Traction control/stabilitrak off issue

[zunman]

After hard down shifting issues in tow haul mode when the truck is cold, and also the same traction control and stablitrac service alarm on the display, I ended up finding my 3/8 tube from the tube to the intake manifold on my cheap ebay aluminum intake was dry rotted and disconnected (after it was at the dealer for trouble shooting the tranny issue) They said the truck shifted fine too…. I replaced the line and it has not had the alarm again in 20 miles, I have not driven it in the cold to see if it is down shifting hard yet tho. Hopefully the tube was it, it was also throwing the 2 lean codes like you all are speaking of! Check for a vacuum leak!!!!!

never mind my truck still seems like the throttle is out of calibration, spoke too soon. Im starting to not like this truck…ugh I give it a bit of throttle and it feels it wants to launch on its own some times. Back to the tuner I guess. Maybe its the tune or my throttle position sensor is going.

 

[Factory909]

I had the same issues as you guys did with my '08. CEL lights, 4x4, etc lights going crazy, running rough. Jiggle the battery cable and all was fine, until the next time. Question, are you guys still running the stock battery terminals? I found another post on here, and was my reason for joining, that a guy was dealing with sort of the same thing. I replaced both the neg and pos terminals with aftermarket ones. What I found when I cut them open was scary. There was ALOT of arcing going on in the neg terminal, where it has the main neg cable along with the little cable. I diced it open and there was alot of blue in there where you could cleary tell it was arcing out. Once I replaced them with some good audio system connectors (I think $20-$30 from Autozone) I haven't had a problem since.

 

[Bogart]

Had my airaid a few months and the check engine came on last week. When driving home from work the truck sounded horrible. Popped the hood and noticed the tube hade come off. Hope this is not a recurring problem.

 

[strokinpower]

Well you can clean the boot up really well and the throttle body and squirt a little hair spray on it and it wont budge. Works on intercooler boots on diesel trucks so I would think it would work here.

 

[felixgun]

Had my airaid a few months and the check engine came on last week. When driving home from work the truck sounded horrible. Popped the hood and noticed the tube hade come off. Hope this is not a recurring problem.

Just wanted to note on this thread that the same exact thing happened to me. CEL is still on but stabilitrak and traction control issues went away. This MIT sucks apparantly.

 

[TheFuzz]

Well you can clean the boot up really well and the throttle body and squirt a little hair spray on it and it wont budge. Works on intercooler boots on diesel trucks so I would think it would work here.

Good tip. Finally...a use for my wife's smelly hairspray that I can actually enjoy, lol. How hard is it to pull the tube off for maintenance when the time comes?

To be clear, there seems to be two separate schools of thought going on in this thread, one being an electrical issue and the other being a vacuum leak. I am 99.9% certain that my issue is vacuum related. The truck stumbles at startup, especially when cold (it acts just like it does when I pull the master cylinder hose off for seafoam treatments). This, combined with the rich fueling condition indicated by the CEL along with the traction control/stabilitrak issues, is a sure sign of a vacuum leak. I have not been able to source it yet...everything associated with the intake looks fine and is clamped down tight. I think that something else must have popped off when the tube came off of the throttle body, but I'm stumped as to what it could be. It's been frigid here the last few days, sub zero temps...not really conducive to garage work. It's supposed to warm up a bit this week, so once I get this ironed out I'll post back with my findings.

 

[strokinpower]

You can still pull it apart if need be without a problem but when clamped it just adds and extra bit of grab if that makes sense.

 

[TheFuzz]

Pulled everything apart tonight and did a close inspection. All visible vacuum lines appeared to be properly installed and un-damaged. I did notice a couple of things about the intake though:

1. The Airaid rests right on the radiator hose, which gets hot enough to slightly deform the tube over time. Not by much, but it's noticeable. I doubt it does much of anything to impact the performance of the tube itself...but once your truck is up to operating temp, that heat is transferred directly to the tube. I know "heat soak" issues as it relates to intake tubes have been proven several times over to not actually be an "issue" since the air moves so fast through the tube, but I still wonder about it in the back of my mind.

2. Upon removing the rubber collar holding the tube to the throttle body and looking at it closely under a shop light, I saw a thin layer of dirt built up in the area where the tube sits in the collar. That has to be where the extra air is leaking in. The design of the collar sucks...it's essentially a hose coupler with a ridge in the middle to separate the aluminum throttle body from the plastic tube, but what it really needs is a recess molded into it right next to the ridge on the intake tube side that will allow the lip on the tube to fit into it more securely. I thoroughly cleaned all of the surfaces and gave them a liberal coating of hairspray as suggested by Strokinpower (my wife's Volumaxx to the rescue), disconnected the battery (yet again...sigh), cranked all of the worm clamps down as tight as I possibly could get them, and let the truck cool down for a few hours. The result? No stumbling upon startup a few minutes ago. Progress!!

I didn't drive it yet so the real test will come tomorrow. Also, it seems to stumble the worst during startup after it's been sitting all night and the block is stone cold. When I start it up tomorrow morning, that will be a big indicator as to whether or not this issue is solved, then the next few days will tell the tale. I have to wonder if replacing the POS rubber collar with a nice silicone coupler would solve this issue permanently...

Another update to follow in 48 hours or so.

 

[Jtl09]

Keep us updated! My problem started after a TB cleaning. I have a spectra cai, I thought I messed up the TB while cleaning so I replaced it. No change, idle was still messed up even after several idle relearns done and driving it over 100 miles. I had the codes read at auto parts store and they said I needed a new MAF. So I replaced it with no change to the weird idle. So I took it to the dealership, they said I needed to return everything to stock and put another TB. I told them it ran fine before the TB cleaning with the cai and that I had replaced the TB. They wouldn't do anything else to it until I did that.
I think it's a vacuum problem but I have used a can of starting fluid and several inspections of all the vacuum hoses I could find without success. Hopefully something can be figured out here!
I forgot to mention its a 09 suburban 5.3 flex 2wd.

 

[zunman]

So when my truck was at the dyno for tuning adjustments, the display came up about the stabilitrac etc. They pulled some codes which basically point towards body control module communication or failure. The codes were :c0561 u0140 u0122