2011 equinox stalling issues?

Hi guys. I need some input on a problem a close friend is having with her new equinox.

It's. 2011 chevy equinox LT 2. She loves the car. Said it's nicer than anything she's ever had. But the car has developed problems. Now I've been told that these problems are associated with the older equinoxs. But the fact remains, she's experiencing these problems and needs help. The car is brand new, and the dealership is doing the same old "we cant find any problem".

Her husband is working overseas, and can't be here to deal with it. She's literally stressed out over this because it is a real problem to her but everyone else is telling her it's not.

Has anyone heard ANYTHING like this on the newer equinoxes?

If not, how about ideas to deal with the dealership? I suggested taking it to another dealership, or getting an attorney, or even having a mechanic drive t to see If they can find the issue, and then let the service department know. From what it sounds like, the dealership is denying that the car has a problem at all.

Here are her issues she is having.


And here's the car.


If this was your car, and you were experiencing these problems but the dealership would not come through, what would you do? They told he they'd buy it back, but at a used car price.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome to the site Nick. I wish your friend lived by me. I know for fact that the dealership I got my Nox from would not give her this go around excuse. In fact they would have to give her a loaner and wouldn't give it back till it was fixes. The bill out rental cars with Hertz so the less they have to pay for that the better.

Anyways hope she gets it fixed without adding too much stress.

This one?

First take it too another dealer...That is very simple solution. If the mechanics have not driven the car yet, why are you even have it taken to them to repair if they will not properly look at it.


As for ideas....Being its a 2011 I cannot see GM messing up the tranny tune, but that is what it sounds like to me or a lack of fluid (but it shouldnt matter in stopNgo vs driving...is it an I4 in ECO mode as that should change the shift/profile by locking the TC instead of allowing for TC stall).Another possibiity is I have heard GM received a bad batch of ECM's (which is what the tranny program is stored on)... The 2010's didnt have any of these issues that I have heard of, they had some lack luster tranny programs, but that was about it.

2010BlkGraniteNox said:

First take it too another dealer...That is very simple solution. If the mechanics have not driven the car yet, why are you even have it taken to them to repair if they will not properly look at it.


As for ideas....Being its a 2011 I cannot see GM messing up the tranny tune, but that is what it sounds like to me or a lack of fluid (but it shouldnt matter in stopNgo vs driving...is it an I4 in ECO mode as that should change the shift/profile by locking the TC instead of allowing for TC stall).Another possibiity is I have heard GM received a bad batch of ECM's (which is what the tranny program is stored on)... The 2010's didnt have any of these issues that I have heard of, they had some lack luster tranny programs, but that was about it.

Click to expand...

Hey. From what the dealer said, the mechanics did in fact drive it and found no problems...And I also found out that this problem has only happened twice.

However, its still a problem and a dangerous one at that. The fact that its only happened twice makes it hard for the stealership to replicate it.

Latest developments: Tomorrow she is supposed to bring the car back, The service manager said he will drive the car everywhere he goes, including back and forth to home/work, and will hopefully experience the problem. They said they'll give her another 'Nox (new) to drive around while he's putting miles on hers....

So thats a start. We'll see what happens from there!

I am just glad to hear that they are taking action... Is she suggesting some of these possible scenarios that are presented?

I know its hard being a woman taking a vehicle to the dealership. People still take advantage and it pisses me off.. They will take a guy seriously every time.

I'd like to know how many miles she ends up putting on that (new) loaner 'Nox and whether that odometer gets tampered with in any way. I was reading a Popular Mechanics article a month ago where a vehicle owner discovered a switch under his dash and was asking what it was for. I was thinking it was an anti-theft "kill switch" but Mike Allen, the editor, didn't mention that at all. Instead, he said some dealers install these switches to kill the odometers so they can drive the cars around without accumulating miles (especially in the case of a vehicle transfer between distant dealers). This greatly surprised me because I thought ANY tampering with odometers (by anyone) was illegal !!

Colt Hero said:

I'd like to know how many miles she ends up putting on that (new) loaner 'Nox and whether that odometer gets tampered with in any way. I was reading a Popular Mechanics article a month ago where a vehicle owner discovered a switch under his dash and was asking what it was for. I was thinking it was an anti-theft "kill switch" but Mike Allen, the editor, didn't mention that at all. Instead, he said some dealers install these switches to kill the odometers so they can drive the cars around without accumulating miles (especially in the case of a vehicle transfer between distant dealers). This greatly surprised me because I thought ANY tampering with odometers (by anyone) was illegal !!

Click to expand...

Yeah I don't think that is legit... Dealers have a standard amount of miles that they can run on a vehicle before it is no longer considered new... Most of my vehicles had under 5 miles on them when purchased new. But my diesel had a little over 100 miles on it.. It was a left over 2007 in July of 2008.

Big wigs at dealership normally drive a new vehicle home off of the lot and depending how many miles they put on them determines how long they get to keep the vehicle.

Dealer would get shut down for that.

Z Ghost:

You would think they'd get shut down for that, but the way it was written up in the PM article seemed to imply that this is done routinely. I remember seeing a segment on 60 minutes years ago where Mike Wallace (or Morely Safer) interviewed a guy who was paid $50 per car for every mechanical odometer he 'turned back'. He was standing in the middle of a car lot amongst a sea of vehicles and he quickly demonstrated how he slipped a bent coat hanger up into the cluster to manually push the individual digits to the new number.

I thought the digital odometers used today (together with maybe a 'black box' as a double-check) made odometer tampering virtually impossible to do, but maybe it's actually EASIER!

By the way, for the purposes of using "GM dollars" or "points" in the purchase of a new vehicle, any mileage below 7000 (or 7500, can't remember which it was) is considered "new".

For me, I'm with dietz4ibanez ... the odometer on any new vehicle I purchase is a single digit ... or only slightly above (less than 20). And the build date is very recent. Last two cars had just rolled off the truck. Taurus was a leftover 6 months old, but still only a few miles on the odometer.

Colt Hero said:

Z Ghost:

You would think they'd get shut down for that, but the way it was written up in the PM article seemed to imply that this is done routinely. I remember seeing a segment on 60 minutes years ago where Mike Wallace (or Morely Safer) interviewed a guy who was paid $50 per car for every mechanical odometer he 'turned back'. He was standing in the middle of a car lot amongst a sea of vehicles and he quickly demonstrated how he slipped a bent coat hanger up into the cluster to manually push the individual digits to the new number.

I thought the digital odometers used today (together with maybe a 'black box' as a double-check) made odometer tampering virtually impossible to do, but maybe it's actually EASIER!

By the way, for the purposes of using "GM dollars" or "points" in the purchase of a new vehicle, any mileage below 7000 (or 7500, can't remember which it was) is considered "new".

For me, I'm with dietz4ibanez ... the odometer on any new vehicle I purchase is a single digit ... or only slightly above (less than 20). And the build date is very recent. Last two cars had just rolled off the truck. Taurus was a leftover 6 months old, but still only a few miles on the odometer.

Click to expand...

Its nearly impossible to roll the odometer back on these cars.

Used car dealers I know that it happens, at least with the older cars. New car dealers is a different story, I would think that a few might do this if it's even possible to do, but the bigger ones would probably not risk it.
I know that the computer stores the mileage in it and not really knowing how the signal gets there I would still bet that if it's reading mph and not mileage that it would trip a code.
Think about this, if you buy a car and could turn off the mileage you could put 30,000 miles on it in one year and not lose the warranty.
I have messed around a lot with the old OBD II computers and they do not like missing signals.

I would like to have seen that story.

FEDERAL ODOMETER LAW Motor Vehicle Cost Information Act, 49 U.S.C. Section 32704
1. (It shall be unlawful for a person) "with intent to defraud, operate a motor vehicle on a street, road, or highway if the person knows that the odometer of the vehicle is disconnected or not operating; or
2. The owner of the vehicle or agent of the owner shall attach a written notice to the left door frame of the vehicle specifying the mileage before the service, repair, or replacement and the date of the service, repair, or replacement.
3. A person transferring ownership of a motor vehicle shall give the transferree the following written disclosure
A) Disclosure of the cumulative mileage registered on the odometer,
B) Disclosure that the actual mileage is unknown if the transferror knows that the odometer reading is different from different from the number of miles the vehicle has actually traveled.
(b) Mileage Statement Requirement for Licensing. - (1) A motor vehicle the ownership of which is transferred may not be licensed for use in a State unless the transferee, in submitting an application to a State for the title on which the license will be issued, includes with the application the transferor's title and, if that title contains the space referred to in paragraph (3)(A)(iii) of this subsection, a statement, signed and dated by the transferor, of the mileage disclosure required under subsection (a) of this section

Found a little bit of info.

No disconnection or toggle switch can accomplish that in the new systems. The PCM/ECM generate/calculate/store milage and transmit via the BCM to the gauges. Therefore those units would need to be tampered with, scan and tune tools have not been known to alter the milage. I am sure there are methods but it's a Federal Offense and I don't think it would be worth anyones effort if caught

And I found this

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/October/10-civ-1127.html

They got hammered.
LOL

2010BlkGraniteNox:

Impossible for someone without the proper tools, but if you had a copy of the program running in the ECU and could modify it with a software Inspect and Change tool, it might be as easy as replacing an accumulator with a NO-OP instruction.

Z Ghost:

The classic used car dealer odometer scam used to be: ship the car out of state, bring it back in state, then get a new title with a new (lower) odometer reading.

Would've been interesting to see the list of vehicles that used car dealer turned the odometers back on. Were any of them digital? Probably not, but I'd still like to know.

My 2011 Equinox also stalls

Hi - can you give a detailed description of when her Equinox stalls? I have a similar problem althoguh its only been at low speeds when I have the turning hard over to the left or right (usually when I am trying to fit into a tight parking spot). The engine shuts off completely and the wheel locks up. I have to put the car in park, turn the key to off and turn it back on to get any control back.

I have 3000 miles on the car and it has happened 9 or 10 times since I bought it mid-december. I have had it to two different dealerships for a total of 8 days and nobody can repeat the issue. In fact, it came back with more issues like the navigation/radio screen freezing on the spinning Chevy logo that is supposed to show only on start up. The music will still play but it keeps starting this graphic over and over and skips the audio a bit. This is totally intermittent but happens about 70% of the time since I got it back from the 2nd visit with the dealer. It now also has problems connecting my phone and will drop the audio with a voice that comes on and says 'Calls cannot be made through your bluetooth device at this time " or something like that.

I am soooo frustrated they cannot find anything and there are no GM Bulletins about this. If anyone else is having this issue please let me know so we can get this fixed immediately!!!

Is this the 4-cylinder 'Nox? If so, maybe your problem is somehow related to the electric steering. I haven't had this problem with my 6-cylinder 'Nox, which has the traditional hydraulic steering system.

Maybe turning the wheel to the extremes is pinching something off. Or maybe this is a mis-implemented safety feature that cuts off the fuel supply whenever the computer thinks the steering is out of control (ie: if you were turning the wheel in this way at high speed you are probably hydroplaning out of control).

Just guessing here...

My Equinox has stalled twice. Seems if I tried to pull out of parking space too quickly after starting it up it dies. Also sounds like a diesel on start up. I got the 4 cyl.

Great Mazinga:

At least you have a workaround, right? Don't take off too quickly. I have to say: I could ALWAYS turn the key of my Japanese cars and drive off pretty much at the same instant and never had a problem. My American cars, however, would stall occasionally (not a LOT, but it would happen from time to time).

So your 4-cylinder is noisy on start-up? I've only got 1200 miles on my V6 so far, but it doesn't SEEM to be getting any noisier.

I hope we're not all headed for some kind of oil pressure/priming problem.

Colt Hero said:

Great Mazinga:

At least you have a workaround, right? Don't take off too quickly. I have to say: I could ALWAYS turn the key of my Japanese cars and drive off pretty much at the same instant and never had a problem. My American cars, however, would stall occasionally (not a LOT, but it would happen from time to time).

So your 4-cylinder is noisy on start-up? I've only got 1200 miles on my V6 so far, but it doesn't SEEM to be getting any noisier.

I hope we're not all headed for some kind of oil pressure/priming problem.

Click to expand...

The I4 is VERY loud vs the 3.0 HFV6....the rail fuel pump is the issue, though GM is suppose to have a quieter version of this pump now