The 2006 added it’s own special flare with gas leaks due to cracks in the “return portion of the modular reservoir assembly.” A recall of 2006 Cobalts was issued to fix the problem, but only to vehicles sold in or current registered in Arizona and Nevada, leaving other owners to pay for repairs themselves.
This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
The power steering in the Cobalt just fails. First time in the parking lot of a jewel with lots of people in the lot barely able to turn wheel to park. Turn car off and back on the power steering comes back on. 2nd time I was on the highway on a trip 1.5 hours into trip the power steering light came on and I had to drive off the road. Restarted the car and about 10 minutes into trip power steering went out and I drove without it for the remaining hour. One the return trip the power steering went out again on the highway after 1.0 hours of driving at a consistent speed.
Please go to get satisfaction.com to review all of the complaints by Chevy Cobalt owners. These cars are defective and dangerous, particularly the power steering issue. I have an '06 Cobalt and the electric power steering went out without warning suddenly at around 62,000 miles. GM refuses to fix it because the warranty expired on the car at 60K. They want nearly $1000 to diagnose and repair.
Approximately 6 months ago..power stee ring light came on and complete loss of power steering occurred. The vehicle must be shut down and restarted to recycle the power steering..this has ceased working because the power steering does not last more than 2 seconds after restarting. When the power steering light is on it is extremely difficult to maintain control of my vehicle. I have replaced fuses and I am just short of taking it to the dealer and upon research noticed more than a few complaints about this problem with this vehicle.
Power steering failed. It was off and on several times until it finally would not come back at all. We had to be put on a waiting list for the actual part. Once it came in, we had it repaired.
- North Huntingdon, PA, USA
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Driving on surface street and the power steering warning came on the dash panel. Then the power steering failed. Pulled car to curb, shut off engine and restarted car engine, power steering resumed. While returning to my home power steering failed two more times.
Electronic power steering failure. Every time vehicle is driven the power steering goes out. This makes the vehicle very difficult to control while turning.
The power steering goes out. It started happening at around 40 miles an hour and has gradually started going out at even lower speeds. It only happens when the steering wheel is straight. It happens during acceleration and braking. I cannot even get out of a small parking lot with out it going out. It is hard to turn and hard to steer when this happens. It happens every time I drive my car.
My electronic steering is no longer working. As soon as I start my car, it last for a few seconds and then it goes out and I have to steer unassisted. This is very difficult to do at low speeds. It impedes my manueverability especially with respect to parking and parallel parking is impossible. My wife can longer drive this car since it requires the strength of hercules to steer car.
My sons 2006 Chevy Cobalt power steering would go out while he was driving he would have to pull off to the side of the road turn the car off start it back and it would be ok and it would happen again over and over. We went back to the Chevy dealer and had it fixed paying our own money.
The power steering in my 2006 Chevy Cobalt ss supercharged went out suddenly. When I turn the car off and then back on, the power steering is fine while I am parked, but as soon as I begin driving again the power steering goes back out. The vehicle only had about 36,000 miles on it when the power steering went out.
As I was driving to work my power steering light in my 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt came on and it got really hard to steer. As I tried to get the side of the road I had to cross over into the right hand lane and then onto the shoulder. Somewhere between the right lane and the concrete barrier the power steering kicked back in, seems how I had the wheel turned so sharply toward the shoulder I nearly hit the concrete barrier. This is a serious problem and from what research I have done this is quite common. If they think it may be in over 900,000 cars, you would think a company like GM (that has had enough problems with debt and in the public eye)would take care of this. This is going to turn into a problem like Toyota. Its not a cheap fix the dealer said 2 hours of work for what could cost me up to $3000. This car is almost 5 years old. The car is barely worth $5500. Mine is sitting in the driveway, I refuse to drive it with a 2 year old. This stubborn attitude that GM has is very sad due to the fact that many people that have Cobalts from the years indicated would be upgrading to other vehicles, too bad they wont be anything made by GM.
I own a 2006 Chevy Cobalt and the power steering keeps going out. When I start the car it works fine but while I'm driving it cuts out and its very hard to steer the car.
Driving the Chevy Cobalt (2006) on the highway and the car suddenly became difficult to keep in the left hand lane. The car swerved over to the right lane and scraped/damaged another vehicle and the Cobalt.
1. beginning at the start of January, randomly the power steering in our 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt would simply stop working with notification. 2. the failure would occur without warning multiple times within a day. 3. I had to have the power steering pump replaced which cost me nearly $500.
I was driving straight down a road when my power steering stopped working. I went back to my apartment before taking it anywhere. I turned off my car and when I turned it back on the power steering was back. After driving to the car garage less than a mile down the road the power steering went again. I had an oil change and was told that there is no steering fluid in my type of car that it was all computerized and to take it to the dealer. I drove across the street to the dealer when the power steering would last about 3 minutes and stop causing me to have to pull over start my car and drive again. It stopped working twice while waiting at a light to turn into the dealer. The diagnostic test found that my electronic steering motor needed to be replaced and that my power steering would stop working all together in the near future if I didn't.
2006 Chevy Cobalt constantly power steering light comes on and the power steering goes out. Have to cut the car off and restart in order to have power steering again. The warmer the motor gets the more frequent it happens.
I have owned my car since Sept 09 and since I have had 4 different incidents where the power steering has went out and locked up my wheel. There have been some close calls and im afraid that I will get injured if it happens again. Each time has occurred at different times in different weather and so on. On Feb 4 2010 I was returning home from work and the wheel locked up and I went completely off the road into a field. I turn the car off and it starts driving fine again.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Lothian, MD, USA