Further to tubeway, traction control is not at all needed it's just a safety feature that will stop you losing grip when the wheels would spin. If they just called it "anti wheel spin" you'd know what it meant. As you bought the car without warranty I wouldn't hold out much hope of getting anything back. Even with a warranty the traction control would probably be an exclusion (as would the bulb). Warranties are quite often not worth much, all the consumables are usually excluded, lights, clutch, tyres, anything that could conceivably wear out! Also in some cars the light comes on when the traction control is being activated, is it on all the time or did you put your foot down and it came on?