A warning light that says Trac Off and service soon means what?

It's means your traction control is turned off. The service engine soon unfortunately could mean a few different things.

Is your brake light on as well? If it is it's probably a bad wheel bearing assembly. The abs sensor is built into the bearing assembly. Or it could be a bad wire between the bearing and the body harness. weeman is right about the service engine light could be many different things. Get it scanned for free at Autozone.

My lights don't stay on. They go off when I shut my car off so I can't have it scanned at Advance or AutoZone. It's my trac off, service engine soon , and ABS on a 2000 Grand Am GT. 120k miles. The lights just come on every once in a while. Seems when I hit a bump.

Yes, the lights will go off when you shut the car off, every car does that. If the lights are not on all the time it's still going to be either the wheel bearing assembly or the wiring harnesses from the bearings to the body. Its that simple it could be 1 of them doing this or all 4. 2 bearings-2 harnesses. 1 pair per side. When the lights are on you have no anti-lock brakes or traction control. Get it looked at before it gets worse.

Ok- one more thing, at one point someone brushed the rotors off on the rear tires and it stopped doing it for close to 4 to 6 months. Could it be that brake dust has built up on them again? The auto stores can't hook it up to the machine because the light goes off when I shut the car off.

It could be however in most cases its the front sensors that kick the code on. There is no traction control on the rear wheels. Leave the car run and lock the doors when you go into Autozone. Take the remote key fob or another key with you when you go inside the store.

They said they can't do it. They have to shut it off to hook it up. That's what they said anyway.

Well that's just not true. Take it to a real mechanic then. It's either that, throw parts at it until the light goes off or just keep driving it around with the lights on.

Oh no, I want to get it fixed. If they can do it without turning the car off, I'll make them do it. Thanks for your help. I'll pass the information on to my husband and have him start eliminating.

I have a 2002 Grand Am with only 67,000 original miles on it. I have been having this very problem off and on for the past couple of months. At first, the "Trac off" light came on. The day I took it to my mechanic it went off. They hooked it up to the computer and nothing came up. The light stayed off for 2 months. Then, after a 300 mile trip to visit family, I came home and the next day the "Trac off" light came on again and then off. It idled hard, like it wanted to stall, but never did. I noticed a loud clicking when I would first star the car, When the clicking would start, the "Trac off" light would come on. The clicking would stop, the light would go off. Finally, at the end of that week, I got into the car and both the Trac off and Service engine light came on and stayed on. The next day, the car wouldn't start. It would crank but not start. A few days later, I tried to start it and instead of cranking, it made a whining sound and didn't start. I had it towed to my mechanic and it turns out it is the timing belt that broke. It's going to cost $800.00 to fix. Problem is, they won't know until they open up the motor and see if the break did damage to the motor and /or the pistons. If it did, I will need a new motor. I will be dragging that car to the junk yard if that's the case, which I hope I won't have to.

9 times out of ten the timing belt only loses a few teeth n will stop spinning at crankshaft. No damage is usually done inside. Bin doing them for 32yrs now n only had to replace 3 engines for it . Sometimes a head is necessary but they can be cheap if gotten from a junk yard. Even a haines manual for your vehicle can walk a teenager through whole thing.