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 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt. The contact stated that after inserting the key in the ignition, all of the warning lights on the instrument panel illuminated and the power steering assist failed. The contact was able to drive the vehicle and the power steering assist functioned as normal, but the warning lights remained illuminated. The vehicle was taken to a dealer where they advised that the electrical ignition failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The contact mentioned that she started to notice the failure after having recall repairs performed on the vehicle under NHTSA campaign id number: 10V073000 (steering). The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was approximately 50,000. The current mileage was approximately 101,000. The VIN was unavailable.
The door locks on the car keep unlocking and locking while driving or stopping. It happens approximately 50 times every time I drive. The locks will also lock and unlock while the car is off and locked leaving it vulnerable to theft. I have to keep my car in my garage for fear of theft. I am unable to drive it anywhere. This is dangerous for anyone who has children as they will try and open the doors. I have had to replace the electrical wiring a few times. It is getting costly to no avail.
Headlights will not turn off. I have to unplug fuses to prevent battery from draining. I was told by dealer that this was a failure of the body control modular. Upon further research, there are many other people with this issue and it is apparently a design flaw. Water is able to get under the cover and flood the BCM, causing it to fail. Will cost over $500 to repair. I am a broke college student.
The traction control light has turned on several times before but usually goes away. While hitting my brakes on the freeway to exit, my traction control light turned on today. I was going about 60 and slowing when it happened. The vehicle jerked violently causing me to slam forward in my chair and almost causing the person behind me to hit me. Once I stopped at the light and hit the accelerator again, it again jerked. I parked my car and shut it off. I turned it back on and put it into drive and immediately the car jolts. It continues to do this each time I switch from park to drive and from braking to driving.
- Chesterfield, MI, USA
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Driving down the road and the airbag on the passengers side shuts off with a passenger in the seat. Service airbag light goes on. Shut the car off and restart then it will be fine for a while. I think it is sensor on the seatbelt retractor.
First off 10,000 miles after my warranty ended the clutch went on this car. Since then I have had to replace the clutch 3 more times, replace the transmission and then rebuild the transmission. Whoever at Chevy decided to use atf in a manual transmission care due to their own design flaw of a smaller whole thereby creating synchos which were not properly lubricated should be shot. So here we are again for annual transmission maintenance..ie: The clutch went out again. This time we changed it and since all the frame bolts were stripped out from the "licensed mechanic" who did it the last 3 times, we had to take it out the top. Next came the new starter that had to be put in and now it is all back together, all fuses checked out ok, the battery is ok, the starter checks out of, but....the car will not start. Dash lights indicate that there is a power steering issue and I am out of gas, both of which are incorrect so something is wrong and I am out of ideas as to what on this stupid car that I never should have purchased and will never purchase again because it is junk!!
The contact owns a 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt. The contact stated that the key became lodged in the ignition switch and she was unable to shift gears since the shifter failed to move. The contact mentioned that the failure prevented her from turning off the vehicle. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure and current mileage was 90,000.
The safety chimes for the turn signal, seat belts not working, keys left in, lights on work through the left front drivers door radio speaker. This speaker seems to go in many cars. The rest of the speakers work fine but are not connected the safety system. There are many documented examples of this on line. This is a safety issue. What if a child is left in a car while the keys were left in the ignition. The car is started and the child sends the car into the street resulting in many fatalities. What about the driver that forgets to fasten seatbelts and don't get the warning chime. This is not a easy fix for the do it yourself as the door needs to came apart to access. This needs to be a safety recall and GM needs to correct before a tragedy happens.
Battery died in car, had to jump the car. Car started fine, steering seemed to be a little tight. After a few minutes of driving the tightness in the steering went away. However upon arriving at home the key would not come out of the ignition, and the shifter would shift into any gear easily without having to press in the shifter button. Also in attempts to remove the key the steering wheel is now locked all the way to the right with the wheels locked in the right position. Was able to remove key from ignition by locating the emergency key release switch under the steering column but car will not start now as key wont turn all the way, and shifter still shifts into any gear without having to press the shifter button. Car was parked front first against building so I have no idea how I will get it towed out of there to a shop to fix it! I suspect the shifter cable assembly at the end of the shifter which is made out of plastic is broken. Will verify when its taken apart. I have seen at least 50 other cases on the internet where this piece breaks and causes the car not to register it being in park and will not release key from ignition. GM recalled certain years for shifter problems but not the 2007 unfortunately!
The contact owns 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt. The contact stated that the vehicle was taken to the dealer for NHTSA recall campaign id number: 10V073000 (steering: Electric power assist system) for the power steering. The contact stated that the remedy failed to repair the problem and as a result, the gauges stopped working. The vehicle was taken back to the dealer who decided to have the circuit cleared, but that the failure still occurred. The contact stated that the air conditioning failed as well. The failure mileage was unknown and the current mileage was 66,690.
The left front speaker quit working. I then noticed that the turn signal chime did not work. When I was trying to trouble shoot the problem I also noticed that all chimes (door open, key in the ignition, etc) was not working. Based on my research, it appears that the Cobalt has a long history of this issue and it also appears that GM doesn't want to address it.
The contact owns a 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt. The contact stated that there were several attempts before the ignition key would turn into the off position. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer, who replaced the ignition tumbler. The failure persisted after the repair was performed. The malfunction caused the battery to weaken and required a charge. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 72,000. The VIN was unavailable.
While driving down the road all power windows quit, at a later date the car started idling rough, air bag light came on this continued for some time then all the dash lights and head lights started going crazy as well as the instrument panel gauges going haywire, this is a continuing problem as dealers have no clue what's wrong.
My husband and I purchased the vehicle in question in April 2007, at approx. 50,000 miles my car started to miss, then began to accelerate on its own and lunge as I was coming to a stop. We brought the car back to dealer where purchased, we were then sent on "wild goose chase, " first we were told it was a fuel pedal sensor, nxt they replaced the computer, followed by the wiring harness, this however, did not fix the problem, we took it back for a fourth time and the ended up rebuilding the head on the motor, car has not ran correctly ever since. We tried to file a lemon law claim but needed four receipts to prove warranty work, we had three and after the fourth when picked up car the dealer would not release fourth, that was a year ago. My car now has 88,000 miles on it, it is beginning to idle rough again and when I put fuel in it, the car does not want to start, at first it will not do anything, and then it will try to turn over but will not start I then have to slam the fuel to it in order to get it started, once it starts it will idle rough and I have to keep giving it fuel in order for the idle to smooth. This is the worst vehicle I have ever owned, I will be hard pressed to ever buy another Chevy!!!!!!!
I placed my car in park last night, but for some reason my key got stuck in the ignition. The ignition would not turn back to the lock position for the key to be released. I checked my car's wheels to make sure they were straight and every other thing that I could think of to try and make the key go to the lock position. After reading the manual, I was able to find that there was a cap on the panel under the steering column, that once removed, contained an emergency release button that when pushing it allowed for the ignition to be turned to the lock position and they key to be released. I have started my car several other times and encountered the same problem. I did a fair amount of research and read a number of reviews on the internet, and I came to realize this is a rather common problem in the Chevy Cobalt. It now seems that I will have to pay several hundred dollars to have this common problem diagnosed and remedied, so that I won't have to push a special button for my car to turn completely off and have my key released from the ignition every time I drive.
On March 4, 2011 I had my 2007 Cobalt's electrical power steering fixed due to the recall I received in the mail. This was as emich chevorlet in Colorado. Recently I have been having issues making turns at slower speeds and sometime unable to turn at all. I contacted my personal shop and was told the dealer needed to do the work and the recall should have fixed this defunct part. I contacted the dealer today who straight away told me it was not their problem. If you scour the internet numerous people are still posting that even after the recall these parts (steering) are still failing and causing accidents. I should not have top pay for a part that cannot last a year and 3 days.
The complaint is for the radio in my car. It was working fine then it started having issues with the speakers cutting in and out. The problem I have is with the radio it's tided into the safety features of the car and lets you know if you have an issue with your car. If you forget your seatbelt it dings letting you know it hasn't been buckled and keeps dinging until you put it on. If you turn your blinker is on it makes a noise with the blinker so you know it"S on. If your blinker stays on it lets you know to turn it off. If your car has mechanical issues it will dings letting you know something?S wrong. As it sits now my two front speakers don?T work at all so I don"T know if something is going on with my car beforehand. If my car was to overheat I wouldn't know until it actually broke down on me. At least if I was to hear a chime or the warning before any damage could happen that would be helpful. Also this is supposed to be a safety feature for the car and the person driving it. I've read that this is very common in this model car and I would like to have this fixed. Hers one of the links you can read for yourself. www.topix.com/forum/autos/Chevrolet-Cobalt/tduj7vfpaec901fn4.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Vincent, OH, USA