97 GTP electrical and other problems

[TYoder]

My husband and I own a 97 GTP supercharged. It has 120,000 miles. All in all we love the car but are experiencing some weird electrical problems.

The tire pressure light stays on even though we've made sure that all the tires have the proper pressure and even resetting the light by pushing the light underneath the steering wheel will not shut it off.

The ABS light has also been coming on when the tire pressure light comes on and they will both go out at the same time regardless of wether you have just started the car or are driving down the road.

The technical center located above the radio only comes on when you hit a bump in the road and goes out at soon as you hit another bump.

The digital display of our factory installed radio will no longer light but the radio and 12 disc cd changer work fine. To see what time it is I have resorted to carry a small flash light in the car and shining it on the display.

Also we've been experiencing a what I call a grinding noise but what my husband thinks is a air bubble in fluid noise sometimes when turning a corner or backing out of our garage in which you have to crank the wheel pretty far to the left.

The strangest problem of all is that in the last few days I have been losing traction either while driving or coming to a stop. The reason this is alarming is that it has been happening on dry pavement. No ice, no gravel, no moisture..........just dry pavement.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

[GTP Dad]

First of all welcome to AF! The problems you are experiencing are common. I would believe you have a bad abs sensor that is causing you abs, tire pressure and trac light issue. You will have to have the wheel bearing/hub replaced since the abs sensor is part of the bearing. The digital display on the radio going bad is a problem and there really isn't any way to replace it short of replacing the entire head unit.

As for the grinding noise have the power steering checked. It could be a problem with the rack and pinion unit or the power steering pump.

Finally the lost trac is caused by the abs sensor giving the abs computer improper signals causing it to lock the wheel. I hope this helps.

[richtazz]

I believe the ABS/trac off light and loss of traction problem stem from a bad hub bearing. The ABS wheel speed sensor is contained in the bearing, so you're basically driving with no ABS/traction control. The fluid/grinding noise is probably a power steering pump or rack and pinion noise. The radio display and info center problems can be attributed to a bad bulb that back-lights the displays, a fairly common problem.