Stabilitrak button does nothing

[Grimor]

2006 TB LS w/ I6. I have the button on my shifter and I have tried pressing once, holding for 5 seconds, etc.. in Park, Drive, 2wd, 4wd, etc...

Just doesn't seem to do anything at all. The top of the shifter seems a little loose so I thought maybe a loose wire, everything seemed fine. Any Ideas?

 

[redleg6]

i didnt read all the way through earlier...didnt know LS models had stabilitrak either

 

[DDonnie]

Sounds like a loose wire to me.

 

[Jkust]

Stabilitrac became standard on the 06 models no matter the badge designation. Can you make the stabilitrac indicator go on if you goose it around a corner? When I first read the heading I wondered if you had an older model and someone just swapped in a new shift handle.

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

No lights on the dash at all?

My LS has Stabilitrac. Pisses me off more than anything, but it came standard on the truck. Glad they were smart enough to have it turn off in low range.

 

[DDonnie]

My LS has it. It actually works fairly well.

 

[Grimor]

The light for the Stabilitrak comes on when it's wet and I corner a bit. If it's wet and I start the truck with the wheels not straight I get the Stabilitrak and Service Stabilitrak lights on (I've read it might be a WPS/TPS i forget which but haven't got around to messing with it yet) until I turn off the truck.

I'll check the wires again and see if I can find anything, just bugs me when things don't work on a truck I just got. (As-Is from dealer)

 

[DDonnie]

The light for the Stabilitrak comes on when it's wet and I corner a bit. If it's wet and I start the truck with the wheels not straight I get the Stabilitrak and Service Stabilitrak lights on (I've read it might be a WPS/TPS i forget which but haven't got around to messing with it yet) until I turn off the truck.

I'll check the wires again and see if I can find anything, just bugs me when things don't work on a truck I just got. (As-Is from dealer)

As far as the light coming on when you start the truck, could be a dirty abs sensor. As for the loose wires, it sounds like the wire in the console is loose, i should have been more clear before. Also, you should update your profile with your year, make, model, and engine so that it's easier to help troubleshoot (and also to do a bit of showing off! )

 

[Grimor]

As far as the light coming on when you start the truck, could be a dirty abs sensor. As for the loose wires, it sounds like the wire in the console is loose, i should have been more clear before. Also, you should update your profile with your year, make, model, and engine so that it's easier to help troubleshoot (and also to do a bit of showing off! )

So many sites, so many profiles. Screw it, new site http://www.06TBLS.com and I'll just keep my stuff there

 

[navigator]

when I press the button once, the light will come on but I'm not sure what it actually does.
If I hold it for like 15 secs it will flash and stay on. That turns the stabilitrak off.
With it on, when moving briskly in turns on gravel roads, I can feel it kick in and limit fishtailing.
In the mud, it sucks unless you have decent momentum. In my experience it will basically make you stop because it senses wheel slip.
I turn it off when I get in any low traction areas.

I expect it might be nice in snow.

 

[Chickenhawk]

As you surmised, a warning light coming on with the steering wheel not straight is the steering wheel position sensor. It is an electromechanical device, and has a sophisticated form of variable rheostat in it. It spends the vast majority of its lifetime in the straight ahead position so if the truck is parked with the steering wheel off center, it tends to rest the sensor in a much less used area of the variable rheostat and this can light a warning light and shut down the system. A couple of turns will clean it up, and then stop and start the truck.

Replacing the steering position sensor will cure this, but it will come back in a few years anyway.

While it might be easy to consider that stability control is an expensive system mandated on all of us to keep stupid people from doing stupid things, it actually is a very useful system. We are all human and when we make human mistakes, stability control can help average people drive like experts just when they need the help the most. (It doesn't refute the laws of physics however.)

 

[RedEnvoyDenali]

As you surmised, a warning light coming on with the steering wheel not straight is the steering wheel position sensor. It is an electromechanical device, and has a sophisticated form of variable rheostat in it. It spends the vast majority of its lifetime in the straight ahead position so if the truck is parked with the steering wheel off center, it tends to rest the sensor in a much less used area of the variable rheostat and this can light a warning light and shut down the system. A couple of turns will clean it up, and then stop and start the truck.

Replacing the steering position sensor will cure this, but it will come back in a few years anyway.

While it might be easy to consider that stability control is an expensive system mandated on all of us to keep stupid people from doing stupid things, it actually is a very useful system. We are all human and when we make human mistakes, stability control can help average people drive like experts just when they need the help the most. (It doesn't refute the laws of physics however.)

Thank you very much for this post. I have experienced the symptoms you describe and the fix as you described has worked every time. Now I know why it does it.

I too am a fan of stabiltrack it keeps me a little more idiot proof .

 

[Jkust]

In the later models, GM added traction control to the 4wd and A4wd trucks. Previously traction control was only on the 2wd models. When you press the statilitrac button the first time, you are only shutting off the traction control but leaving stabilitrac active. Pressing and holding therefore also shuts of the stabilitrac. When you play around in ice and snow with just stabilitrac active but traction control shut off, you see how well the traction control works. When you shut all of it off, it acts like a 2005 and previous model. Now add in that the G80 or G86 can not be shut off and you can have all sorts of fun combos.
Also, my wife's Rainier just had the Steering wheel angle sensor, as they called it at the dealer, replaced. It was warranty work but it wasn't that expensive. Every GM truck model with stabilitrac has the issue.

If you don't deal with winter and ice I suppose you could go a whole lifetime without 'needing' stabilitrac just by driving slow enough for the conditions and never accidently overcorrecting on the highway like when someone changes lanes into you. I like when it snows and I will constantly test the systems. It really does a good job at correcting errors in an instant. As mentioned above not all of us are perfect every day and so I welcome the systems and like that they allowed us to shut them off.