Mods please move if in wrong forum.

I've had my LS since April, and the one thing that really pisses me off is that damn stock fuel economy shift light. Everyone told me it would go away as the ECU learned my driving habits - didn't happen. As I drive pretty consveratively on the street (race car gets abused at the track, no need to redline the cobalt every shift going from point a to point b) it always goes on around 3k unless my foot is buried into the carpeting.

So, after a year of Cobalt's being widely available has anyone come up wth a way to turn the damn thing off?

 

Remove the dash and unplug bulb for shift light

 

its a tad harder than that i think...thats a light fused into the cluster if im not mistaken...and i may be...lol

 

Yeah i'm pretty sure its fused in also. You could try to see if you can get your hands on a schematic, and see if you can find the wire that sends the 12v's to it to turn it on and cut the wire. But check the schematic to make sure that wire doesnt do anything else first.

 

Open the Cluster and cover the light.

 

piece of tap works very well.

 

and looks so awesomely ghetto

 

It really bothers you that much?? I can see it being kind of annoying, but not enough to pull the dash apart and disconnect wires. Who knows what else you could mess up by doing that, and the tape thing is just plain ghetto.

The only real way around it is to use a chip/programmer to disable it through the computer. Unfortunately theres not yet any chip available for Cobalts, but its a possibility in the future, so just give it some time and see what comes out

 

I like the light, reminds me to save gas. If tape is to ghetto, paint over it.

 

Sometimes on long drives that light is all I have to keep me company. I find comfort in it's warm yellow glow.

 

I've never seen this, is it only in manual transmissions?

 

Yep.

 

I love that light..

When driving hard I upshift about 1 second after that light comes on so I can wring that last 100 revs out of a gear.

 

Thats whats nice about having a shift light. Its not like it comes on at the same RPM every time, it varies when it comes on by throttle position and engine load. So if your cruising along just touching the gas its going to come on nice and low to help you save fuel, but if you floor it to pass it won't come on until close to, or at, the redline.

 

It would be funny it they had the light on the Auto trans. cobalts

 

shift light reminds me of when i had my '89 Chevy S-10...brings back the good old days (lol).... instead of the light coming on the word SHIFT came .. damn i wish i still had that truck..

 

take a pellet gun (c02 kind) aim precisly then shoot that damn thing!

j/k

 

Make sure the tape is black electrical tape--it'll blend in with the dash that way

But seriously, do all GM cars have the little shift light? Does the GTO, for example?

 

Go to afrotechmods.com and learn all about ghetto-mods. Then get some duct tape and/or hot glue and give that sucker what-for.

My fiancee's Slocus has one of them, it goes largely ignored. Pay attention to the road and ignore it.

 

Watch the road not the light!

j/k... It doesnt bother me at all, actually i forgot all about it until you made this thread! haha

its really not big of a dealfor me.

 

Canadian content warning...

Canadian sold Cobalt's don’t have the shift light, well, the outline is there on the dash, just doesn’t light up. I'm not sure if the light is actually not installed of if it's disabled in the cars computer. I always wondered what it would look like if it actually worked but then figured it would get real old real fast...lol.

Later all,
Ed.

 

I don't get what the big deal is about it

I just wish there was some way to program when it came on...

 

When its not 10* outside, I will rip apart the dash and gank the light out of the console. Much like I did for my cel on my neon lol. I hate lights that light up, they annoy me. Unless its my radio or controls or so forth. Just yellow lights I dont like !!

 

Ok, i had a 1997 escort that had a shift light but no tach, then i replaced the instrument cluster(long story as to why) with the sport one which had a tach, it also had the spot for the shift light but no bulb in it, so take apart the dash, remove the bulb and you should be fine, esspecialy if the auto's dont have it, they make all the dashes the same so i would gess it is ok.

 

you dont have to, its a light, you should be able to see it when youre looking up