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Service 4WD message

1Gil1

Full Member
Joined
Jul 27, 2002
Messages
44
Location
Richmond,VA
I searched for this topic, but all were old. This afternoon I ran into a
heavy rain and stopped at a gas station to fill up. When I started the AV and put it in drive, the "Service 4 WD" message appeared in the message center. None of the 2 or 4 WD buttons would light up. I shut the truck off and restarted, but the same results. I then drove away and it drove OK. I finally pressed the OnStar button and the guy could not find this message in his list of problems. He ran a diagnostic and found nothing. He offered to call the dealer to make an appointment, but I decided to do that myself. After I got home and parked in the garage, I let it sit for a minute or two and re-started and no more message. Earlier threads seemed to indicate Chevy may be aware of this, but I could not find any messages that imply the problem is fixable. Has anyone else had this fixed to their satisfaction??
 
Gil
Have the same problem on my 03 Z71. Sent it to the dealer 4 times already and everytime even with the message on the screen no error codes appear. I think it may be in a sensor on the transfer case that gets wet and makes the code. Shuting off for a minute or two always works for me and I think it is do to the fact the sensor drys out and thus the message goes away. Hope you find a better reason but if not i hope this helps. :B:
 
I had the same thing happen; hit a deep puddle then a while later the Service 4WD warning came on and none of the 2/4WD indicators would light. It was fine the next day, but the dealer replace the control unit anyway. He said there's a GM tech note out for the Silverados, but they'd been seeing the same thing happen to Suburbans and Tahoes also. And now, of course, Avalanches.

It hasn't come back, so yeah, it's fixed to my satisfaction.
 
"Service 4 Wheel Drive" lit up Monday evening, 8/4/03. Called OnStar, no information on their end.

Called my dealer that night for options. The AV needed the first oil change anyway. 3,992 miles, Oil Life Indicator @ 50 %

4 Wheel Drive panel was functioning normal the next morning.

Brought it in, listed the "Service 4 Wheel Drive" incident, transmission up shifts from 1st to 2nd, strange new down shifts 3rd to 2nd, and front end pulling to right on the freeway. (Not sure if the crown on the road was responsible or not)

They replaced the speed sensor in the transfer case, kept the vehicle over night. I did hand the service writer a short list of TSB's from this forum relating to the "Service 4 Wheel Drive" issues. He didn't flinch or react too negatively, and did staple it to the service order.

I picked up the unit and believe the transmission has cleared up even though they listed those issues as "could not duplicate, not worked on".

I have a strenuous desert and mountain drive scheduled for later today. We'll see how it works out.

My bottom line suggestion is if the "Service 4 Wheel Drive" lights up get it to the dealer quick. From what I've discerned from the reports, as the sensor malfunctions it starts taking out other components from the dash control to the front axle actuators.

As we've seen from Roger Ram Jet's experiences, if it is going to be the Achilles heel of our vehicles, start getting it documented and give them every chance to correct it before the warranty runs out or it implodes to a 'Lemon Law" situation.

My question is why is it affected by water? Lately, some have made a connection between water and the "Service 4 Wheel Drive" coming on. We did have some rain here in Sunny Southern California on 7/30. I was just doing Normal Street driving that morning and there were some intersections 4 to 6 inches deep. Certainly not enough to overwhelm our strong & tough vehicles? :eek:
 
I just took mine in for the Service 4wd message, no rain, just came on. The service department couldn' find any stored codes, but they did tell me that they went under the dash and tightened a few connections. They told me to keep an eye on it until I get my replacement radio in.
 
Thanks to all who took the time to respond. I will take the AV in next week and at least get the problem recorded, even if the dealer can do anything about it. I believe it must be water getting to a sensor or at least into one of the connectors from the transfer case. The rain we had yesterday was really heavy; at least 2" fell in less than an hour with water 6" or deeper on many of the roads I was driving. That shouldn't even be a consideration with a vehicle like this with the high ground clearance. This kind of problem shouldn't be happening. I never had a single problem with my Infiniti QX4 (really a re-badged Nissan Pathfinder) and I went through a lot worse with it. Oh well.........
 
Same thing happened to me. The sevice 4 wheel drive came on and wouldnt go off. I did install my stepbars and thought I has hit something underneath the truck. I turned it off and later when I restarted the AV, the message went away. The dealer said if it went out dont worry about it. Hmm.
 
I got the msg (and no 2WD/4WD status indicator) as soon as I started the vehicle after letting the Av sit in the driveway for a week. No puddles, no rain, no snow, no bumps, just sitting there. I shut it down and restarted w/no change in symptoms. Had to make it to work, so I went the 7 miles. When I got there I tried restarting it, again with no change. After work the Av was back to normal.

The only thing I could think of was that the vechicle was situated on a slight incline in the driveway for a week straight and the temps were in the 90s. Perhaps something was repositioned due to the heat and inclined parking position? (The parking brake is always set before dropping it into PARK)
 
Does this warning come up in the message center screen, even for 02's? I've never seen anything but the SECURITY message come up so far.
 
yes on the driver info center even on the 02

I did a slight mod on my transfer case sensor
I zip tied the wire harness away from the case slightly and since then i have not had the message come up. I will post pics of this soon

If anyone else has done anything to correct this problem or has found out the real cause please let us know!!!

:B: -BD- :B:
 
I had the same problem - turned out to be a loose ground wire under the hood somewhere, causing an intermittent open. Took my dealer a couple of visits to find it though.

- Oliver
 
The older thread still applies here I believe. I had the same issue with my '03 Av and ultimately had the encoder moter rebuilt per the latest TSB.

Funny you mention the rain and I'm noticing the trend. In fact, I even had the error message one more time after the encoder motor rebuild and the dealer actually did something to improve the ground (used star washers or something). This recommendation came straight from GM engineering. They said next step would be to try replacing the instrument cluster, but I haven't had a problem for over a month and a couple thousand miles now and it has been raining cats and dogs here in Florida.

Find a good service deparment b/c it seems that not many have dealt with this yet (I was my department's first). Go in armed with the current TSB for the encoder motor fix.

Good luck and hang in there.

FYI the other thread is here---> http://www.chevyavalanchefanclub.com/cafcna/index.php?board=15;action=display;threadid=4024
 
I have 7500 miles on my 03 Z71.... When the truck had about 6300 miles on the message came on and I took it to the dealer. They reprogramed the computer. When the message came on, it had not rained for about 3 days. It happen when my wife started the Av up in the morning.
4 days later the message came on again. Same thing no rain and wife started it up at 7:00 am and parked in the garage. Dealer reprogramed it. We went to Bristol and now the truck has 7500 miles on it and so far no problems and we drove through rain...
 
I've not been in anything but rain and snow. Mine came on one time at around 9K miles I think? Of course it went off by the time I got it to the dealer. They said just to keep driving it until it came on a second time, then set up an appontment if it did. I'm at 12K now and it hasn't come on since.
 
Had my '03 Av about 2 months now and I got the message last week when pulling in to the parking lot at work. When I left that evening, the msg was gone.

Watching it closely....
 
I have just over 2000 miles and saw the message yesterday. Dry as a bone around here. No rain for about a week. I noticed it while I was driving and the truck seemed to drive fine, so I kept going. I got to my friend's house and shut the truck off. A few minutes later, I turned it back on and the problem was cleared. I'll keep an eye on it and possibly schedule an appointment with my dealer. As mentioned above, I should at least get the problem recorded in case of future issues down the road. I'll probably print this thread and show the dealer where one user said a loose ground wire caused his problem.

Any updates - please post. Thank you.

Mike
 
CountyPaintball said:
...Any updates - please post. Thank you.

Mike

No update needed from what I can tell. Print this thread, but more importantly the other one (link in my post above) which has the TSB and then talk to service department. Unless you have a different problem, I'd say you should have the TSB done and maybe the ground thing, too (no TSB on the ground thing yet I don't think).

Still can't believe there is not a recall on this yet since it seems to be such an obvious issue.
 
I just had my Av in yesterday to get this fixed. I have 8500 miles on it. Yup, nothing wrong with the 4WD just the TSB. This sucks if I'm going to have to get it reprogrammed or whatever they did every now and then. :6:
 
I had this problem on my 2000 Silverado Z-71. Took it to the dealership and they replaced the 4wheel drive switching unit in the dash (the unit with the 4x4 buttons on it) and the problem was fixed.
 
I've had the same problem with both my '03 AV and my '00 Silverado. I've yet to take the AV into the service department. We'll see what they have to say about it.

I've also gotten a "Service Air Bag" message that went away the next time I started the truck.
 
I too have had the same problem with my 03 AV Z71. yesterday while driving in the rain (light all day rain), with the AV in AUTO4, the message came on, the lights went out on the 4 wheel drive buttons, and my four wheel drive was gone (i knew this b/c I could get sideways if i wanted to in the rain). Called for my $200 year ONSTAR adviser to a check, and no problem was found. So I brought the AV to the dealer asap, while the lights were off and message was on (thank my lucky stars), the next day all was fine, so the dealer drove two to three times till it came on again. It's been two days now, and I'll have to update when they are done. I have a lot of problems with my trans too, but that is another thread all together!!!
 
All I can say is that If my '03 starts breaking down like these other AV's, I will merely return the truck back to the dealer as many times as required by the lemon law in my state and GM can shove it. I will not play around returning the truck back to the dealer a milllion times to only get lame answers why they can't fix their own product


Life is way to short to fool around with a truck with this serious of a fault. By what I have read here and the other threads, GM can't recall them even if they wanted to because they don't even have a solution! Thats so unacceptable. I wish GM would just use the levers to engage/disengage the 4wd. What was so wrong about that? These people would not be going through hell with their new cars and would be enjoying them!

That is all I would need while on one of my trips to the desert is to have the 4wd act up when I am 250+ miles away from home with my wife in kids.

I don't think so folks.



 
A lamp is a "serious" fault? "Breaking down???" Hardly. Who "broke down?" Who's "going through hell" here? Geez! :rolleyes: If that's the worst we encounter, I'd consider ourselves pretty well off. Since you want a flawless vehicle, let me know when you find it and we'll all buy one, k?

Might consider a Tundra. Consumer Reports gave them a 5-star reliability rating. Oh wait. They gave one to Avalanche too. Never mind...
 
Its just a lamp? How would you like being on an icy road and not having 4 wheel drive? You have to be kidding. Not serious? When the dealer tells you that there is no fix at this time? Hardly an answer.

Have you read all the info on the threads before this one for the same problem? Geez nothing. No car is perfect. No kidding. If you want to swallow this GM crap then open up wide but I can't.

I bought a truck, and that means durability to me. If it isin't, than its not a truck. Telling a customer that they don't have a fix at this time is pure B.S. If thats the case how about giving back my money, and GM can have the truck back. A light panel is just that?.......Not having 4wd when you paid for it is just what I said it was....CRAP!

Losing control of a vehicle because you do not know if you have 4wd engaged or not is a serious problem to me. It should be to you.
 
expoke said:
A lamp is a "serious" fault? "Breaking down???" Hardly. Who "broke down?" Who's "going through hell" here? Geez! :rolleyes: If that's the worst we encounter, I'd consider ourselves pretty well off. Since you want a flawless vehicle, let me know when you find it and we'll all buy one, k?

Might consider a Tundra. Consumer Reports gave them a 5-star reliability rating. Oh wait. They gave one to Avalanche too. Never mind...

It's not just the lamp. It is a serious fault. I'm going through hell. Hope and pray that your Z71 doesn't do this. I personally wouldn't buy a vehicle based solely on what CR has to say about it as you seem to suggest (your sarcasm is noted, however).

Hope you didn't just jinx yourself b/c you really do not want to have to go through this, trust me.


P.S. if your Karma were turned on I'd have dinged you 1 for that post
 
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