Help please

As my name implies, I know nothing about cars. I bought a 2000 Grand Am for my daughter to drive. We've only had it about a month. A couple of days ago the traction off light came on, but no problem with the brakes. As long as the temp guage was under 200 it was fine, but the minute it went over it felt like it wasn't shifting correctly. The car is an automatic. If the car cooled down it was fine. Today now it is running rough and it is missing. We were going to check the transmission fluid, but apparently you cannot check it without taking it to the dealer. I'm not sure what the traction off light would have to do with how the car shifts, or why it's now running rough. Anybody have an idea how bad it might be? :banghead:

Welcome to AF.

The easiest way to find out what is wrong, Get it scanned for trouble codes(DTC's).
It would need scanned with an ABS capable scan tool and one that would read trans DTC's if thier are any.

I'd consider my self a rowdy driver. I look for big piles/concentrated dirt on the neck of intersections, I turn off my traction and lay rubber. The way Automatics work, with the traction ON is like in the snow, or in sand like i described, it will rev up but the tired won't go any faster than whatever gear you're in. Its an autotraction thing, say if you hit water (hydroplane) going 25, and accidently floored the gas because you felt yourself slipping, instead of going WAY faster once you reconnect with pavement the car knows not to speed up. I don't know, it's weird, and I hope I gave some insight..if I made no sense, sorry.

Thanks for the replies and the info. I'll give it a try.

I second the "start with having the car scanned" statement ...

IanPete, the traction control works off of wheel speed sensors (abs sensors), they work as abs if one wheel starts to slide (not turn) it will pump the brakes so that they can't lock up. It works the opposite way for traction control, the computer will see that one wheel is spinning way faster then the other & either apply brakes or cut the engine rpms to give you traction ... thats what you feel when you feel the accelerator pedal start to bounce under your foot.

When you start the car it should turn on the traction control automaticlly, you have to hit the "traction control" button to turn the option off ... if it goes off by itself something is wrong with the computer system & a scan should help you find the problem.