Ok, thank you in advance for any help on this. My 98 sunfire convertible sat dead (dead battery) for about a day and a half before I jumped it. Now the traction control is always off, the car shifts incredibly rough, and my keyless entry will not work. HELP PLEASE!


There's a thin line to be crossed, when the upgrades to your vehicle increase your chance to get tickets by an amount exponential enough to stop worrying and build the fastest, loudest car you can.

well it certainly sounds like you have a DTC set somewhere in your vehicle. the traction and hard shifting can be caused by any number of DTCs in your PCM or ABS module, but your keyless entry shouldnt be inop like that. are you sure you didnt cross battery terminals or something? also check to make sure no sensors were unplugged while you were under the hood-an unplugged mass air flow sensor will cause the hard shift and traction light on some vehicles.

the best way to figure this out would be to go to a dealer and have them pull the codes out, clear them, and see if everything works correctly. they will probably charge you an hour's labor though, so for your sake you should make sure your battery is fully charged, then remove your negative battery cable for half an hour (just to be sure everything drains from the airbag module and whatever else) then hook it back up. being a 98, the car is OBD2 so it may store codes even if the battery is removed, but it's worth a try before spending money.

also consider the idea that if your battery went dead you could have a module that's not going to "sleep" and causing a draw, and that module may be the source of your DTCs. check all the fuses in the car, if a module isnt getting power then it cant communicate, which can easily cause your traction light or hard shift.

ill kinda help ya out a little on the fuses. you said the car shifts hard, so i assume it starts and runs. i think we can cancel the idea that the fuse to the PCM is blown. but i'll give you a list of fuses going to the EBCM (ABS module)
in the underhood fuse block look for:
ABS fuse 40 amp
ABS fuse 20 amp

the 20 amp one gets power from the 40 amp, but it has to go through a relay thats controlled by the EBCM first, plus the ERLS fuse doesnt get power until the ignition switch is turned on so you may want to check those with the car running.

in the inside fuse block:
ERLS fuse 10 amp
Cluster fuse 10 amp
Stop/Haz fuse 20 amp.

the stop/haz is just for the brake light switch signal for the EBCM, it probably doesnt have any functions carried off that voltage supply, but it's good to check it anyway.

so, if you've cycled your battery ground and let it drain for a little while in the process, you still have these problems with the car, and you dont want to try and get into some crazy diagnostics then take it to your nearest GM dealer. They have the scan tool that will allow them to diag all of these concerns that other aftermarket scan tools cannot, such as your keyless entry problem.

hope some of this helps

I borrowed a scanner and I had a Intake temp code being pulled, come to find out, my mass airflow or the equivalent to it on this car is unplugged. I plugged it back in, and I'm gonna clear the code tomorrow and hope that this all goes away.

However, the keyless is still haywire. I heard that there's a toggle under the dash to reset it? Anyone know about this?

Thanks for the help guys, much appreciated.


There's a thin line to be crossed, when the upgrades to your vehicle increase your chance to get tickets by an amount exponential enough to stop worrying and build the fastest, loudest car you can.

so it was the mass air flow unplugged? that'll get ya every time.
as for your keyless entry thing, you can always try reprogramming the key fob to the car. to do this you turn the key off go to the truck and find your remote control door lock receiver module. it's behind the carpet stuff on the left side of your trunk area. next to the module there is a small 2 wire connector right there with a black wire and a black wire with a white stripe. use a jumper wire or something to connect those two wires together. the door locks should cycle and the horn will chirp. hold the lock and unlock buttons on your key fob until the locks cycle and horn chirps again. hold those two buttons on any remaining key fobs you might have. then just remove the jumper wire and see if they keyless entry works.

Thanks a billion man, I'll post later and tell you if it works. I'm in class currently =P


There's a thin line to be crossed, when the upgrades to your vehicle increase your chance to get tickets by an amount exponential enough to stop worrying and build the fastest, loudest car you can.