Thinking about the battery run down issue, I recalled that I hear this noise that occurs whenever I sit in the car. It is like a small motor whinning on and off, kind of like the sound the windshield washer spray pump makes, emanating from in front of the dash. The sound occurs whether the key is in the igition or not, so it may contribute to battery run down. Anybody know what this is? Anybody else even hear it? Am I going nuts?

 

Great question, I bought my Tahoe Hybrid yesterday and noticed the same noise this morning when I got in.

Hopefully someone on this forum knows the answer.

 

my Yukon made a sound sort of like that after I shut it off...I heard it under the hood on the left side of the car as that was where I was standing. I didn't think to much about it at the time and I only heard it once.

 

There are two noises that I hear that sound exactly like yours. The first one is a module or two in the dash shutting down or waking up and the second one is the DVD turning in the Nav system. I am guessing this noise from behind the NAV screen is most likely the one that you are hearing. It sort of sounds like a MAC laptop when you open it up or a CD ROM drive; right?

 

The Nav DVD is the most annoying noise to me. All those little motors have to draw a lot of juice.

Two other noises you may hear sometimes, but are perfectly normal:

Fans cooling the battery pack under the back seat - they draw cabin air to circulate over the battery pack. I notice it most on mild days where it isn't quite hot enough to run AC.

There is a tiny fan in the headliner just above the driver. It draws in cabin air to measure the temperature at the top. There is a similar sensor inside the console by your right knee.

 

Whew, glad I'm not the only one hearing things. I don't think it's the DVD drive, though it sounds similar, since it comes on without the key: just opening the door sets it on briefly. Kind of a series of whining pulses, like a muffled dentist drill. And I know it's not the battery cooling fan....that sucker is loud when it kicks on. Anyways, there's probably a lot of little battery drainers on these sophisticated rigs.

 

Just for kicks today I removed the Nav DVD disc and all the noises I was hearing were gone. I locked the vehicle and came back 5 minutes later and unlocked and entered, no noises. Reinstalled the DVD disc behind the Nav screen and repeated the same steps. This time when I got back into the truck the noise was back. Thsi confirmed to me that this was normal and not anything to worry about.

 

Ah-HA! Glad there is an experimentalist among us to figure out the puzzle. I've had other cars with Nav discs and never heard that noise before. I just bought a new Ford F150 yesterday and it has a Nav system without a disc: It gets the maps via Sirius Sattelite. I wonder why Chevy doesn't go this route through Onstar or something.

 

Congrats on the new truck, even if it is a Ford

The Nav system on the Ford is pretty cool. It uses internal memory to store the mapping data. The Sirius doesn't provide the actual map software, but it does provide it "Real-Time" traffic updates, current weather, and a few more cool features. That seems to be more commom on newer vehicles with XM or Sirius. GM has always been 2-3 years behind the times with their Nav systems and has always been playing catch up.

Did you get the "Sync" on your new truck? I think that feature looks really cool. As a loyal GM guy I could never bring myself to buy a Ford (Found on Road Dead) though

 

Nicka: Yes, I got the Ford fully loaded and it has Sync. It's great, but the unit also has a 10gig internal harddrive (called Jukebox) to store music, photos, etc. but it only reads them from the CD drive. Hence, there is no way to download files off my IPOD connected to the Sync USB. I think they do this because of copyright laws, but it's a drag to have to load songs in small batches via CDs.
Overall, I like the Ford Nav system better than GM's mostly because of the extra features you mentioned (weather map, gas prices, movie listings, ...). The Sony sound system beats the pants off the Bose as well. However, I must say the Tahoe is a much smoother ride. I'm very happy with both and after decades of owning nothing but foreign cars and trucks, I'm happy to be supporting US companies at this important time. In fact, the fit, finish, and value in these vehicles is without equal IMHO.