sullitf

So I just bought a '99 GT anniv. edition this weekend and have been having a blast with it. She only has 38,500 miles and is in extremely good condition for an 11 year old car. The previous owner had it sitting in his garage for the last 2 1/2 years, only putting 2,000 miles on it. It still had the factory tires, or what have since become factory racing slicks.

Needless to say I ordered a new set of tires and will be getting them installed this weekend. I wanted to have a little fun with the new girl and do a burn out or two on the old tires before getting them replaced only to realized I could not for the life of me find the TCS on/off switch. It definitely has traction control, tested that out by going ahead and attempting the burn out. I have the Hi-Fi stock head unit with the cassette player up top and the cd player on the bottom right in front of the shifter. There are no other buttons between the stereo and shift boot, just the cigarette lighter. Behind the cup holders there is the fog light button and an unused slot for a button filled with basically a plastic ribbed cap. Is this where the TCS button should be?


Sorry for the dumb question, but it was buggin the hell out of me and for once Google is returning nothing useful.

teej281

So you dont have a button on the left side next to the cigarette lighter??? Thats really odd because thats where it should be. Check around the gauge cluster like below it and over by the headlight switch. I saw a pic when i was searching for one to show you that looked like it was right in front of the shifter to the left under the radio. but check around the gauge cluster. It has to be there somewhere. If you cant find it, buy a tuner and turn off the TC through the tuner. lol

lilcrate

What makes you think you have TCS? If the switch isnt there you probably don't have it.

teej281

He tried to do a burnout but failed because the traction control came on and wouldnt allow it i guess. Looks like we got a renegade TCS off button on the loose. lol

sullitf

Yeah theres definitely TCS on my GT. When I first turn on the electronics all the lights turn on for a second like normal, including the TCS light. Thinking that may just be on every mustang I attempted a burnout (on a closed course...) and sure enough the tires stuttered and the TCS light came right on to foil my plans.

I triple checked in front of the shifter cause thats where I thought it should be too, but there's just the cigarette lighter to the right and a whole lot of empty space to the left. Nothing around the steering wheel either, the right side is empty and the left side only has the rear defroster.


This is driving me nuts! There must be a fun button somewhere....maybe I'll take it to a dealership and see what they say

teej281

Yea, if your car did that then there has to be TCS on it...but the button is MIA. Do yourself a favor and take the plastic off around the shifter and then where the cigarette lighter is and see if there is a plug or something that is behind it that isnt used. If there is, that is supposed to be going to your TCS button to turn it on and off and something might have happened to the original one and when they ordered a new one it didnt have the button or something. But i have no idea what to tell you man. Take it to a dealers service department and ask over there because the salesmen probably dont even know where the tcs button on the new mustangs is.

dastangman

Well, in my 2000 Mustang which was an auto...the traction control button was on the shifter bezel opposite the cigarette lighter.

Those ribbed inserts by the cup holders are "coin holders", but work great as a place to put switches. Matter of fact, I think this was ford's intention, because they have the one for the fog lamps and the other there as an extra to pop out.

If the car's an auto, the overdrive button is on the shifter itself. The rear defroster button to the left of steering wheel.

That said, I have only two thoughts...A.) The shifter bezel was replaced with a 2001-2004 bezel where the buttons were moved to a different location, meaning the cigarette lighter is in the same spot, but all the others are moved. You may have a switch hidden under the shifter, or simply unplugged.
B.) Crazy idea, maybe it was purposely wired in to turn off when the overdrive was turned off. I don't know, it's crazy and not correct, not even sure if it's easily feasible especially for a basically stock car. No idea why someone would do it, but just try and see what happens.

It's there somewhere. All else fails, you could probably have it fixed and get a button added where it should be, or simply get a tune to turn it off for good. As far as the tune though, that's not the type of fix I would want or expect.

Can you take a picture of the interior, it may provide us with some clues. Check for anything under the dash, any loose switches that may have been moved.

sullitf

Theres a Ford dealership a mile or 2 from where I'm getting my tires put on tomorrow, I'll take it by their service department and see what they say. If they don't know where the hell my TCS button ran off to I'll take the console around the shifter and see what I can find. I'll take some pics if it comes to that too, maybe you guys will see something I miss.

cliffyk

According to the Red Book traction control was a $230 option in 1999, it was not standard with any trim/add-on package.

This is a slushbox but it's in the same place on the 5-speed:


On the '01 - '04 there are three switch on that panel, rear defroster, t/c, and fog lights l-r...

sullitf

Thanks for the pic. Where the TCS button is in that picture, in my car it is totally empty. There isn't event the flat area in the plastic cover for the TCS button.

It makes no sense though. I know traction control was an option, and my car must have come with it cause TCS sure as hell kicks in to prevent doing a burn out. The button is just no where to be found. I need to pull that plastic cover off and see whats behind secret door #3, maybe the button is just floating back there.