My girlfriend's mom just bought a 2001 Catera and apparently a light came on in the instrument panel and she couldnt figure out what it was. The light is right next to the 'Fog Lamp' icon and has 'SS' on it, apparently from what my girlfriend said.

Could anyone imform me what this is and what causes it, and potentially, if necessary, what needs to be fixed so I can let them know?

Thanks for your time reading this and helping a newbie out :)

By the way, the Catera is really slick looking

That light signifies two things-

Either she has the car in Sport mode (what the S button on the shifter activates). It should turn off when she turns the car off and not return the next restart because the sport mode turns off if the car turns off.

or

If the S symbol is on without the car being in sport mode, that is the car's transmission is telling you that it has a problem and that it needs to be checked out.

I know you can wreck a tranny if you're deliberate and you push a car too hard - but the thing only has 40,000 miles on it - are transmission issues a, lets say, more than uncommon occurance?

We also live in Michigan - and we just had our first big snowfall - and they spun out the other day - could there be a chance that there's just some snow or ice getting in the way up there? Or am I just thinking wishfully?

(Thanks for your quick reply!!)

Cateras have their own mind. The transmission on this car is electronically controlled and if anything goes wrong it will spit out a code. May not be related to driving habits at all.

Just wanted to give a quick update:

The problem ended up not existing.

They took it to a Caddy dealer and after a half-day of working on it - said that nothing was wrong whatsoever.

And the light went off as well - so apparently it was just some sort of muse...possibly some snow or ice stuckin the transmission - who knows?

But it's settled down finally :)

Thanks for your help!