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Old July 29th, 2015, 1:08 PM
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engine power is reduced, service stabilitrak and service traction control

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Old September 6th, 2016, 6:42 PM
  #191  
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I had same issue as folks in this thread, low engine power light, service stabilitrack and service traction control warnings. Truck would barely crawl up a hill. I was able to get the vehicle moving after shutting off for a few minutes and starting back up. Upon restart, only check engine light came on and stayed on, but truck seemed to have power so I was able to drive to dealer. Dealer had it a couple of hours and came back and told me they fixed the problem by replacing the throttle position sensor and ECM reprogramming. As others mentioned, it was also covered under warranty even though my vehicle was well out of warrantly. Drove home (approx. 50 miles) with no issues. Hopefully issue is behind me.
Old September 8th, 2016, 6:59 PM
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Default Reduced engine power/service stabilitrak/traction control

My truck has been slowing down and sputtering after stop signs and red lights and then eventually it stopped accelerating all together and gave me an error message saying reduced engine power followed by service Stabilitrak and service traction control. Can anybody tell me what I should be looking for as far as servicing on the truck. In the past it said to service the Stabilitrak and I had replaced the bearings on the wheels and replace the brake sensors and that seemed to do the trick but now it's reducing my engine power tool to the point where I can't even drive it and telling me I need to service the Stabilitrak and the traction control.
Old September 12th, 2016, 9:54 AM
  #193  
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Carlos, your symptoms sound the same as mine. Take it to a chevy dealer and have them look at it. My issue was the Throttle Position Sensor (see post #190). Took them an hour or so to fix it and was all covered under warranty even though my 2008 Avalanche is out of warranty as it is a known issue. Been a week or so now since they replaced the sensor and have had no recurring issues or warnings.
Old October 14th, 2016, 8:38 AM
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Default This 5.3 with AFM has design problems!

I bought a 2010 Avalanche with 111,000
miles from the BMW dealership, "as is"' They did offer an extended warantee but I declined it, this is the first time that I was sorry that I did not pay for that option. Anyway about four months go by and my beautiful black Avalanche LTZ is idling rough and making that lifter noise, I love the truck it has everything including AFM or DOD as the Chevy insiders call it. Oh when this happens all kinds of things go wrong with traction control and stabilitrac lights start going off, shifting problems that are scary, I have worked on my own cars from 1976 until this very day, I have never taken a car that I have owned to a dealer for repair. I could not afford to pay them to do the work, Chrysler, (which I still own and am very happy with, has alternative displacement, a different name but the same type of feature), Volkswagen Fords and a Pontiac . So I work on the usual things that would cause the bad idle and a lot of research. The usual things did nothing to fix the truck but the research told me a lot of things about this motor and its inherent problems, lifters, cams, oil filter to the vlom and the vlom itself is a problem! Yes, I am going to repair this truck myself, I just took of the right cylinder head today, I have a bad lifter, the roller is pitted and rough, I have not looked at the cam yet, I am afraid too! The left head will come off soon, I know that a few of the lifters on that side are suspect as well. So what am I saying well after hours of research and spending a few dollars on "Just Ask" with a Chevy certified mechanic, I began to see a pattern, when I purchased my lifters all of them, I am told that unless I replace the (valve lifter oil manifold) the new lifters
are not going to be under warrantee, I need to spend at least $200 on this newly designed upgraded VLOM what is wrong with the old one? Was the original not right did it have a design problem? Then I find out that I should replace the lifter trays, that hold the lifters in place and insure correct orientation, not a big expense but another indication of a failure in the design, they are plastic for crying out loud! Oh finally the mechanic that has thirty years experience working on GM vehicles told me that "they, the mechanics, have had a lot of these, lifters and cams failing, that it looks good on paper (the design) but in reality it's flawed" Chevrolet when asked, blame it on various things that put it back on the owner, like the wrong oil or low oil, not changing it frequenly enough. There are a lot of us that are putting out a lot of money to fix our vehicles when it is Chevrolet that is at fault, I am going to get on every site that I can concerning this problem, ask my wife, I am tenacious, I will not stop! GM needs to tell us what causes so many of these 5.3l motors with AFM to fail. The cylinder walls look so good that if I cleaned them, they would look like they did the day the pistons went in at the plant. I give them high praise for that and everything else about my truck that works correctly. If this was not such a costly repair, I would not be so vocal
Craig Watson
Mesa AZ
Old October 28th, 2016, 1:55 PM
  #195  
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Default 2007 Suburban same lroblem

Any ideas on how to repair this ?
Check engine light blinking and service traction control and service stabilittak in info window

rough idle and Transmission shifting hard from 1st to 2nd
mechanic computer showed number 4 cylinder misfire, good spark, changed plug but no change

thank you very much for your time
Matthew
Old October 29th, 2016, 2:37 AM
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Default Afm?

Originally Posted by Matthew
Any ideas on how to repair this ?
Check engine light blinking and service traction control and service stabilittak in info window

rough idle and Transmission shifting hard from 1st to 2nd
mechanic computer showed number 4 cylinder misfire, good spark, changed plug but no change

thank you very much for your time
Matthew
Mathew
I do have a questions first, What year is your vehicle? is it a 5.3l? Are the lifters noisy, or at least one? I have spent a lot of time researching this, your problem could be simple, I hope it is! I have read a corroded ground, a bad battery, can cause the stabiltrack and traction control lights and the other symptoms that you are experiencing, the one thing that makes me think you have a bigger problem is the misfire on 4. Is it random? Mine was a P0308 it would read random misfire cyl 8, that scared me, I hate random or intermittent, I am a retired lineman with a background in electronics also, so when we would get a call about random, I would cringe. That is the way I felt when I read that code, I knew I was in for the long haul. I did all of the usual trouble shooting, plugs, coil pack swapped, wires, I cleaned and tested all of the injectors, I did that hoping it would fix it but knowing it wouldn't. At the time my Avalanche started idling bad my wife was using the truck so after a couple of weeks I get in and it's a different truck, she says what I did not notice any problem, at that time the lifters seamed to be louder one or two really bad, that's when I removed the valve covers and whent through the li
Old October 29th, 2016, 3:03 AM
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Originally Posted by Matthew
Any ideas on how to repair this ?
Check engine light blinking and service traction control and service stabilittak in info window

rough idle and Transmission shifting hard from 1st to 2nd
mechanic computer showed number 4 cylinder misfire, good spark, changed plug but no change

thank you very much for your time
Matthew
(part two)
i noticed problems with three of the lifters they are squishy so I try cleaning them with ATF and a starter fluid trick I found on you tube it worked my problem lifters were not squishy any more, the truck ran better but the cyl 8 code came up again. I did not find any problems at all with that cylinder, the push rods and rockers were good and as I hand cranked the motor it looked fine I even ran it with the covers of but the noise was still there and it seamed to be cyl one or three, it was hard to determine they were all noisy, at this point I knew I had to get to the lifters, and I found out by researching the 5.3l with active fuel management has some serious problems with the design. Anyway when I took the heads off the lifters looked ok except the cyl 8 exhaust, it was pitted on the roller and a bit of a scuff that in my opinion would cause that misfire. I was told by a Chevy mechanic that there is design problems with the AFM aka Displacement on demand, DOD. I chose to replace all the lifter because if all the racket, the cam thank God is ok, I am torquing the heads tonight
Old October 29th, 2016, 3:24 AM
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Originally Posted by craigwatson60
(part two)
i noticed problems with three of the lifters they are squishy so I try cleaning them with ATF and a starter fluid trick I found on you tube it worked my problem lifters were not squishy any more, the truck ran better but the cyl 8 code came up again. I did not find any problems at all with that cylinder, the push rods and rockers were good and as I hand cranked the motor it looked fine I even ran it with the covers of but the noise was still there and it seamed to be cyl one or three, it was hard to determine they were all noisy, at this point I knew I had to get to the lifters, and I found out by researching the 5.3l with active fuel management has some serious problems with the design. Anyway when I took the heads off the lifters looked ok except the cyl 8 exhaust, it was pitted on the roller and a bit of a scuff that in my opinion would cause that misfire. I was told by a Chevy mechanic that there is design problems with the AFM aka Displacement on demand, DOD. I chose to replace all the lifter because of all the racket, the cam thank God is ok, I am torquing the heads tonight
I was told by the same mechanic that everything will be fine when I find the reason for the misfire. I hope that helps, get back to me about any lifter noise. Also research the AFM system and how it works, I think the biggest problem is with the valve lifter oil management because no one will warrantee the new parts unless you get the upgraded redesigned VLOM, the good news the cylinder walls have no wear, I give Chevy very high marks for that but they are not owning up to thier bad design. Anyway I love my pretty black Avalanche and when it is running again very soon l, I can say I did not pay Chevy one dime to help me find out what they already know is a problem. About $800 to fix it myself, easy motor to work on, if you are skilled at working on your own vehicles then I would not be afraid to DIY!
good luck
Craig
Old October 29th, 2016, 4:54 PM
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Originally Posted by craigwatson60
Mathew
I do have a questions first, What year is your vehicle? is it a 5.3l? Are the lifters noisy, or at least one? I have spent a lot of time researching this, your problem could be simple, I hope it is! I have read a corroded ground, a bad battery, can cause the stabiltrack and traction control lights and the other symptoms that you are experiencing, the one thing that makes me think you have a bigger problem is the misfire on 4. Is it random? Mine was a P0308 it would read random misfire cyl 8, that scared me, I hate random or intermittent, I am a retired lineman with a background in electronics also, so when we would get a call about random, I would cringe. That is the way I felt when I read that code, I knew I was in for the long haul. I did all of the usual trouble shooting, plugs, coil pack swapped, wires, I cleaned and tested all of the injectors, I did that hoping it would fix it but knowing it wouldn't. At the time my Avalanche started idling bad my wife was using the truck so after a couple of weeks I get in and it's a different truck, she says what I did not notice any problem, at that time the lifters seamed to be louder one or two really bad, that's when I removed the valve covers and whent through the li
thank you very very much for your reply
it's an 07 Suburban
I hear a tick at times but all my chevrolets have done that so I figured it was typical.
Old November 1st, 2016, 11:56 PM
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Default 07 Suburban

Originally Posted by Matthew
thank you very very much for your reply
it's an 07 Suburban
I hear a tick at times but all my chevrolets have done Sthat so I figured it was typical.
Matthew
have you found out what is causing your problem? I hope it was an easy fix. Let me know, I recenently married and my new bride has an 07 Denali that was acting up in a similar way just before we put it out to pasture, it has 250,000 miles, when I get time I want to bring it back to life it is a nice vehicle.
Thank you!
Craig


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