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Steering wheel jammed up, Stabilitrak errors


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All sorts of issues with my 2014 with 26,000 miles this week. On Friday I took my kids to dinner. As I slowed to turn right into a parking spot, I lost all steering (the wheel would turn but the truck kept going straight), then the wheel locked up and couldn't be turned at all, then spun free again without turning the truck, locked again, then, as I hit the brakes harder I was able to regain steering controls again. During all this the DIC showed a Stabilitrak warning and the pedals were vibrating. I couldn't really read it because I was so focused on avoiding a head on collision with absolutely ZERO control of my truck and my kid's safety! VERY scary moment to say the least. We went into the restaurant and the truck seemed fine after dinner (I swerved abound trying to reproduce the issue in the parking lot without success) so we drove home.

 

Last night, on my way home from work, I got the dreaded Service trailer brake warning. I wasn't towing anything. I've had the truck in for this issue once before and they flashed Firmware. That seemed to solve the trailer issue for a bit but it's back again. Awesome.

 

Even more odd? I was slowing to turn left into a parking spot at the train station this morning and I got the stabilitrak warning again. I didn't lose steering this time but for a moment the DIC said to service Stabilitrak then said something about "Drive with care." It flashed so quickly I didn't have time to read the entire warning.

 

What the heck is going on with my truck?! I don't feel safe driving the thing, especially with my family in it. With only 10,000 miles left on the bumper to bumper I'm starting to get nervous that these issues will start costing me a bundle for a truck that's less than 2 years old!

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Sometimes you get weird Stabilitrac issues when the battery is weak. I got "Service Stabilitrac" message in my '09 Impala, but all it was was a bad battery which died very soon thereafter. Replacing the battery cleared the message and it never appeared again. However, in my case there were no adverse symptoms. My car had traditional hydraulic power steering. Maybe these new trucks with electric power steering exhibit stranger symptoms.

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On Friday I took my kids to dinner. As I slowed to turn right into a parking spot, I lost all steering (the wheel would turn but the truck kept going straight), then the wheel locked up and couldn't be turned at all, then spun free again without turning the truck, locked again, then, as I hit the brakes harder I was able to regain steering controls again.......... I was so focused on avoiding a head on collision with absolutely ZERO control of my truck and my kid's safety! VERY scary moment to say the least.

 

omg. Imagine you're on a freeway not on a parking lot.

 

Glad your kids and you are okay!

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Talked to my dealer yesterday. He sent me a ton of codes they were able to pull from my truck. Not good at all. Something is causing major systems to fail. Here are the codes found...

 

17-00 manual trailer brake apply request signal 2

 

U0140-lost communication with body control module

 

U0126-

 

U0121- lost communication with electronic brake control module

 

U0101- lost communication with transmission control module

 

U0100-lost communication with engine control module

 

C0544-5A-steering wheel angle sensor data not plausible

 

U0126- lost. Communication with steering angle sensor module

 

C0710-4B-steering position signal

 

 

 

U codes are steering control module lost communication with bcm, steering angle sensor module, ebcm, tcm and ecm-

 

 

 

Tested enable circuit #5986 at power steering module-ok

 

Cleared codes for test drive to see if any return

 

It's no wonder this thing scared the crap out of me. It stopped talking to pretty much every module used to keep it driving. I don't want this truck back until they find out why it happened and GM can assure me 100% it won't happen again. What if I lost communication to all these modules at highway speed? I had no brakes or steering!!! I might not want the truck back at all. We're talking about my family's safety here...

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I have a 2012 Equinox with 68,000 miles. It's been a great vehicle until June. The service Stabilitrak warning light came on, the ECO on flashes on and off, the speedometer, tachometer, and temperature gauge jump back and forth, and it has been shifting very rough. Cruise control will intermittently shut off. The first time at the dealer they could not replicate the problem. As soon as I pulled out of the dealership, it did it again and I turned around leaving it running when I dropped it off. They replaced a wire that they said had become pinched and warn through creating a short. Within a few weeks, it was at it again. This time they said it was a loose ground wire. Again, within a week it was doing it again. I dropped it off Thursday night for an appointment first thing Friday morning. Today is Monday, I called and left two messages. I still have not heard back. A quick internet search leading me here to this forum, shows this is a pretty widespread problem but not getting any answers.

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Talked to my dealer yesterday. He sent me a ton of codes they were able to pull from my truck. Not good at all. Something is causing major systems to fail. Here are the codes found...

 

17-00 manual trailer brake apply request signal 2

 

U0140-lost communication with body control module

 

U0126-

 

U0121- lost communication with electronic brake control module

 

U0101- lost communication with transmission control module

 

U0100-lost communication with engine control module

 

C0544-5A-steering wheel angle sensor data not plausible

 

U0126- lost. Communication with steering angle sensor module

 

C0710-4B-steering position signal

 

 

 

U codes are steering control module lost communication with bcm, steering angle sensor module, ebcm, tcm and ecm-

 

 

 

Tested enable circuit #5986 at power steering module-ok

 

Cleared codes for test drive to see if any return

 

It's no wonder this thing scared the crap out of me. It stopped talking to pretty much every module used to keep it driving. I don't want this truck back until they find out why it happened and GM can assure me 100% it won't happen again. What if I lost communication to all these modules at highway speed? I had no brakes or steering!!! I might not want the truck back at all. We're talking about my family's safety here...

I wonder if GM has performed a meaningful Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) on these systems to see what the worst case failure is and how the effects of the worst case failure are mitigated to an acceptable level.

 

In any case, the system failure should be to a safe state, brakes and steering should still work. When your power steering or power brakes booster fails on a traditional set up, you still have steering and brakes, you just need more force to control them.

Edited by pm26
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Talked to my dealer yesterday. He sent me a ton of codes they were able to pull from my truck. Not good at all. Something is causing major systems to fail. Here are the codes found...

 

17-00 manual trailer brake apply request signal 2

 

U0140-lost communication with body control module

 

U0126-

 

U0121- lost communication with electronic brake control module

 

U0101- lost communication with transmission control module

 

U0100-lost communication with engine control module

 

C0544-5A-steering wheel angle sensor data not plausible

 

U0126- lost. Communication with steering angle sensor module

 

C0710-4B-steering position signal

 

 

 

U codes are steering control module lost communication with bcm, steering angle sensor module, ebcm, tcm and ecm-

 

 

 

Tested enable circuit #5986 at power steering module-ok

 

Cleared codes for test drive to see if any return

 

It's no wonder this thing scared the crap out of me. It stopped talking to pretty much every module used to keep it driving. I don't want this truck back until they find out why it happened and GM can assure me 100% it won't happen again. What if I lost communication to all these modules at highway speed? I had no brakes or steering!!! I might not want the truck back at all. We're talking about my family's safety here...

Very scary indeed. I would say one of those modules has a communication issue. The trouble is figuring out which one. They are communicating at all times even if not in use and all those components together make up the network. Why they do not fail to a safe state boggles the mind. The network is basically one giant loop, and if anything fails, the loop opens and nothing talks anymore.

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Enroberts, did they fix your problem yet? Interested in what was the fix as I have the same issues.

Nope. I am traveling until the end of October. I have their loaner truck parked at the airport and told them to keep my truck until they know it's fixed. I don't want it back before then. They've put 77 miles on the truck so far, according to OnStar. I'll learn more when I'm back in town. If they tell me they can't "replicate the issue" I will not be pleased. What good are sensors and computers if they aren't telling them what's actually wrong...I mean, they were able to pull all the codes! GM might be buying this one back...

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UPDATE.... I called the dealer last night and left a message. They emailed back this AM and said:

 

"We drove it multiple times, hot and cold, wet and dry. For a while we had no luck with getting it to duplicate until this morning. Manager got steering to lock up and stabilitrak message to display for a very brief moment like you had.

technician is going to revisit the concern today since we cleared the codes (in the beginning). As soon as I find out more I will let you know. It’s been a busy morning I wanted to get back to you sooner but I didn’t want to wake you or anything.

If you wanted to speak on the phone you can call me whenever. Hopefully this afternoon my technician will have a little bit more positive information since it acted up this morning."

 

So good news here is that the manager had the same issues this AM that I brought it in for! I told the dealer I am done with the truck. Hi GM. I know you're reading this and following along! If I were you, I'd start taking some pretty serious action here. If I were in your shoes, there would be NO WAY I'd let a customer even sit in a truck that could lose steering at any moment, let alone drive one! Now you know I'm not making things up and the dealership's manager can back that up! Imagine what you'd have on your hands if steering is lost at 60 miles per hour with a full family inside. If I were GM, I'd be pretty nervous right now and I'd be scrambling to get in touch with my customer as quickly as possible to come up with a solution.....

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