Traction Control Problems

[AngieRose]

First off, I love my 98 Grand Am. I got it just a couple of weeks ago and I think it's great. But I have a couple of problems with it. First off, the brakes are giving me fits. We change the shoes/pads and that helped a little, but we came to the conclusion that the front brakes weren't working at all. If you had to stop in a hurry, the car would jerk and the tires would bark. My husband disconected the ABS (not my idea) and that helped a little. He put a new master cyclinder on today and that helped a lot (he says, I haven't driven it yet), and reconected the ABS. Now the ABS and brake light won't go off. What could cause this? And secondly, when you are driving faster than 45, the motor cuts out and surges ever so slightly. The rpm's drop then jump, then settle back to where they belong. It does this frequently on the highway. And the cruise won't work. My thought was that the traction control is out of wack and trying to do it's thing (pulling power from the motor to control skidding) when it isn't supposed to. Is this possible and how would we go about fixing it? If the traction control isn't doing it, then what else could it be? It is driving me absolutely batty. Please help. Thanks in advance for any advice.

[grfnkl]

It doesn't sounds like the traction control is the problem. You would probably get a trac off light on the dash, indicating it's not working. The ABS light, is probably due to the sensor being unplugged and replugged back in. It may not be making proper contact now, check and make sure it's been plugged back in all the way, if not you may need to get the codes checked and cleared, to find out what the problem is. The cutting out on the highway could be linked to several things. Whens was the last time the car had a tune up? Some things to look into is Sparkplugs/wires/ Coil packs, and fuel pump are just somethings. If you have any other symptoms and engine type will also help with diagnostic. good luck

[AngieRose]

It has the 2.4 dual cam 4 cylander. The only symptoms are that the rpm's drop then surge. It doesn't do it on a constant basis, just sporadically, and only over 45 mph. We checked the plugs, they were fine, as for the coil pack, I thought that once it goes bad, the car won't run. As for the fuel pump, wouldn't it act up all the time, not just over 45 mph? By the way, any one know where the module is for the traction control on this car? As for the ABS, the light went off today, but the brakes are still giving me problems, acting like there are no front brak es. Thanks.

[xeroinfinity]

the mis does sound like the coils going out and at high rpms it shorts more.
Fuel pumps get hot, the faster you drive the hoter it gets so if its going out when it gets to hot it slows and eventually stops. So this too can cause the high speed mis.
Your brakes may still hav air in hte lines, especialy if its in the modulator for the ABS.
When you replaced the brakes, did you push the piston back in to get the brakes on?

You can check/test the coils, and the fuel pressure to see that they are working corectly.
Though I dont know exactly what the peramiters are for the 2.4 but I know others here at AF do, maybe they'll drop in and giv u a hand.