2 Odd Noises When Driving Off-Road

Muleytime · January 6, 2020

Hi guys-

I drive off road quite often in snow and mud. On my 2020 3500 HD AT4, I've noticed a weird grumbling noise up front when the tires start spinning. It sounds just like traction control kicking in, so I turned that off but the noise still appears. Is there another limited slip option or something that I'm missing?

I also notice washboard bumps through my steering column. In fact, there is clanking that I can hear as well, and I have bad hearing

This is getting very annoying, and makes me feel I took a 10 year step back in steering column technology.

Edited January 6, 2020 by Muleytime

Christopher Murphy · January 6, 2020

3 hours ago, Muleytime said:

Hi guys-

I drive off road quite often in snow and mud. On my 2020 3500 HD AT4, I've noticed a weird grumbling noise up front when the tires start spinning. It sounds just like traction control kicking in, so I turned that off but the noise still appears. Is there another limited slip option or something that I'm missing?

I also notice washboard bumps through my steering column. In fact, there is clanking that I can hear as well, and I have bad hearing

This is getting very annoying, and makes me feel I took a 10 year step back in steering column technology.

I have the same thing when going down a hill to the left. I confirmed there is a major issue when I put on hill decent control and use the cruise control up and down to increase and decrease speed.
It is going in Tuesday to have it looked at. I’m sure It is my antilock brakes and a wheel speed sensor issue. It sounds very similar to what you are experiencing.

MTU Alum · January 7, 2020

The noise you are hearing when tires are spinning is the traction control system activating. These trucks control wheel spin with a combination of engine torque reduction and applying the brakes. The noise is coming from abs module building and dumping pressure. If you push the traction control button once, you will turn off engine traction control but brake traction is still on. If you press and hold for 10 secs you will turn off both and stabilitrak. Even after a press and hold for 10 seconds, driveline protection is still on and can apply brakes to prevent axle or transfer case damage.

The steering noises on rough surfaces are likely hydraulic. There is very little that can be done to change the performance unfortunately.

#iworkforGM

Muleytime · January 8, 2020

On 1/6/2020 at 5:02 PM, MTU Alum said:

The noise you are hearing when tires are spinning is the traction control system activating. These trucks control wheel spin with a combination of engine torque reduction and applying the brakes. The noise is coming from abs module building and dumping pressure. If you push the traction control button once, you will turn off engine traction control but brake traction is still on. If you press and hold for 10 secs you will turn off both and stabilitrak. Even after a press and hold for 10 seconds, driveline protection is still on and can apply brakes to prevent axle or transfer case damage.

The steering noises on rough surfaces are likely hydraulic. There is very little that can be done to change the performance unfortunately.

#iworkforGM

Thank you for the explanation. My truck is going in to the shop next Monday for other items, and it will be interesting to see what they find with the steering column......you have at least set my expectation.