Yesterday, I turned on my car in the morning in jersey and got the following messages/idiot lights on my 2008 Torrent AWD. To summarize:

Brake warning light on
ABS light on
Service Stabilitrak
Service traction control
AWD off

They stayed on for 50 miles. When I pulled into a Wawa and shut the car off to get something and turned in back on 15 minutes later, the messages were gone and the lights were off.

Also, every now and then at fairly low speeds on level streets, the transmission slips at lower gears. Not consistently. The RPMs will rev up 3000 or more and the trans will then slam into gear

What do you think is going on?

Sounds like most likely a wheel sensor flaked out on you, maybe a bad ground to the ABS computer? If my guess is correct and if I were your car, why would I say all of these things you ask? Well:

Brake warning: I see a problem with brakes

ABS light: I see less than four wheel sensors that are telling me stuff and the remainder are not or it is garbled. Based on this I can not calculate the speeds of each wheel and therefore I can not act on those calculations to apply antilock to the necessary wheels safely. Since I am a fairly rare (therefore exotic) car and you are an owner clever enough to own me and care for me, I want to keep you and I safe and I don't want to disappoint you when you need me the most.

Service Stabilitrak: I use the wheel speed sensors for Stabilitrak too. Since I see less than four wheel sensors that are telling me stuff and the remainder are not or it is garbled, I can not do this job correctly. We're a team so I'm letting you know how I feel.

Service traction control: I use the wheel speed sensors for traction control too. Since I see less than four wheel sensors that are telling me stuff and the remainder are not or it is garbled, I can not do this job correctly. When you want to take advantage of the fact that you are driving excitement (namely me), I want you to know that I can't calculate which wheels are slipping so that I can slow them down as needed in order to maximize the excitement.

AWD Off: I use the wheel speed sensors for AWD too. Since I see less than four wheel sensors that are telling me stuff and the remainder are not or it is garbled, I can not do this job correctly. When you want to take advantage of my magical SUVish capabilities I need to know how much faster the front wheels are turning when compared to the rear wheels, and with bad wheel information I can't calculate this.

This is expected. As far as it knows, even if whatever is flaky starts to work properly, it assumes that it did not get repaired while the vehicle is running therefore could become flaky again.

Good and bad. This time is sees things happy when it looks and assumes it was repaired while shut off. Not broken broken, but still makes troubleshooting more difficult. Perhaps water in a connector or sensor or somesuch?

This sounds like the transmission filter is clogged up or the transmission is low on fluid. Maaaybe solenoids etc. Totally trying to guess accurately here. I believe it has an Aisen transaxle, so would be slightly different troubleshooting than a typical GM transaxle.

How many miles are on this car?

How long have you owned it?

Had it been is deep water lately?

First of all THANK YOU for your comprehensive answer. I really appreciate it. Sometimes I regret upgrading my car to something with all of this electronic and computer crap. My 99 Explorer had issues, but it didn't have a nervous breakdown.
Miles: 101000
Owned the car for a month. Bought it from my mechanic who is a stand-up guy.
Not in deep water that I know of. And I had the door panels off when installing speakers and didn't see a waterline.

Uh oh: You've owned it for a month then all of this popped up at about the same time?

I don't know your mechanic nor your ability to size up people accurately. I've seen some mechanics' cars that are perfection, and I've seen some where everything was done knowing what could be gotten away with while jury-rigging. I happen to own a one of each and one that is on the fence between. Not declaring anything one way or another. Just putting the beginning of my thoughts out there on this.

At this stage I have to assume you bought the car and everything was working properly. Is this correct?

. . . and the seller advised of no related issues?

What part of the world does this car live in?

Odometer when you bought the car?

Odometer when all of these issues accumulated?

If you drove 50 miles a day, every day, for a month you'd have accumulated 1,500 miles. In 1,500 miles it has accumulated:

- troubled transmission
- dead electric windows
- dead electric locks
- lights for some amount of ABS/TC drama

. . . doesn't add up to me. Especially since we aren't seeing these kinds of things all over the place for other Torrents and Equinoxes.

101,000 miles in nine years is about 935 miles per month, so you might be driving a little more than it had all its life but not much more, and certainly not enough to call excessive or fleet duty . . . depending on your odometer answers above.

Do you know how long (in time and odometer) your mechanic owned it before selling to you?

Did your mechanic repair anything significant on it while owning it?

Maybe (*)he'* occasional-driven it for a year and only put 300 miles on it and the owner before him/her sold him/her a basket case and (*)he never ran into it out of sheer luck.

The only significant repairs that the mechanic told me about were:

The heater core was replaced
The transmission cooling lines were replaced.

The car received regular service all it'* life by the same mechanic.

By the way, if the BCM requires replacement, does it have to be re-flashed by a GM dealer? I've heard both ways about this issue.

Not sure on the BCM reflash. I speculate that if it comes out of something similar then probalby not . . . or at least you'd get partial functionality. Others may be able to elaborate here. I'd check all of the simple stuff before monkeying with a BCM though.

What part of the world does this car live in?

Odometer when you bought the car?

Odometer when all of these issues accumulated?

The power issue turned out to be a 50 amp fuse under the hood. I am speculating that it may have been the passenger side window motor going that blew it. Once the fuse was replaced, all windows aside from the passenger work fine, door locks work fine and rear wiper works.

Car is in PA

Odometer is about 102k. Just got the car 3 weeks ago.

Need to scan the vehicle for "C", or chassis codes.......regular scanners/code readers can only read "P" codes....