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Service stabilitrak

194K views 44 replies 30 participants last post by  UneasyGuy 
#1 ·
Hey guys and gals new member first post. So I have a 2013 malibu ls, with a bit over 3000 miles. Toady while I was driving on the freeway I got a message on my info screen "service stabilitrak" I was just wondering if any one else had this problem. I have no other warning light and the car runs fine. Just thought I would ask.
 
#2 ·
Hi 2013_Mali,
I'd be happy to research your VIN for you to see if you have any open recalls on your vehicle regarding this. Our first line of action would be to get you into your local dealer to have a diagnosis made by the service techs. Assuming you're still under your warranty coverages this shouldn't be an issue for them to take a look at it for you.

You can always PM me with your VIN and mileage and I can look into this further for you.

Thank you,
Sara
Chevrolet Customer Service
 
#3 · (Edited by Moderator)
Today while I was driving on the freeway I got a message on my info screen "service stabilitrak" I was just wondering if any one else had this problem.
Curious as to the resolution of this issue for the OP, as I have experienced the same problem recently. Driving along at freeway speeds, and all of a sudden I get this warning light. I follow the owner's manual and the error gets reset, but then magically appears a day later or so.

Looks like I will be scheduling a service appt. to get this addressed. 6 mo & 11,000 miles in on what needs to be a dependable daily commuter- not thrilled.
 
#4 ·
Join the club about not being happy.It seems that a bunch of different electrical gremlins are starting to pop up on these.
 
#30 · (Edited by Moderator)
My Car is a 2013 Chevy Malibu and my car is a piece of language. I was driving from work and my power steering stop working, my radio power off, my a/c stop working and the blower is working just fine. I am tried of spending money on diagnostic check which you have to pay for even when they come back and tell you we did not detect a problem and then they have to jump my car to get it started. I have had the battery and alternator check and they are fine. Chevy is a piece of language for not helping with this known electrical problems with this model car 2013 chevy malibu lt.
 
#5 ·
I haven't visit my dealer but ill try to get in next week it only happen once the next morning it was gone. It hasn't been on since. I just don't want to take in for them to tell they can't address the issue because the lights on. I wounded if it stores acquit code in car computer: what about your any luck?
 
#6 ·
Just had my car serviced today for this issue. The computer scanned the history and found codes for the right front wheel speed sensor (so yes, they can detect the error even if not currently active, as my error would come and go periodically).

Tech notes indicate a service bulletin #PIC5428D which had them inspect and clean the wheel speed sensor encoder ring. Time will tell if that did the trick and is the end of my spurious warning light.

Incidentally, one other symptom that I was experiencing was the cruise control would occasionally disengage on its own, on perfectly dry roads. Consulting the owner's manual, I understand this can happen if wheel slip is detected, which was probably a false input from the sensor (although the stabilitrak light wasn't on at the time...).
 
#7 ·
On my '09 I was on the freeway and drove through some standing water that was deeper than expected. "Low Traction" on DIC and cruise disengaged. Hit resume and back on track.

On this '11 I've had the "ESC Active" appear on a perfectly dry road at ~20 mph 3 times. Once was in eastern Tennessee going perfectly straight, and the other 2 times it was on a connector ramp, in the 3/4 turn. And it was the same exact ramp and same spot in the curve, too! I wonder now if I have an intermittent connection or if a wire is just a smidgen too short for the harness and keeps getting pulled. But that won't explain the time on a straight road. Hmmm......

Yes, I know my experiences are Gen7 but I'll bet the systems are either identical or so similar that what happens to one can happen to the other. IE: improperly built harness assembly, etc.
 
#8 ·
Hmmm, interesting theory DD. This has me thinking...

My random error light is NOT gone after servicing, although now it doesn't seem so random. Now it mostly comes on when I'm in the act of a right-hand turn (so at slow speeds), with the wheel not quite hard over. Doesn't seem to trigger with a soft, gradual turn. Something fishy with that right front sensor / encoder, or wiring harness, or wires, or ???.

Since it is such a pain for me to get the car in to service it, I will have to have them look again during my next oil change / tire rotation.
 
#9 ·
The EBCM controls three functions. ABS, ESC, and TC. Usually a wheel speed sensor issue will cause all 3 functions to fail since the wheel speed sensors are used in all 3. If you get only one failure message that sort of indicates the failure is located in a part that isn't common to all 3 functions. ESC failures can be triggered by an issue with the steering wheel position, lateral G or yaw sensors. Some, EBCM failure codes are reset each time the engine is turned off so some times it behooves you to have the codes scanned before turning off the engine.

The Service message just means that function has failed and is no longer available for use. Most drivers have driven for years without having an ESC to aid them so if your car has this function fail it isn't a dire emergency that you need to rush to the dealership to get it fixed unless your warranty is about to run out.

The government mandated these systems on all vehicles sold in the US starting in 2008. Starting about 8 years from now there will be a ton of them driving around with an ESC failure since the 3rd, 4th or 5th owners of those cars will not have the money to repair a non essential function. Just like my Grandson who is in college. His 11 year old 140K mile car that came with all of these functions has a broken wire coming out of the right front wheel speed sensor which is in the wheel bearing. The wheel bearing is fine other than the wire being broken so it isn't worth the expense to replace the bearing. So he drives without ABS, ESC or TC and has been doing just fine for several years.

Bill
 
#11 ·
So I finally found the time to take my car in for service, i told my service writer about my stabili trak problem. After a few hours the results were " diag no problem found, unable to duplicate or find any faults no repair attempted" I was told I had to bring in the car with the warning light on... I guess it's safe to say I'm not happy about it. On the other hand it's been a few months since the last time the warning came on.
 
#12 ·
Posting one last update to (hopefully) put this issue behind me:

Had the car in for another round of 7,500 mile services (those miles sure seem to rack up fast on my daily commuter) last weekend. Service report said techs found a shorted wire on the right front wheel harness, so they ended up replacing the sensor entirely. So far, so good - no more warning light / message.
 
#13 ·
Good to hear they found the problem for you.
 
#15 ·
Just some food for thought. If anyone is having this problem on their 8th Gen and and also has HIDs, I was having this problem and it dawned on me that the stabilitrak light would come on only if I forgot to manually turn the DRLs off. I did not have the error elimators so my HIDs would flicker like strobes if ran as DRLs. I put the error eliminators on and "presto" have not had the problem since. Some sort of electrical freak out I guess...
 
#16 ·
So I may take my car in this week.
To reiterate, both the ABS light comes on a swell as the Stabilitrack light, and the DIC warning: Service Stabilitrak.

This happens every day. When i start the car these lights remain on, but go off after driving for about a minute. Then they will reappear normally at pretty fast highway speeds (120km/hr). Consistently. They will stay on for the rest of the trip.

I'm less concerned about the Stabilitrak warning than I am about the ABS.

Does anyone know if this will leave a code. My fear is that the dealership won't see the problem.
 
#18 ·
Here are the details from my service reports each of the 2 times I had mine in the dealer shop to check out this same issue:

First visit (which only temporarily resolved the issue) -
SCAN = HISTORY C0040 06 AND 0F. TEST AND READ RIGHT FRONT WHEEL SPEED SENSOR. CHECK TERMINALS AT SENSOR CONNECTOR AND X150. TENSION IS OK. APPLIED DIELECTRIC GREASE. SEARCHED BULLETINS FOUND PIC5428D
INSPECT AND CLEAN FRONT (RIGHT) WHEEL SPEED SENSOR ENCODER RING.

Second visit (which solved the problem for good, after the Stabilitrak message, light, and ABS would come on all the time) -
SCAN = C0040 06 AND 0F. TEST THE RIGHT FRONT WHEEL SPEED SENSOR AND WIRE HARNESS. FOUND SHORTED SENSOR WIRING. REPLACED THE RIGHT FRONT WHEEL SPEED SENSOR.
CLEARED DTC INFO. TEST DROVE = OK


Hope this is of some use. I never understood if the ABS was actually disabled as a result of the wheel speed sensor failure, or if the warning light is just from the cluster of sensors in that harness.
 
#19 ·
ABS needs an accurate wheel speed to be able to do its job. If it detects an issue with any part of the system it will deactivate ABS until it has been fixed. You will still have normal service brakes but ABS will not be there if/when needed.

Stabilitrac also needs good speed info. Same outcome: won't work if there's an error detected.
 
#20 ·
thanks CY Birdy et. al. Not sure if solution is the same, or whether I'll be going back and forth to the dealer.

I took mine in today.

The report was:

"Scan for codes and check operation found intermittent failure in rear harness"
Correction: Ordered parts (USA)

So, I have to wait for parts to come from somewhere in USA (I'm in Canada) before I can report whether this fixed job. Report didn't mention what codes came up.
 
#21 ·
Hey Everyone -

My 2014 2.5L Malibu with 19k miles started giving me this diagnostic. Both times I was using the cruise control. Another thing to note was that both drives were close to 90 miles long when the problem occurred.


9/29/14:

My cruise was set to 60 mph, and I had just gotten off of a very un-level road (blacktop with lots of short hills and bumps) when I received a blinking CEL and the DIC "service stabilitrak". Also, I noticed that the transmission dropped to 5th gear for no apparent reason. After a minute or two, the CEL and DIC message disappeared, and the vehicle resumed as normal (shifting back into 6th gear).

9/30/14:

I was on the interstate in an area with plenty of large hills cruising at 80 mph. I'm almost positive I was coasting downhill when the CEL and DIC "service stabilitrak" message came on. And AGAIN, the vehicle downshifts into 5th gear (on level ground). However, this time the CEL stayed on. The vehicle eventually shifted back into 6th gear, and again, resumed as normal.

10/1/14:

Turned the car on, no more CEL. I brought it to the dealership, explained to him that both the CEL and DIC light up specifically saying "Service Stabilitrak". They reported that afternoon that they couldn't find any codes, and that they wanted to go for a test drive in the morning.

10/2/14:

I get a call from the dealership around 4 pm, they say they can't find any problems, and they don't know what to check. Gave me back my car, and said that the next time the light comes on to go straight to them, and DO NOT turn the vehicle off. So I guess if this happens at 11 p.m. 300 miles away I'm screwed again.

If anyone has any information on this update I would deeply appreciate the share of knowledge.

The problem has yet to reproduce itself other than the two times I documented above.
 
#24 ·
I'm just going to throw this out there because I has some "similar" problems on my 2013 2.5L 2LT with 40k miles on it. I was taking a road trip and my gauges and cruise control and radio would all briefly shut off and "restart" seemingly when I tapped my high beams, or used my turn signal, it was the craziest issue with a car I had ever seen. I was also on the freeway and at a stand still, had the "service stabilitrac" and abs light come on, also "serive e-brake" or something like that. I basically troubleshot it myself, and came to the conclusion I needed to get my battery tested. Took the car to Autozone (as my car was able to start and run with no issues, it was only after driving a bit would these issues come up) and they hooked up the battery cart to the battery, it called it out as bad. So basically the OEM AC Delco battery has 1 or 2 bad cells in it that would drain or not charge, and whatever circuits that were affected by the lack of that cell were affected. But a new battery in the car about 3 weeks ago, haven't had any issues with the car electrically at all. I had posted on here, and seemingly some of these crazy electrical issues have been battery related. This is just Food for Thought, I hope it helps someone out at some point.
 
#25 ·
This message, along with Engine Overpowering, came on while I was driving on a highway (speed limit 55), I then could not go over 35. My malibu is a 2013 and I just have it tuned up less than 2 weeks ago! The dealership can look at it tomorrow, but I live in a small town about 35 minutes away from the dealership!
 
#28 ·
I bought a 2016 Malibu LS 1.5L in April of this year. It has less than 5000 miles on it and it has turned off three times while I was driving from a 45 mph speed to a red light or not starting after a brief normal turn off. The car shuts off completely and only has the radio powered. When I try to turn the car back on, the car will not turn on. I had to put the car 4-way flashers on and jam the car into park. I got out of the car and hit the remote to lock and unlock the car. I got back into the car and it turned on successfully.
I had this car at the dealer twice already. They replaced a part that had to do with the auto off/on feature, but the car still turned off on me.
Today, I drove 10 miles home, parked the car and went in the house for dinner. I came out 50 minutes later to run an errand and the car would not start. I tried the getting out of the car, locking it, opening it and then trying to start the car, and the car was silent in getting started.
I left the car at home and came back three hours later to start the car. The car started, but the check engine light illuminated and stayed illuminated the entire time the car was on.
I am very disappointed in this vehicle. I have never had a vehicle that has had quality this poor in my experience.
Does ANYONE have advice other than driving this car to the dealership's doors and demanding a new vehicle?
I am really at a loss here.
 
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