Diagnosing and repair of 2011 Cadillac Escalade ESV

Brief overview: I bought a 2011 Cadillac Escalade ESV back in March. There was a thread of the disaster of when I went and got it, the dealer misrepresented what I bought, I made some bad choices but I have this truck now so I am working to make it the best it can be. 

It has ~141k on it. Over the past 6 months I have sorted out a lot of issues and caught up on deferred maintenance. I am trying to troubleshoot a few nagging issues and I am just beyond my skill level:

Issues:

1- Seat Heat / ventilation inop

2- Hyperflash on left turn signal

3- Left power running board doesn't like to go up.

I borrowed a friends Snap On Apollo D8 and did some computer looking. I also checked all fuses before I started. The Apollo shows that the Seat Control module is receiving the signal asking for the heated seats and that it is asking the seats to be on. I also find this list of errors in that module. It seems that 10-11 GM trucks have a different seat heating and cooling scheme than previous years. I have read I need to troubleshoot the thermo-electric devices (TED) in the seats, there are 4 of them. Any guidance on that is welcome!

Issue 2:

This drives me bonkers. All bulbs are correct, all bulbs work, no errors in the BCM that runs the lights. I can turn the lights on and test them from the Apollo, not a single LED out. If I turn on the 4 ways, all good, right turn all good. I don't even know what to check next.

Issue 3:

I replaced the motor which was stupid since I didn't properly diagnose. It was very cheap though so I didn't feel bad about a $30 experiment. When I had the assembly off it felt like it moved freely. It will go down easy, if I "help" it it will go up. If I don't help it it stops and sends the board back down. I am wondering if it binds when it is tightened and maybe I need to loosen a bolt and see if it moves and then shim it if it does. Is that possible?

the screen shot shows History DTCs.  are there any Current DTCs for the seat?   And they're all "Short To Battery", which seems odd.

combining "driver's seat berkeleyed" with "driver's running board berkeleyed" and "Left turn signals berkeleyed" and i start to think your truck was crashed in the left front / side.

Running board sounds exactly like my 2014 Expedition I sold recently.  About once per year (more if I wasn't using it much), I'd have to spray all the pivots with a lube (didn't seem to matter if WD-40 or silicone spray.)   Then it would work properly for a while.  I always assumed that a round of dissassemble/clean/lube/reassemble would make it last longer, but it was hard to justify that effort when a 1 minute spraying of lube would fix it for months.

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

combined with the car fax report and the so so paint work I would say it was crashed on all the sides. I don't believe there are any current DTC's for the seat module. I need to hook it back up to verify that.

In reply to pkingham (Forum Supporter) :

I did that as phase one and was hoping that would be the deal. It didn't seem to help, or hurt. I have no issue doing that as often as needed. I see so many of these that are inop up here it drives me wild. You would think they didn't know they were going to see salt.

When I took the board off last week I took the motor off so it would move and then moved it through it's motions by hand and it felt free. While I had it out I did silicone spray on all the joints too. I have no problem pulling it back off again, it only took 45 minutes from start to finish including changing the motor so if it has to come back out that isn't a big deal.

Issue 1: I fixed this literally yesterday in my '07 Escalade ESV. The issue is nearly always a burnt connector under the passenger seat. It typically happens in one of two places: At the connector to control module under the front of the passenger seat on the largest of three connectors, or at the main multi-pin connector under the right rear corner of the seat. Pics of my adventure from yesterday:

Since I don't have a replacement for that connector, I just bypassed it for that one circuit. Everything is working perfectly now.

In reply to Powar :

Thanks for the pic! I will go hunting for that one after lunch.

I'm wondering if the running board is also electrical. Fresh motor, but it acts feeble, and appears to trigger what I'm guessing is a "hey, there's something blocking the board" bail-out.

Whether that's a chewed wire leaking juice to ground (which the control module might see as having to work too hard and thus likely trying to crush someone's ankle), or just a bad connection or connections reducing available power and timing out I have no idea, but that's a thing I'm wondering about.

Issue 2: sounds like there are some known-problematic connectors on these things (again? I thought bad connectors were mostly solved by what seems to me to be such a modern vehicle...) near the rear bumper:

https://www.cadillacforums.com/threads/2012-left-turn-signal-blinks-fast.837889/

In reply to Jesse Ransom :

Thank you. I will add that to the list of things to check out on this thing this afternoon after I get out of meetings. This one fix would bring me a lot of joy. I feel like an shiny happy person whenever I turn left. Like I need to get out and explain to the other drivers that I care and I just can't seem to correct this issue.

I went under and found that connector at the rear bumper support. This one appeared A1. The truck is from Virginia and hasn't seen any NY winter so it isn't very Rusty. I did take it apart to inspect, no visible issues, added dielectric grease and reassembled. Problem is Still there I guess I will go hunting for the ground wire next. 
 

I did pull the large connector from the heated seat module. I think we have arrived at the problem there... 

Now I need to find the best way to fix that problem. I have seen a lot of solutions online, I guess I'll pick one and give it a shot. 

Glad I could help! That whole connector and pigtail is available from many vendors, including OEM. I was hoping mine had failed at that junction instead of the other end of the harness, but no dice.

In reply to Powar :

Picked up a new connector. Soldered it in today after cleaning up the connections in the module. It all works  now. The ventilated seats are actually really nice. I also replaced the bad TPMS sensor I had on the RF so that light is out now. A couple more fixes and this thing may go from making me angry to enjoyable. 

NY Nick said:

In reply to Powar :

Picked up a new connector. Soldered it in today after cleaning up the connections in the module. It all works  now. The ventilated seats are actually really nice. I also replaced the bad TPMS sensor I had on the RF so that light is out now. A couple more fixes and this thing may go from making me angry to enjoyable. 

Hell yes!

So I am back to the hyperflash on the left turn. I have done;

Checked rear taillight connections and wires, grounds look like new. Took connectors apart, added dielectric grease and reassembled. 
Removed right taillight and plugged into left side, it hyperflashed when plugged into the left side. 
 

removed from bumper cover to get to the lights and harness and grounds 

swapped front bulbs

swapped front pig tail harnesses. When doing this hyperflash always stays on the left side. 
I checked continuity from the plug that the pig tail harness plugs into to the body ground. It has it. All the grounds on the front look clean too. 
Any ideas on next diagnostic step?

Can you add quick and dirty grounds to each bulb on the left to see if it changes?

(eg a long wire clamped to the neg post of the battery)

I did that on the front turn signal and it had no effect. I took the mirror apart to see if I could do it there and it seemed pretty ugly to try. The Caddy forum people say I need to replace the flasher control but I haven't had a chance to try it yet. I haven't even had a chance to find it since it does not appear to be on the interior fuse panel. If I can find it and then try to R&R and that doesn't work I'll try to run an extra ground from the plug in the rear. 

Same truck different problem. I still haven't fixed the hyperflash. The closest thing I have come to a solution is buy a programmer with a BCM module and that will allow me to disable the hyperflash, that's $500 which seems ludicrous. 
ever since I bought it it has an intermittent skip. I don't know if skip is the right word, like it cuts out and bucks and then is fine. It feels like a coil misfire but it has no misfire codes. I thought it was a VVT solenoid because I had a code for cam position (6 months ago). Indy mechanic did an oil flush and reset code. The code has never come back. I drove it ~60 miles this morning. Problem got worse after 30 miles. I had my code reader on with live data and I didn't see anything weird and has no codes. 
What the heck do I even do with this? Take to a mechanic and tell them to drive it until it happens? 

I thought about this thread and your ESV when a post popped up in one of the related FB groups earlier.

Hopefully that screenshot works.

In reply to Powar :

Thanks for thinking of me! I will check that on my connectors.