Flat towing Buick Lacrosse

[Franka548]

Have a friend that is flat towing a 2011 Buick Lacrosse. According to the owners manual he has to start the car to charge the battery every 2 hours. The reason for this is to put the car in neutral and unlock the steering column. The problem is how to shut the instrument cluster lights off without doing anything to the transmission. Is there a fuse to pull, or can he just disconnect the battery?
Frank

[Dtwallace]

Got this info from a post by: sturman

Junior Member



Join Date: Jan 2012

Posts: 2



GM claims that to flat tow a 2012 BuickLaCrosse one only has to remove Fuse #22 (Discrete Logic Ignition Switch fuse)from the Instrument Panel Fuse Block.HOWEVER, if the car is equipped with pushbutton ignition, Fuse #22 is not there. The problem is that to flat tow theLacrosse it must be in neutral and when in neutral the power is on in the auto.This places a 7.8 Amp load on the battery and if you flat tow for more than acouple of hours you wind up with a dead battery.

A BETTER SOLUTION is to apply power through a momentary normally-off pushbutton switch to the M7 Transmission Shift Lock Control Solenoid Actuator inyour automatic transmission. Here is how it works:-

The Control Solenoid Actuator prevents you from shifting out of PARK when yourauto is not running. Thus, to flat tow your car, put the shift lever in Park,shut off your ignition and then push the button while moving the shift fromPark to Neutral. You wind up in Neutral while at the same time, all the powerto your auto electrons are turned off. VOILA IT REALLY WORKS. My dealer didthis for me. It is an elegant solution to the problem.

[Franka548]

Thank you Dtwallace,
The problem is that the steering wheel is locked if you don't turn the key on accessory. It does not have the push button ignition. It has the ignition switch in the steering column. I will tell him about the #22 fuse, not sure if it is the same in a 2011, but will check.
Frank

[ClassyClassA]

I know this is an old thread but since I’ve flat-towed a 2011 LaCrosse for about 10g miles, thought I would offer my 2cents. The 2011 is apparently different from the 2012 since the 2011 manual says nothing about fuses. Yes the battery will run down if you don’t stop to run the motor once in a while so I added a fused link from the 7-pin connector that is hot all the time to use as a battery charger for the Buick. Dash lights have never been an issue since even with the key set to acc, when the door is closed the lights are not on. I’ve still tried to stop every few hundred miles just to get out and get some fresh air and run the motor to lube the tranny. Never an ounce of trouble except for the DIC error codes which the dealer’s mechanic sez to ignore.