The other day i was driving and was interested what was directily opposite of the fog light indicator next to the tach. I looked and saw a little gear with a + in it.. so i whipped out the old manual and looked it up.. its a shift light!.. only thing is that it has never worked for me.. whats up with that?

 

I remember hearing something about a shift light on these too. I thought maybe it was just on the base model because I never saw one on mine either. But sure enough, there it is! Oh well, that would get pretty annoying after awhile anyways.

 

the round "gear" with a "+" in the middle of it is most assuredly a shift indicator light.
it is in the cluster of ALL Cobalts but only active on the L61 powered cars.
The Upshift indicator notifies the driver when to shift the transmission. The instrument panel cluster (IPC) illuminates the Upshift indicator as determined by the powertrain control module (PCM)/engine control module (ECM). The IPC receives a GMLAN serial data message from the body control module (BCM) requesting illumination of the indicator.