I think every car experiences some version of this. Generally, any car with power steering when you turn to full lock you hear some sort of complaining from the engine compartment. I can imagine it would be the pump straining to overcome the positive mechanical limit of travel.

You can remove it yes, n the CEL shouldn't turn on. The only side affect is that the strain the power steering pump puts on the engine will decrease your RPM's and possibly causing your engine to cut out. Nothing bad will happen its there just to sense the pressure of the pump from the wheels turning to tell the ecu to bum up the RPM's a bit to not stall out the engine.