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.
The contact owns a 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt. The contact stated that while traveling at a high rate of speed, the driver lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a tree. The driver was fatally injured. A police report was filed of the incident. The contact believed that the vehicle exhibited an unintended acceleration failure which caused the driver to lose control of the vehicle. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The contact also indicated that the airbags did deploy upon impact. The manufacturer was not notified of the incident. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was 1,800. Updated 04/14/14 MA updated 04/18/14
The brake caliper was rattling because it was broke I had a auto repair man replace part then all of a sudden it brakes again that was for the front and back it also has elected electrical problems the windows work when they want and the car mostly always stalls it has even stalled on me in the middle of traffic on hwy what it does is act real sluggish and the more you press on the gas the more it bogs out and pulls back instead of taking off as supposed to the turn signals in the front always blow everytime replaced there is also interior electrical problems such as the interior lighting works when it wants to and the doors lock and unlock themselves with will unset the anti theft system and allow for Prowler to take the car.
Multiple problems with my '05 Cobalt, but this was problem cannot be duplicated by dealer and when I called GMC, they cannot tell me anything about this problem. Driving on a highway approx. 50-55 mph and all of a sudden car dropped to approx 20 mph. Dash reading said 'reduced engine power' and my traction control light came on. Nothing would make the car go faster, luckily nobody was behind me. Car kept acting like it was going to die. Got the car to my in-laws, which was only 5 minutes away and we unhooked the battery. After letting the car sit for a few minutes and the battery together, the car seemed fine. Took it to the dealer and said they can't get a code because the battery was unplugged. I called GMC and they told me they can't do anything without the code. I have children who sit in the back of my car and I am not waiting for the problem to happen again, if I am on the interstate and cars are behind me, they are going to run into me, as there was no warning this was going to happen. Not happy that Chevy seems to be avoiding a huge safety issue and pretending it doesn't exist. There needs to be a recall on this immediately.
Sitting at a turn light, cars started to move and I started to accelerate when I heard a loud pop noise (was not going over more than 10mph). So I pulled over and looked opened the hood to find my oil cap, filter, a black piece, and spring had popped out of the oil filter location which was in the block. Oil had been spewed all over. I took the oil cap to a Chevrolet dealership and the service guy said he had never seen the oil cap and filter pop out of the block, he examined the cap and only noticed one minor break in the threads of the cap. He said that the black piece and the spring that go in the cap must have failed which in turn cause the cap to pop out of the block, he also told me to look at the block to make sure it was not cracked. I then inspected block to make sure it was not cracked, which it was not, and had a new cap, filter and oil installed.
I was driving in to my apartment complex when my car completely loss power. I was able to steer, however I was not able to accelerate. The radio turned off and the air conditioner quite working. This has happened twice since I've gotten my car. Luckily, I was in places where I could safely pull over. I had to turn my car off, wait for a few minutes and turn it back on to get it to work correctly. I am also having issues with my power steering. I am starting to think that this car just isn't safe anymore and I am looking into possibly getting a new car because of it. It is becoming dangerous to drive this car!
- Cedar Hill, TX, USA
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While driving on a major highway, "power steering" message is displayed on dash, warning chime sounds repeatedly, power door locks cycle at random, instrument panel gauges stop working intermittently and jump around, complete loss of power, and random warning lights appear on dash. At times the gas pedal was completely unresponsive, then vehicle would lurch forward - had a near miss incident when the loss of power on acceleration from a red light almost caused another vehicle to hit us. Issue has occurred at random intervals since the car was new, but has become more frequent lately and tends to occur more often on hot days. Dealer was unable to duplicate concern, despite hundreds of similar complaints on the internet.
After having taken my car into the Chevrolet dealer for a power steering failure the car acted up again. They replaced the power steering motor however after about 1 hour of driving the cruise control disengaged and the power steering message came on the display. The gauges started going crazy and the check engine light would flash on and off as well as the parking brake light. At lower speeds there was a clicking sound from under the automatic transmission box and the car jerked when changing gears. This is extremely dangerous as driving on the free way at those speeds can lead to fatalities. I am extremely thankful nothing happened. General Motors needs to get this right as clearly replacing the power steering motor is not the solution to the problem!
When pulling out of our drive way this morning, the car suddenly began to jerk, I thought it was nothing. Then as I pulled to the stop sign, the car then jerked again and somewhat slowed down and the low brake fluid lights began to flash and a dinging noise came on as well. I immediately turned the car back into our driveway but barely could because the steering wheel was so stiff it would hardly budge.
2005 Chevy Cobalt sudden acceleration. My daughter's 2005 Cobalt has had two episodes in 30-days of her accelerator pedal dropping to the floor and the car racing out of control until she brakes hard, pulls over and shuts off the car. Today it accelerated to 96 mph and she was ticketed for speeding. The GM dealer says there is no recall. Toyota said the same thing until people started dieing...
I had severe power steering failure and my map sensor is also defective even though it has been replaced twice. I have a very low mpg its a 15mpg at best. My car also accelerates without my foot on the pedal and I have had severe brake failure, to the extent that I have had to use my hand brake to stop.
The contact owns a 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt. She stated that while driving 5 mph with her foot her on the brake pedal, the vehicle accelerated on its own. She then lost all power to the vehicle including the steering which made it very difficult to control the steering wheel. She applied the emergency brake in order to stop the vehicle. The vehicle was towed to the dealer. They were unable to duplicate, diagnose or repair the failure. The failure and current mileages were 42312.
I have a 2005 Chevy Cobalt and periodically it starts shifting really hard and the power steering goes! I have to stop the car, shut it off, let it sit, start it, shut it off, repeat three times, then it is okay for a while.
The contact owns a 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt. While driving 70 mph on the freeway, the "reduce engine speed" indicator illuminated on the instrument panel. The vehicle shifted into low gear and the contact could not accelerate beyond 40 mph, which she considered very dangerous on a highway allowing 70 mph speeds. The vehicle began operating normally. Prior to the failure, she noticed that the vehicle began stalling when she would slow down at traffic lights or stop signs. Occasionally, the contact would have to shift the vehicle into neutral so that it could perform correctly. On three occasions, a mechanic stated that multiple codes were present after diagnosing the vehicle. The manufacturer stated that there was no relevant recall to-date. The current mileage was approximately 82,000 and failure mileage was approximately 80,000. Updated 4/23/09 updated 04/27/09
2005 Chevrolet Cobalt. The consumer stated the vehicle shut down and stopped while driving at 20 mph. Then, she had to turn the vehicle off, put it in park, and turned it back on. The dealership stated it would have to happen again before they would know what was wrong with it. General Motors told her she could take the vehicle in to the dealership. There was no accident when this happened and this is the only time this has occurred.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Amarillo , TX, USA