parantes

I've been driving my 2018 Chevy Equinox for two years now and loving it. Got over 70K miles on it already (bought it at 30K). That said, I am now getting an error message, and it seems to be related to auto stop/start, but I'm not sure...

When I stop at a red light, the car auto stops. When I release the break and it auto starts, I'm getting a sequence of these messages:I'm mostly concerned about the last message, considering that my car always shows Traction Control On and Park Brake Released every time I start it up. However, it has never shown those messages at auto start before. That makes me think that during auto stop/start, it's actually shutting down the engine completely for a fresh restart.... instead of just normal partial auto stop/start. I now also notice that the radio cuts off for a second during auto start.... it didn't used to do that.

I have uploaded a video of it to Dropbox, if you care to watch it in motion: https://www.dropbox.com/s/93ugqag3bv...start.MOV?dl=0

I also thought that it could be the battery. It still uses the original. However, I checked the volts and nothing pops out as unordinary. Battery is 14.2V while driving and when it auto starts, it momentarily drops to 12V and then back to above 14V.

I inquired with my local dealer and they said it's probably the brakes, but I just had it serviced two weeks ago and the brakes were fine. They want to charge me $175 just to take a look.

Oh, and I want to add that I get no warning messages whatsoever when I drive with auto stop/start disabled (in manual L6, that is).

Any ideas? I'm grateful for any response.

parantes

Ok, problem solved. It was the battery. I realized I was still running the original battery after 3.5 years, so I figured might as well replace it. That did it! No more issues with auto stop/start. Very odd that it would throw a "Service Brake Assist" warning message. So now I can cancel my appointment with my Chevy dealer, who thought it was a brake issue.

oilcanhenry

Glad you got her fixed parantes!

ruley73

Glad you got it fixed. Your symptoms seemed to indicate a bad battery, but I wasn't very confident in suggesting this. Considering the high mileage it seemed very unlikely that the battery would need to be replaced so soon. It seems like batteries in general don't seem to last as long with these newer vehicles despite the enhanced battery management/charging methods that have been implemented in recent years.

awestfall

I’ve been looking for this solution for months. Im getting a battery now and hope it works. Thanks!

OHHEY

A bad battery can cause all kinds of issues that don't seem related. I remember my 2007 Camry would not shift into gear when the battery was weak. I think the solenoid that locked the shifter really wanted 12volt, not 10.6 volts. 😁

tinaramdom

Did replacing the battery work for you as well??

parantes

Ha, two years later and I had the exact same problem again. I left a message with my Chevy dealer, but fortunately they were so slow to respond that I had time to realize it was the battery again, even though the error message is "Service Brake Assist". I got a new battery - the car works great again and it was fully covered by the battery warranty (Sam's Club).

Emason

I'm currently having the same issue. About a month ago my 2018 equinox started acting funny with all the displays popping up. But mine actually died. Had someone come and charge the battery, it worked fine for about a month. Just yesterday it died again with all the same displays poppong up. Someone came and gave me a jump and it was fine. Now today all the displays are popping up again. Really hoping it's just the battery as I'm planning to replace it ASAP

hanky

It might be a good idea to have someone that is familiar with the charging system check it.