After going down a VERY steep dirt road in low range my engine light came on (steady) and I got a FAILED TRACTION message. Gas cap on, no new gas, large new 315 tires, what could cause this? Could the 315-75-16 tires do something to the Stabilization and traction systems on the automatic H3?

 

I can help you with this.

It's happened to me three times. Here is what the dealer told me and my results.

First off, my dealer shop guys got in touch with the actual GM engineers that designed the H3. They did this because this happened to me so many times. The engineers said there is a bug in the software that causes this to happen, even though there is nothing wrong. They said if you are turning the wheel to an extreme left or right while in 4 wheel locked mode and there is wheel slippage, this error message will occur, or if you are in normal AWD mode and the inner-most wheel of the direction you are turning slips while turned past a certain angle, ie turning out of a parking lot in the rain at a steep angle and the wheel slips. The check engine light goes off after a day or two, so you don't need to take it to the dealer to get it turned off.

The funny thing is the computer apparently doesn't keep a record of this happening. If you call On-Star, they will tell you there is a problem and to take it to the dealer. When the engine light goes off and you call them again, they will run a diagnostics of your car and tell you there are no problems reported. It's very odd.

I bet you also had the "Reduced power" mode enabling also. This is also a result of it. If you go back to normal driving for a day or so, everything will reset itself.

ANOTHER cause of this is an electrical short, which I also found. This happened to me twice, and then the third time because I found a ground wire I installed for my laptop/GPS hookup that was loose, and was able to recreate the error by intentionally disconnecting my ground wire from the chasis behind the stereo and just sparking it. It causes an error code on the PCM to be generated. I fixed that and haven't had the problem, but as I said, it happened twice before I even did any custom wiring.

I honestly wouldn't worry about it. If it doesn't go away within 2 days, disconnect the battery for 24 hours if you can. This also resets the system. If you do it for any less then that, you will probably still have the message.

Let me know if this fixed your problem. You should be ok. Like I said, it's a bug in the traction control system software, but nothing to worry about.

 

If it occurs again I think I'd take it to the dealer. I and many others have been in the situation you describe numerous times, steering at lock in low and wheels slipping, and never had any warning lights. It may very well be a software problem but it's not a situation where "they all do that"...

And I'm running 315's also

 

Well, that's what the dealer told me direct from the GM guys. They said it's very rare that it happens but it does, and since the problem goes away, there really isnt anything to fix. I agree that there should be a solution but apparently it's not enough to make them create an update. I asked them if they were going to correct the issue in a firmware update and they said possibly but they aren't sure. Why wouldn't they? It doesn't make sense not to.

 

Had no reduced power mode message. It ran fine with the engine light on. Next time I will bring it into my local Chevy dealer. As the Hummer dealer is 100 miles away do you think the Chevy dealer can find the problem as well as Hummer?

 

I would think so considering it's a GM vehicle, but I'm not sure. I don't know enough about it. Personally if it was me I wouldn't worry about it because I've seen it before, but if you really want to do it the right way, you should schedule a day to take it to your Hummer dealer, but I would bet they are going to tell you the same kinda thing they told me. Did you call On-Star and have them run a diagnostics on your car?

 

When I had my 4-wheel shifter motor problem that threw up the error messages, I called my chevy dealer since it was closer and before I got through "Hi, I have a H3 and the display gave me some errors" she cut me off and said I have to go to the Hummer dealer. They said they can only do routine maintainence and dont mess with system errors.

 

Same thing just happened to me with my 2006 H3...got in car yesterday and had traction failed error and reduce power. I have done absolutely nothing new to the ride. I am going to try to unhook the battery for 24 hours and just give it a try. Already did the gas cap trick and the light is still on. Thanks for the tip...it is wortha try.

 

Just touch the cables together once they are removed from the batteryfor about 30 seconds..that will do it..

 

Hi guys, We are on our 4th week of owning our 2007 H3. We have gotten the "Traction Control System Failure” & “Service 4X4” error messages on the control consol and the Transfer Case Control buttons that let you pick if you are running on regular AWD or Low or Hi don’t come on. Not even the regular driving 4 Hi. We have gotten the message 3 time in the past 3 weeks. The H3 only has 400 miles by this time. We took our H3 to the dealer this past Saturday and this is what they said.

This is what the service guy told us. He had set up the H3 to be looked at the by general mechanic. The mechanic said that since it’s a drive line error, the transmission mechanic needs to look at it. When they checked for error codes, they found error code “C0327 Internal Encoder Motor Failure”. They replaced the encoder motor. So I’ll keep you guys up to date if I get the error code again.