brandon930

My abs light and traction control light have been coming on and whenever it does, it feels like the power steering seems not to work as well. The steering wheel is harder to turn. Anyone had a similar problem or know what may be kickin the lights on? Thanks, Brandon

Highbeamz

As far as I know the Grand Prix has something called Magnasteer, it's speed sensitive and changes the the amount of power steering delivered to the wheel based on speed to give a more "confident" feel to the driver, aka making it stiffer when necessary. If the ABS and TCS are not working (because of a bad hub bearing or bad wires, pigtails) I've heard this CAN affect the steering as the system doesn't know the car's speed. I thought this was more likely to happen on electric power steering like the Cobalts have rather than hydraulic power steering...My ABS and TCS are shot but my PS still seems normal.

brandon930

I did not know that. Thank you...I gotta get it checked out. There is a significant difference in steering when the light is on.

Highbeamz

Yeah, they must be associated. I'm not 100% sure about them being completely connected on the GP's though. A buddy of mine has a Cobalt and he lost his electric power steering when the ABS light came on. My car has no ABS or TCS because the bearings or pigtails are toast, yet my power steering hasn't changed...

BNaylor

Connected via the electronic brake and traction control module. (EBTCM). The EBTCM module controls the Magnasteer (variable effort steering) and the ABS/Traction Control systems. It needs to be scanned with an ABS capable scan tool and see what chassis/abs DTCs are stored.

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TDWPgtp

i had a similar problem except i believe it was the tire pressure and abs not the trac control. idn if there is a difference with the underlying problem or if it comes from the same thing as the ur problem, but anyway my power steering did that too when the lights were on. for some reason tho they havent come on since prolly december