I bought a truck off here out of the trading post just over a year ago. Its been a solid truck but recently has developed an intermittent issue. I know several on here have trucks like this so I figured Id check to see if anyone else has experienced similar.

2005 2500 Duramax

Bare with me

3 days before Christmas I put new batteries in the truck, came down sick with the flu the next day and didn't drive it much over the next week, maybe just one or two trips across. 12/30 I went to pick up a rotary tiller for the tractor. I was sitting at a stop sign and went to pull forward and felt the truck lose power, truck went into limp mode and the check engine light came on. Pulled over in the parking lot next door and cut it on and off again a few times and it came out of limp mode and light went off. I decided to try to make it to the house and got about a mile down the road and it happened again. At this point I called a buddy to come get the trailer and tiller for me and called another friend to come get me. We went home and got my big trailer and came back for the truck. I took my scan tool with me and pulled the codes before cranking the truck (p0207 and p2146).It cranked without any issues, check engine light went off and she drove onto the trailer just fine and unloaded at the house without any issue as well. The codes seemed to be fairly common and usually related to a wiring harness issue that is a relatively common issue on several year models from that era.

Monday after new year I stopped at a reputable diesel shop in town and talked to the owner. Said the codes were common and he could fix it. apparently its a common enough issue that he keeps some new harnesses on hand but he was out and had some backordered at the time. Said it was fine to drive the truck if I wanted to if it wasn't continuously acting up and that he'd keep me updated about getting parts.

That same evening I went to drive the truck to 96 for dinner, about 1/4 mile from the house it cut off while going down the road. Just like you had flipped a switch everything died and the battery light came on. I coasted onto a dirt road and popped the hood. The ground on my drivers side battery (side post terminal) was really loose. I finger tightened it and the truck cranked right up and went to town and back with no issues. I went to put a socket on the battery terminal and as soon as the bolt got snug it would just slip and be be loose again. The threads were damaged on the bolt so the next day I picked new one up from napa and replaced it. Left the napa store and the truck shut off again. got to wondering if I could have a bad ground and started tracing some wires back. Well sure enough when I had changed the batteries I had pushed the wire back to give myself some room to work. the ground cable on the drivers battery got pushed next to the alternator belt, I never realized it and didn't pull it back tight and the belt had cut through the wire loom, insulation and almost cut the ground wire in half. the ground was so damaged I felt it could have potentially caused the wiring harness fault on 12/30 as well. It was my own stupid fault but surely I had found the problem. this past Monday I had a new battery to frame ground made with 2/0 welding lead, new ends crimped on and replaced it. let the truck run for a few minutes as I was putting up my tools and left the house. 1/4 mile down the road she shuts off like you flipped a switch and the battery light came on, shifted into neutral cranked back up and no problems rest of the evening. I got home later and started poking around again. put a wrench to all the battery terminal just to double check and the positive terminal on the driver battery side ( I hate side post batteries btw) started slipping and the ring terminals around it were loose so I replaced it with a new stud and got them good and tight.

Up until today I was convinced it was an electrical issue. Between the combination of a severely damaged frame ground and two damaged studs that wouldn't hold tight, having replaced them all I was sure it was fixed. I hunted yesterday afternoon and had not touched the truck since Monday when I replaced the positive battery stud. I went to start a side job this afternoon and cranked the truck as I was loading tools up and then left to get material. Within 1/4 mile of leaving home she shut completely off, battery light came on. I put her in neutral, re-cranked and kept on down the road, no issues for the remainder of the evening. Now I'm stumped.....

since 12/30 it has cut off like that a total of 5 times on me

here's the only consistency I can relate to it, keep in mind I don't drive this truck daily. Every time its happened has been a cold start and the shut down happens within a 1/4 mile of leaving the house (with the exception of the time it did it when i went to NAPA first but that's only 8min from the house). There is no stall, no gradual loss of power, no running odd before hand, all gauges operating as normal. just boom, it shuts off, everything, lights and radio included. starts back immediately, no slow or delayed start.

Has anyone on here experienced similar with a similar year model Duramax? Could it be a fuel prime issue? the fuel filter was changed at the last oil change, if shutting off due to a fuel prime issue instead of electrical issue would I still lose power to all my lights, radio, etc.?

Just trying to think of anything simple I can check myself or might have overlooked before putting it in the shop, TIA!

The truck has not had the injector wiring harness issue since 12/30, I don't feel like at this point the two could be related, the replacement harness ends are still on backorder just trying to address this shutting off issue in the meantime