Elysian88

I have a 2012 Equinox AWD that I purchased used about 2 1/2 years ago. I had very good luck with the car, no issues, until this past November or so. While driving, the Service Stabilitrak warning came on, along with the traction control light. Within a minute or two, all of the dash lights came on, the car was binging at me, the gauges would all dip down to nothing and then go back to where they should be, and the transmission began to shift very hard. When I finally found a place to pull over and shut the car off, it wouldn't turn back on. About a half-hour later, after I'd called a family member to rescue me and my toddler, the car started up perfectly fine, no dash lights or warnings, and it drove without issue back home. Since that incident, I've had several more similar problems -- usually, the service stabilitrak and traction control lights will come on and then go off at random times while I'm driving, and/or the gauges will stop working for a moment and then resume, but that's it. Occasionally I'll get a service ABS warning as well. Sometimes when I turn the car off, it won't start right away (there will be nothing -- no sound of it trying to turn over, no "click" noise, just absolutely nothing), and I'll have to wait a while and try again, and then the car will start and everything will be fine. Once, the car wouldn't start, and when it finally did, none of the gauges (temperature gauge, tachometer, gas gauge, etc) worked for the entire time the car was running, about 40 minutes. When it was turned off and turned back on, everything was fine again. The car does NOT act up every time I drive it. Sometimes it's every day for a few days, sometimes it doesn't happen for a month. I don't see any correlation between what I'm doing (turning/accelerating/road conditions/etc) and the issues appearing.

Here's what happened this morning, for example: I drove 30 minutes to the sitter's house, and the car was fine the whole way, until about 5 minutes before I got there. The service stabilitrak light came on, then went back off only a few seconds later. Then it came right back on again and stayed on until I got to my destination. I did not notice the gauges dipping this time. I turned the car off, and when I left, it started fine (no lights or anything), and ran without a problem for about 15 minutes. Then the service stabilitrak light came on again, followed by teh service ABS light (and it made a dinging noise) and the gauges dipped once and then went back to where they should. Then all of the lights went back off and everything was fine. The stabilitrak light came on again while later, then turned off. Then it turned back on and stayed on for the last ~3 minutes of the trip. I turned the car off when I got to work, then started it up again, and it started fine. No noises, no lights, no warnings.

The car has been to 2 different service stations (including a Chevy dealer, who had the car for a week) and nobody has been able to diagnose the problem. The private garage thought it was the chip in the key, but I've been through 3 keys now, and the car acts up with all 3. The Chevy dealer told me I needed new ball joints and some exhaust work, neither of which seem like they'd have anything to do with whatever the problem really is and they were just trying to swindle me out of $1,000 or more. But they couldn't give me a definite diagnosis because the check engine light doesn't come on, so they don't have any codes to read. It seems like an electrical issue to me.

Issues with the stabilitrak system seem to be fairly common in GM vehicles, but I haven't been able to actually find anything online that gives an answer to the problem. Has anyone had a similar issue and had it fixed? I have a 2-year-old and am expecting a second child in the fall. I'm worried about the issue causing an accident or leaving me stranded somewhere with two little kids in the middle of winter.