zero ,but had no motor symptoms. Also 3 chimes rang. Would like to have history of repairs and previous codes. Thank you. Charles please email to me or I can download from my p/c.

Recently purchased (3 days ago) a 2003 Chevrolet Tahoe and both my wife and I noticed erratic behavior from speedometer. After much research and another family member with the same problem on a 2004 Tahoe, we realized that this was a serious safety issue that an extreme amount of other people were having. The speedometer "sticks" at different points while accelerating or decelerating, I wish to get this issue resolved as soon as possible via recall. Gm is well aware of this problem and it should issue a full recall on the instrument cluster to fix the problem. A simple "special situation" warranty is not good enough. Gm must issue a recall on this very widely experienced problem. They also said that although my mileage was only 2000 miles over the "70,000" mile mark, they wouldn't fix it. This is a serious safety issue! gm. . . Read more...

Speedometer in 2003 Tahoe failing to give accurate speed. Speed does not register at all sometimes. Needle to speedometer is "jerky" when it does work. Have not had repaired yet because I was searching out possible solutions when I discovered that numerous Tahoe owners are having the same problem. If the manufacturer is admitting there is a problem them why should "we" have to pay for it. Especially after discovering the cost ( from $500-$575). Please help!.

Speedometer went out registered going 100mph when only going approx 40. Took to dealer and was charged $515.

Speedometer needle no longer working. Driving one day and needle started to show speed faster than what I was going. Needle is now just pointing straight down.

The speedometer of my chevy Tahoe 2003 does not register correct speed.

The speedometer on my 03 chevy Tahoe randomly goes up to 10 mph and stays there. The only way to bring it back down is to shut off and restart the vehicle several times. It drops 5 mph each time you restart it.

2003 Tahoe speedometer no longer works properly. I will be at a complete stop and speedometer reads 100mph. This is an electrical problem that chevy is aware of but refuses to fix.

The contact owns a 2003 Chevrolet Tahoe. In the summer of 2008, the contact received a GMC voluntary recall pertaining to the instrumental panel. She took the vehicle to the dealer for a diagnosis, which reported oil gauge and speedometer failures. The manufacturer stated that the recall applied to vehicles with 70,000 miles or less. The vehicle is not included because it exceeds the mileage requirements. The NHTSA campaign id number was unknown. The current and failure mileages were 115,000.

Speedometer intermittently reads 60/100 while parked, or reads 10-20 while going down the freeway.

September 2008 my speedometer quit working. Its stuck on 100mph. Had the gm dealer do a diagnostics and they told me the cluster needed to be replaced. Two weeks later I received a letter stating that if my mileage was under 70,000 gm would replace it for no cost to me. My 2003 Tahoe has over 70,000 and less than a week ago the oil gauge quit working. The gm dealer will not take care of this problem for me unless I pay the $500 for the parts and labor. I believe this is turning into a safety issue and the gm dealer said that eventually the other gauges will go if I don't get this fixed.