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2024 Colorado ZR2 - Throwing ESC/Traction Control warnings and going to limp mode....

1.8K views 14 replies 5 participants last post by  gherbert  
#1 Ā·
New 2024 ZR2 in August of last year flawless for the first 4600 miles. Decided to take a little vacay and got the first oil change/tire rotation done. The fuel injector recall was also done. No issues, owner is happy. šŸ˜€ Monday of the next week I drive from North Carolina to Florida and while crossing the high level bridge on 295 in Jacksonville the truck jumped the shark and started throwing "service traction control", "service ESC", "reduced acceleration, drive with care" messages on the dash and was shuddering like I was driving on rumble strips....this occurred while accelerating up the incline one the bridge. Pull over, turn engine off. Wait a couple of minutes for my pulse to stabilize and restarted with no more messages just a CEL. Managed to make it to St. Augustine and called dealer first, suggested an appointment with the local dealer in town. Went to dealer next day, described issue and they plugged in the OBD scanner and pulled it into the shop. Diagnosis was a faulty throttle body. Ordered overnight and had it replaced next day. Yay! ....20 miles down the road it went haywire again trying to accelerate to highway speed. At this point both purchasing dealer and out of town dealer state that as long as the CEL isn't flashing I am not damaging the vehicle. Manage to navigate the remaining vacay time with around 8 more events, both while climbing grade and while accelerating to highway speeds.....internet searches give no defined fix to date. Any insight from the forum members? The ride from Florida back to North Carolina on I-95 was gut wrenching to say the least....
 
#3 Ā·
I absolutely 2nd @low-tec
Take it to a dealer
 
owns 2017 Chevrolet Colorado Z71
#5 Ā·
I did take it to a dealer, mis-diagnosed on throttle body. I already have an appointment on Monday at my purchasing dealer. There seems to be a fair amount of searchable events similar to mine and was hoping for some insight on what the fix might be. There's been reports of faulty harnesses, fuel injectors, modules, etc. The method of acceleration was your basic more gas pedal going up hill not gunning it. During the limp home it would retrigger with even the slightest push of the pedal....I had to feather the gain in speed over 5 or 10 seconds. Imagine that on I-95 šŸ˜. Once it happens it's a pull over, turn off vehicle, open door to shut the electronics down and restart. This has to happen 4 times in succession before the CEL goes away.....this should be fun.
 
#8 Ā·
That's a missing piece of relevant information.
Since the the throttle body has already been replaced, this is most likely a wiring issue.
Your going to want to start with carefully checking the wire harness from the throttle body back to the ECM, carefully for points where it has chaffed against something, or been pinched during assembly. Then unplug both connectors and test the terminals for proper tension. If that's good, test each circuit for good continuity using a digital ohm meter, you want to see a couple tenths of an ohm at most, then check that they all have infinite resistance to a solid ground. Remember, we have both ends of the circuit disconnected at this point. If you still haven't found anything at this point, I would say you need to test each circuit's ability to carry some load. Connect one end of the circuit to a verified good ground, then with an incandescent test light (not an LED) connected to battery positive power touch the other end of circuit, the light should have it's full brightness. If the light is dim, or doesn't light at all, you have a compromised circuit.
From here you have 2 choices, you start disassembly the harness to find point of failure, I have had some luck in this and been able to find points where the insulation is suddenly narrower, this is because there is brake in the conductor inside. But, often times the more expedient repair is going to be to restring this circuit.

Hope that helps. Good luck in getting it fixed.
 
#13 Ā·
Dropped her off at the dealer yesterday and got a loaner šŸ‘šŸ» They managed to get her to jump the shark twice yesterday and called late afternoon saying it would need to stay another day. Don't know if that's good or bad. The phone app lists the service issues as Engine & Transmission System and the system status lists the Tranny and the Throttle Control....guess we'll see later today.
 
#14 Ā·
I got the truck back on Thursday and drove it some miles and all seems well. They verified the P2101 code and over the course of the 4 days were able to recreate the kick-out to limp mode on acceleration I was experiencing. Got numerous Onstar notifications to this effect. They did trouble shooting on the throttle body per Document ID 5417364. Replaced throttle body per service document ID 6143238. Test drove and no further issues noting that issue could be triggered when vehicle is hot and throttle open past 35%.They did additional testing on wired connections. Found that the ECM was loosing connection on K20, pin 30. All other connections tested good. Replaced the ECM and tested on interstate with elevation change and an additional 25 miles in mixed driving with no issues. (*almost). Friday morning I went out to reset some settings reset by the service techs and looked under the hood.... šŸ˜ The techs forgot to reinstall the cowl/shroud over the engine behind the intake. Drives fine though and I'll take it back on Monday to get the covers reinstalled....

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#15 Ā·
Glad to hear that they got it all sorted out
Oops on the Engine Cover
After working on something for so long they wanted to see it gone and just lost track of the cover
 
owns 2017 Chevrolet Colorado Z71