Car has been ideling rough when I first start it up a little more than normal. After a minute or so the idle smoothed out and the exhaust would be fine. I thought my cat loet go, but that's not it!

Last night as I turned the car on, it didn't want to start, then the car started and poured a light gray almost white smoke out the exhaust for a little and it smelt like coolant. I drove down the road just a little, and BAM "Low Coolant" light came one so I turned around and parked the car. To my amazement the coolant bottle was completely empty! I had just checked everything under the hood and it was fine before I left. I seriously hate this ******* car now!

1. Axle Snapped
2. Engine Rocker let lose = Blown Engine
3. Clutch ordeal with dealership and Clutchmasters
4. GM techs fried my fuse box with brake fluid
5. GM techs scratched my door badly = whole side repainted
6. Coolant leak, that I finally got fixed this past week.
7. Headgasket blown now.

Once this bitch gets fixed I'm done! I'll start doing my research for a new car while I'm in the desert!

 

Wow that blows. Well good luck to you man.

 

Perhaps I'm not remembering correctly but didn't you snap your axel at the race track or while racing?

If that is the case then I will point out to you that professional drivers with race cars usually replace whole engines after a few races, drive trains, brakes, all of it, and even then they blow an engine now and again. If you beat on your car, expect it to have these problems.

These cars are designed for a bit of spirited driving on the road, not to be taken to the track and beat on mercilessly.

If you want speed then you can only RELY on having to fix the car regularly. And the next car you buy will suffer the same.

 

As I read his post I was thinking the same thing, race and things will break. Now I really don't want that to be the case because I want to race but the facts remain. The more you race the more you replace.

 

^^^^
^^^^
Exactly go cry some more!
You have to remember that its just a glorified econo box its no corvette so if stuff breaks when you drive it hard dont cry.

 

I'm not crying. The axle broke on the first attempt at the track. My fault, no big deal. The engine letting a rocker arm go and self destructing at 30mph in 4th or 5th gear when all I had was an intake is just straight BS period! What the GM techs did to destroy my car is not my fault period. Finally, the headgasket should not blow with GM Stage 2, an intake, and exhaust period. I don't necessarily go to the track all the time and beat the holy hell out of my car. I've been to the track twice in the year I have owned the car. I ran fine the last time I went thank you very much.

I know you have to pay to play, but it shouldn't matter whether it's a Corvette or Cobalt SS/SC. They are both performance cars, and both should hold up to the mild or spirited driving. Hell it seems everyone else is doing fine with the same mods and they take their car to the track and race all the damn time for that matter.

 

Never buy the first year model of a car. I waited till 06 to buy mine just so they could hear about and fix most of the problems from the 05's. I also bought mine late in 06, so they should have fixed all the problems from the earlier runs by now. 07 should be a good year to pick one up. Knock on wood I haven't had any trouble with mine yet. But since yours is an 06, what part of the year did you buy it?

 

well then, maybe you just had a bad streak, seems the only thing that happened to your car that is actually a problem with the car itself was covered under warranty... dont give up on the car, give up on yourself seeing as how you think a cobalt is on the same 'performance car' level as a corvette, thats like saying a nissan sentra se-r is a nissan so it must be a performance car like a skyline... dude if you cant handle a your car breaking down, go buy a hyundai sonata base model and go five under the speed limit.... 10 year 100k miles, and no fun at all.... ive said my part

 

They're really not though. A corvette is tuned for performance, your car is really not. It's just basically an entry level car with a bit better suspension and a supercharger, but whatever, you'll find out later on down the line. The headgasket going now means nothing. You could have sealed it's fate at one of those 2 times at the track, or when you were pushing the car to it's limits on the street.

The kind of problems your having are not the normal list of stuff we're seeing that everyone is suffering from. Your problems are directly related to the stress you are putting on that car, if you can't see that then nothing I'm saying will change that.

It doesn't matter how much you spend on a car, if you race it, you're going to have to spend money on fixing it. I don't understand why you find that so hard to believe. Anyone who watches some racing on T.V. or even one of those shows like Pinks can see that when you push a machine to it's limits, stuff is gonna break.

I blew an engine in my '57 fairlane when I was 16. for six months I had hotrodded that car every chance I got, and I shattered a piston head backing out of a parking spot going about 1 mph. Shitty car? or the six months of hot rodding before that night? Before that it was a burned out clutch. The car was fine, it was my driving that needed work.

 

I am not saying the Cobalt is on par with the Vette by any means. I'm just simply stating if GM was going to try and take the market or at least compete in it with a car like the SRT-4, they should have done a better job with it.

I bought the car September of last year. So it was any early 06.

This thread was started to let others know my frustration with what is going on. I am sorry if I seem hot headed at the moment, but I bet if you guys were in the same boat you wouldn't be able to stay so cool and collective. I'll probably get this fixed and be on my merry way again. I don't want to start any wars, but if we can't even support each other on these threads and everyone cuts each others throats I'll stop helping everyone out when they run across the same problems. I'm done with what I wanted to say. If the moderators want to lock this thread before it gets out of hand, please do so.

 

No, and I'm not trying to bash you either, so I apologize if that's the way it seems. I just don't think you'll be any happier buying another car if you keep pushing it to the limits. My honest suggestion would be to buy a beater car, make it a monster, and take it to the track, and keep the daily driver off the track.

I would look at it as an opportunity to make the car better when something breaks. That's always a healthy attitude to take. ;P

 

If your head gasket went, then this problem should be showing up everywhere because I know enough people on here and RLforum who beat on their cars on a daily basis. I would investigate further as to why it went.

 

my car gets beat like an italian boy that spilled his pasta over his parents fine leather coutches that are covered in plastic, no issues. sorry about yer luck, if its warrenty, make full use of it.

 

wtf is a piston head?

 

I agree on making the car better when something goes. I put in a better clutch when the stock crappy clutch started slipping. I bought the Ingalls ETD after I broke the axle due to wheel hop. For that matter, I'm going to buy a better headgasket after extensive research why it went and if the pistons get messed up by this ordeal the diamond forged ones will find a home inside the car. When I return from the desert I'll definately have the money to build the motor if necessary the right way. As for a second car I had a beater 72 bug, but she finally gave way due to her age and rust. I'm going to look into a pickup truck when I return as well. I hope we can all come to a truse here as I don't want any hard feeling. I was just venting some steam and apologize if I seemed "bitchy".

 

its all good man, i bitched hardcore when my vents were spitting water at me due to the AC.

 

Its sounds like your gonna be ......but I do hope YOU are gonna be the one doing the headgasket . The dealer tech that worked on your engine prior did something wrong . That head gasket should not have blown .

 

If it's not me who does the gasket, it will be another dealership than the one that keeps screwing my car up. I'm just a little iffy on pulling the engine apart.

 

Get a Jeep Rubicon. sounds like more your speed it seems. Get the unlimited rubicon with a Hemi. you will be glad you did. I hope to get one. that is my second joice for a vehicle. The cobalt is not my first choice but I like it cause it is fun. Too bad you have had so much dumb luck with your car. I would sell it too.

 

I would ask to personally meet the tech thats gonna do the work for a little Godfather talk At least to say , he look this __________________________________________________ _____________________________________________ is what I ve been thru , and then just ask him ....are gonna fix my car right ?

Good luck with it man .

 

Have the head checked. I remember reading a few months back a tech said there were problems with some of the heads being out of spec and causing the head gasket to blow.

 

Yeah I like that idea. Then I could tell him I on the Bombsquad. In order to take them apart, you must know how to make them..... Leave it at that.

 

id say screw that dealer all together.

 

I feel your frustration. I get to add another issue to my car as well. As of recently when I drive the car the Coolant container is empty and when you add more well... it seems to disappear! Not even a drop on the ground, it's almost like the car is eating it very slowly. The last time the deaelrship worked on my car (2 weeks ago) he asked me if I did a coolant flush because not a drop of coolant was to be found in the car. I ended up having to go buy some dexcool and the damn thing still eats coolant.

 

Sneaky, I replaced my bottle, cap, and hose going to the engine. That stopped a leak I had under the hood. With the system under pressure after the leak was fixed, BAM the headgasket let go! Damned it I do, damned if I don't!

Good News - Cometic makes headgaskets for our cars. The 87mm is the one for our cars. It's the same as a stock ecotec 2.2. SCE also makes one, which is what Twincharged used on his redline. ARP and Eagle make head studs for the car as well. I'll keep people informed as to what will happen.