I'm the guy that had posted a thread about having the worst luck with the exterior of my car. Anyway, I love the car & its performance but recently had my first mechanical problem begin. I was on my way to a wedding (boring road trip) & discovered 3 problems with the car! 1. Several people waved me down during the trip to tell me that my brake lights are staying on. 2. I almost positive this is related to the brake lights....My cruise control is working only half of the time & it stops operating when the brake lights are stuck on. 3. The strangest thing that has ocurred is this sudden and random shake that I have gotten a couple of times in the steering wheel while cruising down the road. It happened a couple times on this trip, 1 time was so bad that I pulled over thinking it was a flat tire. Has anyone else experienced any of this? I have a black cobalt ss/sc with 3,200 miles on it. It's going in to the dealer on Monday to have these problems fixed & the body damage fixed. I'll miss her!

 

Wow thats sounds pretty bad dude sounds like you got the factory retarded car. I havent had any probs like that personally

 

i had a bolt rot out of the battery which made the car sputter and stall. on average it was taking me 5-10 tries to start it. god bless warentee..
your issue could be that your parking break is sticking sometimes.. that would make sense on the break lights, cruise control, and the jumpy ness.. but you would have to wonder why this was only happenig sometimes..

 

if it was the parking brake, the parking brake light would most likely be on. and, i may be wrong on this, but i don't think that the brake lights come on for the parking brake (letting car idle in neutral w/ brake on would answer that) my guess is that the pressure sensor on the brake pedal has something goofy going on with it. that would explain both the cruise shutting off, and the brake lights. as far as the shudder, no clue

 

I got pulled over by the cops for having my brake lights stay on constantly too. Only happened once and a reboot fixed it...

 

I also do not think that it is the parking brake. I think it might have somthing to do with ABS or electrical part of the brakes. I hope the dealer as the fix for you. I have a black sc ss too and have had no problems so far but a CEL P0171 wich was fixed by a new filter.

 

The brake lamps staying on is most likely the brake lamp switch, mounted above the brake pedal, I have replaced one on a cobalt for the same reason, and the cruise thinks you are on the brakes so it wont engage.

I am unsure on the shudder

 

Yes, your brake light swith is misadjusted, so the lights will stay on and the cruise will disengage or not engage at all. As far as the shimmy in the steering, we have had problems with the electric power steering column, but they have all been on the Malibu. I am yet to see it on a Cobalt. The fault has be traced to the sensor in the column and when it fails the steering wheel may shimmy rapidly or a loss of power assist. Hopefully a DTC has been stored and help a Tech determine the problem, if not they will have to duplicate the problem. Hope this helps.