I am assuming the
cut the cord rather than just unplug it from the block heater in order to prevent dirt and corrosion from entering the block heater electrical receptor.
No, you're assuming the issue is with the cord...and not the heating element itself.
Disable the element, cut the cord. Which is a common practice in many tech repairs, snip the cord, disable the flaky power supply, so they don't get mixed up with the good stock on board for repairs, complicating troubleshooting on down the line on another job.
You may or may not have one of the suspect heaters, repairing the power supply could be fatal....or not.
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A year or so ago, there was a house fire in a subdivision on the East side of town, in the middle of the night.
Kids died, there was a big outpouring, blah blah blah....big intensive investigation.
In reading thru the FD's report, they listed the cause of the fire.
It wasn't the typical failure to extinguish smoking, as most middle of the night (calm weather) apt/house fires are.
This was an older two story home built back in the '80s rush, nothing fancy, square block with bedrooms over the two car garage. As many have done with sqft being small, the garage had been converted to another bedroom years later.
More people living in a space designed for fewer, so what remained of the driveway was full of vehicles...pulled up close to the house to fit.
One of those was an F-150.....one of the ones it turns out (along with every SUV of that era) that had a critical recall stemming from the cruise control (module?) spontaneously catching fire while the truck is off and parked. :surprise:
Not a Fjord-r, I never knew. They said owners would sell a truck, and the recall notice never made it's way to the new owner(s).
I was shocked to read the FD comment about how many times per year they encounter a Fjord committing suicide....common enough that they even have a nick name for it.
With no one around to call it in, the truck became engulfed in flames, catching the wall (previously a garage door) and 2nd floor of the house on fire. By the time that smoke alarms started going off, the two boys in the converted garage were already dead.
Personally, I'd learn to get by without the block heater. If GM has delayed the fix this long, it must be more than a wrong size wire ga. on a cord, or chafing.