CarComplaints.com Notes: The Cobalt was introduced to replace two of Chevy’s smaller cars, the Cavalier and Prizm. But the compact’s fresh start that Chevy was hoping for was riddled with issues, most notably widespread power steering failure.
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.
Power steering failure signal comes on after any length of time of driving, at any speed and on any pavement. The steering wheel locks up and the car has to be turned off and restarted in order for the steering to reset. Fuel injection failure. Key won't turn in ignition. Cd player picks and chooses when it will work.
2005 Cobalt door automatic.. since June-July of 2006, the automobile has repeatedly been taken to 2 different dealerships for repair or correction during the warranty period. The would act as to stall, shaky, and hesitate while driving. Each time the dealer said they were unable to find or determine the problem. Now, that the warranty is out and the car has done the same problem (July 10. 2008) the dealership says there is a problem and they will have to look farther into it.. I knew this was going to happen, the moment its out of manufacture warranty, they can find a problem with it.
2005 Chevy Cobalt power steering goes out at random, car locks you inside, you have to go out the window, car dies while driving. These are all common problems with this car. Chevy does not make redesigned parts to replace its current stock of bad parts. Someone is going to get hurt, if Chevy is not forced to take action.
Power steering light warning light comes on check engine light comes on, security anti theft light comes on all gauges fail, speed, gas, tack the car will run rough and stall car will not shift multiple computer error codes dealer replaced a computer component didn't fix problem. The car is unsafe to drive when problems occur.
I have had my 2005 Chevy Cobalt since July 2005. At 800 miles I had it serviced for a leak in the passenger floorboard. It was in the shop 5 times before they found a fix. Next was the lights flashing on the dashboard, specifically the check engine, brake and high beam lights. Then the heater would not blow so it was in the shop to have that fixed. Then the reverse lights stopped working and there is condensation in the headlights. Now, two days ago, my power steering light comes on and it becomes very hard to steer. I almost had an accident when I couldn't turn fast enough. When you turn the car on and off it works again temporarily. I will be taking it to the shop again, but at this point it has 50,000 miles and is out of warranty. Very disappointed with the quality of this car!!
- Driftwood, TX, USA
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Car purchased on 3/14/05 from rk Chevrolet. Starting Sept. 12, 2006 the car electrical system started malfunctioning. Various dash board lights came on, tick noise from the shifter, power steering light and fails, and the gauges began to go crazy! the car also wanted to shut off, and has boosts of energy. The same issue occurred November 2, 2006, June 8, 2007, September 19, 2007(colonial Chevrolet), and October 16, 2007 (colonial Chevrolet). After we got it back from colonial, the same problem occurred approximately 2 days later. Colonial Chevrolet indicated that that could not fix the problem and they were waiting to talk to GM about it! they even suggested initiating a buy back. We have been in contact with gmac in detroit about the issue and no answers have given nor a resolution. Currently we have to drive a very unsafe car that jolts, can't turn, and will not accelerate at times. We have been requesting at least a rental (safe car) until this problem can be addressed and no one has offered this in lue of a resolution. What has been done: PCM replaced: (9/15/07)body, throttle (8/7/07, 11/2/06), replaced: Body control (11/2/06); shifter bind & ndash; replace slide, automatic control lever replace, floor shift replace, wiring /connector steering suspension ride control??< control assembly. Floor shift replace (9/12/06).
I had been driving my 2005 Chevy Cobalt coupe yesterday for about an hour and a half when it just suddenly shut off. I had the cruise control on and was going about 80mph and I have about 27,000 miles on the car. I lost power steering and had to coast over to the side of the road. No warnling lights came on before hand. After I pulled the car over, I was able to restart it with no problems and it drove fine all the way home for another hour or so. I have seen many other complaints on this website similar to this one. Luckily there were no cars around and the road wasn't very busy but its disturbing to imagine what would have happened if that had not been the case. The car is going to be worked on tomorrow so I don't know what the dealer thinks is wrong with it yet.
I had just over 25,000 miles and my first my power steering light came on then the car just started stalling and power steering locked up, also was making a clicking noise. Then the car competely stalled and could not be moved at all. The dealer replaced the shifter. My car again was fine while driving on the highway approximately a month to two months then my warnign chimes were coming on but indicating nothing. After a total of a trip on the highway after slowing down to a mim. Speed on non-highway my power steering light again came on and my car started stalling and jumping, steering locked up and car was making a grinding noise. I shut the car off and restarted, it was fine for the time and as soon as possible I sent to dealer for repair. Dealer states it is the body control modular. I am afraid that my life my be in danger if this would happen at highway speed not to mention the lives of others on the highway as well other Chevy Cobalt owners.
My 2005 Chevy Cobalt sedan randomly shuts off while driving. So far it has happened about 6 times. The first time was a few months ago. I was driving at a speed of about 30mph making a left turn crossing a very busy lane of oncoming traffic when the car just shut off. The radio was still on but if I pressed on the gas, nothing. I had to put the car in park, shut off the ignition and then restart it. It immediately started back up. I called the dealership right away and was told that because no warning lights came on they wouldn't be able to trace the problem and hopefully it was a one time thing. Well then about a month later it happened again. The dealership told me to wait about a week and call back, well within a week it happened again so I called and told them I was bringing it to them. When I brought the car in they installed a flight recorder and sent me on my way. About a week later the car shut off again so I pressed the button on the flight recorder and brought it back to the dealership. The mechanics informed me that the flight recorder did not work because they forgot to put something else on my car at the time of the installation in order to make the recorder work and wanted me to bring the car back to have the recorder re-installed. I refused and told them I would bring the car back but they needed to keep it until they figured out the problem. On my way back to the dealership the car shut off again while going 65mph on the highway. The dealership had the car for about a week and claimed it was fixed for sure. They said they found the problem and replaced the ignition switch and power train relay. Well I have now had my car back for two weeks and as of last night it happened again. I called the dealership and told them to have the car towed because I refuse to drive it. At this point I do not want the car and have no faith in them repairing it. The car should be recalled before there is a fatality.
My 2005 Chevy Cobalt has shut off 3 times while driving on the expressway. The car acts just like you turn off the ignition while you are in the driveway, except you are driving 70 mph and there is traffic all around you. When we pull over and park the car, the car starts right back up and drives fine. There have been no obvious warning signs indicating that something is going to happen. The first failure was when my wife was driving the car for about 45 minutes. She told me that the Cobalt turned off while she was driving and had to pull over and turn it back on. She was driving at 75 mph and did not have cruise control on. The second time I was driving the Cobalt with her as a passenger. We were driving at 75 mph for about 40 minutes when the car turned off. We made an appointment with the dealership and told them about it. The dealership replaced the defroster switch and updated the computer. The third time I was driving with my wife. We were driving at 75 mph with cruise on a really straight stretch of highway. I was not touching anything and was talking to my wife when the car turned off. I pulled over and immediately called the dealership. The dealership drove the car for 40-45 miles and checked the computer. They told us that they saw no codes and could not duplicate the problem. They gave us the GM customer service number and I them regarding this safety concern. GM told me to take it to another dealership for them to look at it to see if they could duplicate the problem. This dealership only drove the car 8 miles and told us that they did not have time to spend driving the vehicle longer. I called GM again, the adm of the area passed on to us that, since the problem cannot be duplicated, the only things that we can do is to 1) attach a flight recorder to the vehicle and continue driving it in hopes that this problem continues and we can catch it with the flight recorder or 2) take a service man on a road trip to see if the problem duplicates.
- the contact stated that while driving the 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt at 25 mph, the dashboard icons turned on, the vehicle began to jerk back and forth. While stopping at a red light the vehicle lost power, and had to be restarted. The vehicle lost power again while going up a steep hill, the vehicle had to be restarted. The vehicle has not been driven since. The vehicle was being assessed at the dealership. Stalling happened on 4 occasions. The trac light and brake light illuminated. Various componets were replaced on the vehicle, however the problem continued. Updated 02/22/07.
#1 I brought it back because steering wheel always was to the left even though I was going straight. Dealer said it was fine, I complained to customer service and then dealer said they fixed it. When going straight the steering still looks left. #2 air conditioning not working, #3 liquid coming out of vents #4 cricket noises out of passenger side dash area. I was told air conditioning was fine, no cricket noises and it was normal for fluid to come out of vents. I brought the car back again said A/C is not fine I asked them if it could be some sort of filter (I am no mechanic) but it was. They had car all day, went to pick it up but they said dash was apart because they were fixing the problem with the fluid coming out of the dash (and I said I was told there was no problem) they had the car for the weekend. They tried to charge me for the filter and I said I would not pay for it because there was problems with that ac and defroster etc since day one. They took out the filter and put in an old dirty filter that did not come from my vehicle as the guy from the Chevy dealership in malden said he found it in the trash, (has made my daughter sick). #5 while driving the car I was getting off of the highway into a rest area and the car just died, there was no power steering no brakes etc. The key was in the switch and it was not off. I started the car up again. #6 the electrical didnt work, they fixed that. I have contacted Chevy customer service on several occasions and they say they will check into it etc and call me back, but they never do. I want them to fix the steering wheel, fix the car stalling out for no reason (we could have been killed) and put in a new filter not someone elses dirty filter. I don't trust the malden dealership. I have brought the car to the dealership on at least 7 occasions most of which they say nothing wrong.
I purchased my 2005 Chevy Cobalt in March of 2005. I have had repairs done in June of 2005 on recall for air conditioning unit. No real problems until last month 12/2006. The car, while driving at 65 mph just shut off (no warning). I had no steering, no brakes and thankfully was able to coast to the side. About 5 minutes later I was able to start the car to try to get it to the next exit. The car was driving ok so I tried to get to my destination (slowly under 50 mph) the car then began to lose power and shutter. As soon as it started it stopped. Took car to dealer and computer was fixed. No problems until 1 week later. Car at a red light just stopped working and now has no power to accelerate. Taking car back to dealer but very frustrated over brand new car not working properly.
I was driving at about 20 mph after stopping at a red light when my car shut off, my dashboard lights went blank. I was able to restart my car and it has happened since. Today while driving at 65 mph on the interstate, my car started to shake badly and I almost lost control. I tried to brake but it made the shaking worse. The car felt like it had lost power. I was able to pull over. I thought at first maybe a flat tire but no. As quickly as it happened it went away. I am very unhappy about this and had problems with GM cars before. You would think I would have learned my lesson and went with a Honda or Toyota.
My 2005 Chevy Cobalt was towed in for the 3rd time in 3 months. It is not even a year old yet. All three times have been exactly the same - I go out to start the car in the morning & the car's electrical system goes haywire and the car will not start. This first 2 times, the dealer said it was an electrical problem & they replaced everything. This last time they said it's just a dead battery. If that is the case, wouldn't they have figured that out the first 2 times? something clearly is awry in the electrical system and it is draining the battery. I don't want this car - I can't trust it to start & the dealer clearly doesn't know what's wrong. I intend to take legal action.
Electrical system seems to be defective. When first bought car, the fan for the heater would not work. Finally, dealership took parts out of a brand new vehicle, since there were no parts made yet due to it being brand new, and replaced it. But, it still makes a whining when it is on #1 setting. The cd player would lock up all the time and simply say "locked". according to user manual, we are advised to take it to dealership and they will fix that problem. Upon taking car to dealership for that problem, they said there was nothing wrong with it because of course, it did not do it for them. So, we stopped trying to even use the cd player. The locked status occurs frequently for no apparent reason. Like, when going over a real bumpy part of the road. All of a sudden the lock button appeared on the dashboard. I was afraid the car was going to turn off on me. Sometimes the word "lock" comes on in the radio display and so the clock won't display. I have no idea what is wrong or why it is displayed. The real scary part, though, is when the dashboard displays the "lock" icon. Because I fear that the vehicle will just stop running since I read that it does have an anti-theft function that will stop the supply of gas to the car and I wonder if/when this will begin malfunctioning. Will I be on the highway traveling at 65 mps? I mean, more people need to let Chevy know that this is happening so that it can be fixed. Lately, the vehicle will not start. It just will not start when we put the key in the ignition. All other lights and things turn on, but the engine won't turn over. Why, we don't know. Dealer claims we must have it towed to them and not get it jumped so they can take a look at it to see what is wrong. Has happened three times so far. Still no resolution to this problem. Feel that the problems are a result of the same defect-the electrical system. Guy that came to jump my car said the Cobalts have had lots of problems.
: the contact stated the vehicle was returned to the dealer five times due to intermittent power steering failure and electrical problems. The steering wheel locked suddenly twice while driving, at various speed. The wheel locked on numerous occasions while the vehicle was stopped. Each time the power steering light illuminated on the dash during the failure. The wheel unlocked after the engine was shut down and restarted four times. The following electrical problems occurred intermittently, all the gauges fluttered, the fuel gage showed an inaccurate reading, and the emergency brake light illuminated while driving. On one occasion the dealer replaced the power steering housing, but this did not remedy the problem. On all other occasions the dealer completed diagnostic testing, but was unable to determine the cause of the problems. The consumer stated the gas tank was full of gas, however the low fuel illuminated on the dash. The radio malfunctioned twice. Updated 04/06/06.
Upon attempting to turn the headlights on manually, because the automatic headlights come on a little later than I would like, almost all of the electronics on the interior of the vehicle come on. I say almost because the instrument cluster lighting does not respond to a manual request for the lighting systems to activate. The background of the cluster in this car is black, and when it starts to get dark out it makes it rather difficult to see. One would expect that when you turn the head lights on, and all of the interior lighting comes on, the instrument clusters back lighting to also come on. The car has been back to bobby layman Chevrolet in columbus oh, 2 times for this issue, and basically the response of the service department its the way it is.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Clayton, MO, USA