Traction control light dashboard indicator

Traction Control Warning Light

Traction control light looks like a car with wavy tire marks. It could also have TC letters in it. 

When the Traction control light illuminates, it means that your traction control system is working fine. Certain slippery roads need extra precautions to drive on. When your wheels starts slipping and loosing traction, this system turns and get back the traction again. So, its a safety feature which every car needs to have.  You would be thinking how this system works. The traction control system has individual speed sensors on all wheels, which detects whether any individual wheel is rotating faster than others. In that cases the system detects it and applies brakes on that particular wheel until it gains control.  When this system gets turned on the TCS light comes up and warns you that you that it prevented a slippery moment.  This system comes very useful in icy, rainy or windy conditions. 

But if your TCL turns on or starts blinking all the time, even when you are driving good weather conditions, there could be an issue with the system.  This problem can be caused by faulty wheel-speed sensors or there could be a problem with the traction-control system’s computer. Driving with a faulty traction control system is not advisable. IT could be safe to drive in normal weather conditions but driving on slippery roads is not recommended.  

Reasons for the traction control light

1. Faulty Wheel Speed Sensors - You can find any errors using an OBD 2 scanner.

2. ABS System Malfunctioning - ABS system is important for the traction control system to work on. When it detects a wheel speeding than the others, it applies brakes to that wheel with the aid of the abs system. In this case the ABS warning light too comes up with the traction control light. The problem could be in the ABS control module, which is very expensive to replace.

3. TCS Needs Reprogrammed - There is no particular reason for why this happens. And sadly its not a DIY procedure. So you need to take the car to a mechanic to get it reprogrammed.