Traction control light came on, car went into “limp mode”, module will not communicate

JAN V.

MEMBER
2006 CHEVROLET MALIBU
V6
2WD
AUTOMATIC
295,000 MILES

Hello, over the weekend as I was driving down the highway the traction control light came on, then I believe the car went into "limp mode" because it will not shift up. I had it looked at but three different people could not communicate with the module all using different scanners. I was seeing if you could give me some advice, because I think I need to replace the PCM, but I am not 100% sure.

1 Reply

AL514

MECHANIC
4,675 POSTS

Hello, thanks for using 2CarPros. Com. Is the check engine light on as well? There are some important checks to do before replacing the ECM, they can be very costly and if it does not repair the issue, you are going to be out a lot of money. The first thing is, if you are unable to communicate with the ECM, then the ECM is mostly likely not being powered up or has lost one of its ground wires. The car does have high mileage and wires do corrode over time. Check all the fuses to begin with, there are fuses under the dash down on the left side near the pedal area and there is a fuse box under the hood. This is a diagram of the fuse panel under the hood. The panel covers will have labels telling which fuse is which. This could also be an issue with the BCM (body control module). So before replacing costly modules or computers, someone should really test wires to make sure everything is powered up correctly and there are no other problems going on. But the communication issue should be addressed first. It may be the heart of the problem.

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