:?: thank you for this site. i have very clean 1997 bonneville ses w/ everything but moon roof, autoheat mirrors . my question is what would cause traction control warning lights in dash to come on ? marv

Hi Marv,

Welcome to the club.

If the light stays on constanly, this may indicate that a wheel speed sensor, located in the front wheel hubs, may be bad and need replacement. Im not a 100% sure on this, but this sounds like it may be the culprit.

Im sure a Gearhead or someone who has more experience with this will chime in soon.

Marv, please click on PROFILE and add your year and trim level to your signature.

Your problem could be:

1. Wheel speed sensor. Could be just a corroded connector. Each wheel hub has one. On the INSIDE (facing in towards the center of the car) on the back of each hub, you'll find an electrical connector. Disconnect, clean them, and apply dielectric grease. Connect and disconnect them a few times after greasing. OR the sensor could be bad, causing you to have to replace the entire hub/bearing assembly. $100 in parts, and hope you have the ability and tools (or a member nearby), as labor will run you another 100-200.

2. PMV assembly. Pressure Modulator Valve Assembly. Located underneath your airbbox (black thing with the air filter in it). Has several brake lines coming and going, as well as a very large electrical connector. Do the connector cleaning here too, as this assembly is VERY expensive and a pain to change. If this is bad, most of us would learn to live without traction control or ABS.

3. EBCM. Electronic Brake Control Module. The brain box. This is the electronics box near the master cylinder with the very large connector. Also very expensive ($750 new). Same drill as above.

Only a dealer can extract your codes (Minimum 50-80 bucks to just tell you what'* wrong).

My old 1998 SSE had Traction Control and ABS lights on when I got it. I fixed it by splicing the left front wheel speed sensor wires back together where they had broken 1 inch from the plug in the hub.

The dealer wanted 1500 for a control module for my 97 SSE. I took the bulb out of the dash and forgot about it.

Thats one way to fix it. A bad ETCBM can lead to other more serious problems. I found one at a junkyard for my car, cost me $110 dollars. Its plug and play on the driver side strut tower.

Look around for one, check Ebay, etc and please put your dash bulb back in.

marv:

Is your ABS dash light coming on too, as OlBlueEyes mentioned? Is it intermittent or on all the time? (intermittent [like mine] would suggest connector problems)

I'm having a devil of a time with this currently on my '94. I've been massaging and greasing zillions of connectors (per willwren'* advice) and I seem to be gaining. (It'* weird, though, sometimes it was two steps backwards for every one forward).

I did go into a well-regarded country repair shop for a scan. Amazingly, the mechanic hooked a Snap-on scanner up to just my OBD1.5 socket and read ABS codes!!! Left front hub came up. I had accidentally left the right rear connector open upon starting once and it caught that too. They only charged $20 for the scan. I thought you couldn't read ABS through the OBD connector :? .

Anyway Marv, let us know how you're doing -- this is is an interesting topic.

WillWren frequently suggests living w/o the system when it fails. What other problems can this cause?

Let'* keep in mind that in my case..mine works 100% and the local JY wants $40 for the unit.

thanks guy my 1997 bonni is an se . it has all the option floor shift ,fog light . and the touring pak . the problem was the left wheel sensor hub . thank again this is a drivers site
marv