2005 LS driving rough

[bustoff]

Hi everyone. I hope this is an appropriate place to ask for advice.
We are having problems with our 2005 Cobalt LS. It is an intermittant problem. It only does it sometimes. Here's what it does.
First thing you notice is that the power steering is not working. The engine runs rough at lower speeds. Shifting is very rough. The check engine light comes on. If you stop at a stop sign the engine will die. It is an automatic.
Sometimes the dashboard display will show a problem with the power steering, but that light doesn't stay on long. When the power steering display is on, the speedometer will bounce up and down.
And that clicking sound you hear when you start up the car and take it out of Park - Well, you hear that sound when you are going down the road and you step on the brake to slow down.
We took it to a garage but the car would not "act up" for them. Shortly after my wife picked up the car it started again. Right now it is sitting at her work. Hopefully, it will act up Monday so we can take it to the shop and have them see it. I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on this situation. Thanks, and again, I hope it is ok to ask these kinds of quetions here.

 

[Black_Dub]

cobalt has an active power steering recall...

 

[darklink991]

Hey we are having the same problem. Are cars gauge cluster freaks out, to shift its real hard and rough, and are tranny wont shift, and the powersteering comes up on DIC. But went to autozone and had them scan it. The car threw a code U0101. Meaning lost communication with transmission. Some are saying to get the PS replaced which I am doing monday. All I have found is that the TCM is bad or power steering is going out. Some blame rusty grounding points. Will keep you posted when I talk with dealership.

 

[cobalt123]

Go to the dealer there is a voluntary recall on the power steering in al cobalts al years regardless if u have a warranty or not

 

[bustoff]

Hey we are having the same problem. Are cars gauge cluster freaks out, to shift its real hard and rough, and are tranny wont shift, and the powersteering comes up on DIC. But went to autozone and had them scan it. The car threw a code U0101. Meaning lost communication with transmission. Some are saying to get the PS replaced which I am doing monday. All I have found is that the TCM is bad or power steering is going out. Some blame rusty grounding points. Will keep you posted when I talk with dealership.

I will be interested to know what you find out.

My wife took ours to the dealer, but didn't tell them about the "Problem". She just had them do the power steering warranty fix. I told her she should have told them what it has been doing. They said they fixed it, but it is still doing it. I will call them Monday and tell them what it's doing and see if they won't look at it again.

 

[darklink991]

ok well dropped the balt off at the dealership. Going to cost 45 dollars for for testing. But my problems where speedo not working, transmission not shifting out of first, DIC saying powersteering. But I don't know if anyone elses does this but when you press on the brake. There is a loud noise sounding like a solenoid engaging.

 

[bustoff]

ok well dropped the balt off at the dealership. Going to cost 45 dollars for for testing. But my problems where speedo not working, transmission not shifting out of first, DIC saying powersteering. But I don't know if anyone elses does this but when you press on the brake. There is a loud noise sounding like a solenoid engaging.

That is exactly what ours is doing. I will be interested in knowing what you find out. We are leaving ours with the mechanic until he can diagnos the problem. Trouble is, it is intermittant. Our mechanic is going to drive it back and forth to work, etc. until he can see the problem. They told us there are 6 modules that communicate with each other, and one module is not working properly. They need to find out which one it is.

 

[darklink991]

Just got off phone with dealer. My power steering has already been replace one. But they are saying its my tcm.

 

[bustoff]

Just got off phone with dealer. My power steering has already been replace one. But they are saying its my tcm.

We took ours to a private mechanic. He has it narrowed down to one of 4 modules, one of which is the tcm - whatever that is. Now we will take it to the dealer because they have better equipment which can show precisely which module is acting up.
Stay tuned for futher developments............................

 

[RedDead]

sounds like it is the tcm

 

[bustoff]

sounds like it is the tcm

btw, what is the tcm?

 

[RedDead]

Transmission Control Module

 

[darklink991]

Ok well got my balt back from dealership. The TCM need replaced, it fixed the speedometer, tranny not shifting, and the powersteering DIC message to go away, Think it was 400 total without a extended warranty.

 

[bustoff]

We got ours back and it is running OK. They cleaned the contacts on the modules, but did not have to replace any.
All's well that ends well. Thanks for the help, everyone.

 

[XxChristalSSxX]

I had the same problems. And before anyone says anything, I'm too lazy to read the previous comments. Power steering recall is one issue; take it to the dealer. Catalytic converter recall (must've received a letter from GM); call a dealer (when they replaced mine, my gauges started working properly again). The dying @ low rpms that I had an issue with was from a clogged throttle body. You may want to clean yours and see how that does. Hope I helped...


EDIT: I see my post was worthless since you've fixed your issues.

 

[nardcast]

i might have to take my cobalt to the dealership for the same issues. first, i might get the audio shop to re wire my amp installation to see if they did my amp install correctly.