I have two issues with my 02' LS.

1. Mostly after backing up and then proceeding forward the traction light will come on for a moment
2. The power steering will LOCK randomly when driving or idling.

#1 & #2 seem like they are related to each other as they both started happening about the same time. Has been happening for about 2mos now. The traction light is just an annoyance, but the power steering locking is a MAJOR safety factor. Only way to get steering back is to turn the car off and back on and everything is fine.

We took the car into a shop, they ran all the codes and there was no error codes in the system. The shop is at a loss without major surgery to dig into the electrical and power steering.

I am hoping you all may have some suggestions. I love this car but with 106K miles and needing tires, brakes and this I may just lick my wounds and sell it.

David

 

My assumption would be a wheel hub assembly, or wiring going to an assembly.

How is your power steering fluid?

 

power steering fluid levels are full and clean.

would the wheel assembly explain the power steering cutting out, or just the traction control light coming on.

 

It should just be the traction control, the wheel hub assemblies hold the speed sensors and one of those might be going bad and giving a reading that a wheel isn't spinning as fast as it should.

Then your car tries to correct it, but it fails and says something must be wrong.

 

#1 sounds like a bad hub
#2 P/S pump is going into bypass for some reason. You can turn the wheel but with no assist, correct?