Weekly Victory: Car Repairs, Courtesy of YouTube

So a few months ago, a slightly annoying thing started happening with my Suburban: the Tow/Haul mode would switch on, and I couldn't turn it off.  I pushed the button, I jiggled the button, I jabbed it rapid-fire style (only to have it finally turn off with one poke... and then turn right back on with my next one since I couldn't stop fast enough!).  Eventually it would turn off, a day or a week later.  And then sometime after that, I would start the engine and be greeted by that stupid orange light.

If it had just been the light, I probably would have ignored it forever.  Unfortunately, this light came with a lowering of my gas mileage, and it kept my truck in a low and kind of rumbly gear perpetually.  Also it seemed to negate my suspension, making for kind of a rough ride.  It also got to the point where it never turned off.

One day, after driving around with my truck in Tow/Haul mode for weeks, I'd had enough, and I called and made an appointment with my local car-repair garage to have it looked at.  Of course, it went off the next day, so I cancelled my appointment.

My husband was happy to hear that I'd cancelled it, since he wanted to take a look at it himself. Now, he's what I'd call only a moderately accomplished car mechanic.  But he's an expert at watching YouTube videos and then recreating the lessons he learns.  So he looked up a video titled something like "Fixing Tow/Haul Mode on a Chevy Suburban" and watched it once or twice with my 10 year old son, and the two of them started taking what looked like the whole front inside of my truck apart.

I wish I'd gotten a photo, but I was a little traumatized at just how "taken apart" everything looked, and was worried that they'd never quite get it all back where it belonged, so I didn't even think of it.  I just went back into the house and let them go at it.  I was delighted (and relieved) when less than an hour later, my cute son came it with a happy, proud grin and announced that "We fixed your truck, Mom!"  I went out and looked, and lo and behold, not only was everything back where it belonged, but that pesky light that had been plaguing me for weeks was gone!

By the way, just for fun I went onto a few Chevy discussion boards and found threads talking about this very problem.  Some people had taken it upon themselves to take apart the dash and find that same orange wire and splice it back together (like my husband and son did), while others had paid someone to do it for them (like I almost did!).  The range of what the second group had paid a garage to do it ranged from just under $200 to almost $650!

Hooray for husbands and sons who are willing to get in and figure out how to fix stuff!  And hooray for YouTube!

Kate