Hey all, new 2006 Cobalt LS owner here! Glad to be on board 😁

 

Welcome

 

Thanks man!

 

Welcome! What are your plans with the balt?

 

Well first off I want to repair a few necessary things such as: fix a coolant Hose Leak that's causing gunk on the ground in front of the tranny that I believe goes to the starter and a few other things. Also fix some of the crap wiring harnesses and get all other grounds clean and with good connections cause I know about these cars and their electrical issues lol. Another big thing I'm working on is clearing/cleaning out the fuel system. When I bought the car I had been sitting for about a month and I know that gas goes bad around that time but I couldn't siphon any of the gas out and I didn't have the means or the time to be able to drop the gas tank to get all that gas out so I just threw some fuel injector cleaner and octane booster in there with another half tank of premium gas and I'm going to let it run all the way to almost empty and fill it up again with premium and some more injector cleaner and octane booster because as of now I just have one check engine light code "P0420" which I'm assuming is because of the bad gas. kind of funny because I bought the car for $500 and the woman had a check engine light and the anti-theft light was on. she said it just stopped working one day and she had a new key made and programmed and then it would attempt to start but the starter was just clicking so she had the starter replaced which made the car run for 3 months and then it stopped again which is when she placed it for sale. I traced all the wires and cleaned a lot of the grounds up because of it being an intermittent problem I assumed it was some sort of connection issue and come to find out the previous owner to her had a GPS system installed to have her car insurance lowered and when they removed the GPS system somehow they mess with one of the connections up under the dash which has like four or five green wires going to it and the connection to it has like eight or nine silver pins that go into it well that connection with the pins on it was only like halfway in at a 45 degree angle. I was trying to figure out why when I put my code reader on it and hit read that it shorted out and drain my battery well that was because of that plug not being all the way in so once I plugged it back in and got my battery charged the car cranked right up and the anti-theft light in the check engine light we're gone. sorry for any typos because I'm using talk to text because this is a lot to type out LOL. do you know if that check engine light code p0 420 will go away after I cycle through some good gas and injector cleaner after a few tanks?

 

Honestly I've never been a big car guy and usually only had maintenance done to my car when it absolutely required it, but since buying his car and taking 3 or 4 days to track down the issue I kind of feel like a mechanic now LOL and I really want this car to last as long as possible so I'm going to do as much as I can to it to keep it running smoothly. It's a 2006 LS model with 177000 miles on it which I thought was a steal for $500 especially considering all I had to do was fix one connection to get the anti-theft and check engine lights to go away lol

 

Gas takes a lot longer than a month to go bad, especially in a sealed fuel system. With P0420, you probably have something going on with an o2 sensor or your cat isnt working as well as it used to.

 

okay yeah I was getting mixed answers about that online some people said 30 days and then others were saying a little bit longer until phase separation occurs but I was also reading that with the ethanol and gas that phase separation isn't an issue because the gas goes bad long before phase separation would even be relevant. But she did tell me the previous owner that is that she had the O2 sensor replaced because of I'm assuming that same code.

 

But I am glad I did that research on the gas because now I'm only going to use premium gas from a top-tier grade gas station which I have one only 1.2 miles from the house at citgo. Boom shakalaka! I'm telling you man when I first bought this car I was so stressed out for the first three or four days until I found the solution to the problem because I thought it could be anything from needing a new key to the new key that she got cut not being programmed to the BCM and many other issues and never had to do this before but I now know that is a huge pain in the ass to track wiring issues LOL

 

You really dont need to be using premium in a base cobalt, costs quite a bit more but thats up to you. You might need a new cat to get rid of the code or you can just ignore it because its a $500 car that runs. As long as you dont have any emissions requirement where you live.

 

Yeah my main reasoning for using the premium gas now is for better gas mileage and higher octane. but yeah South Carolina doesn't require any emissions test so that's good. but couldn't gunk in your fuel system also cause that code? and what would be a good way to test the catalytic converter? Also what other causes would that code be linked to? but eventually down the line once I get some money saved up I do want to get tinted windows and some power locks and power windows. Any idea of the cost range for the power locks and door power windows?

 

The premium you pay with premium fuel won't be covered by the small gains in MPG savings. For a tuned forced induction car you can make a good argument to use premium fuel; another good argument to use premium is if the manufacturer suggests it.

Acid test:
SC regular fuel average price $2.275
SC premium fuel average price $2.895
Premium costs +27% more than regular, but your fuel mileage increase would only be single digits.

 

Oh wow, thanks for that great info! I love math, so that was the best argument you could've made! Lol, but another thing: I know top-tier gas has higher detergent levels than other non top-tier gasoline's, which is why I'm sticking with them (at the very least for the first few tanks because of the half tank of month n a half old gas that my paranoid ass believes will leave deposits in my fuel pump/injectors, etc.). But obviously the premium for my base model isn't going to be worth it. Thanks so much for that! See, as you can tell, I'm a noob when it comes to car care lol. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated! 🙏😁😁😁

 

I leave gas in my car all winter - it has never thrown a code

 

Hey bud I got to say it, I think you can take it Techron fuel system treatment is $8 dollars and treats 20 gallons, which costs ($8/20 = $0.40) 40 cents per gallon which is less than the difference in cost between regular and premium right now in your state. Techron is recommended every 3,000 miles, so I guess we can say it costs you $8/3000 = $0.00267 per mile at 25 mpg is about 2.7 cents per gallon, based on this, it's 95% less expensive to run regular fuel and Techron every 3,000 miles than it is to run premium fuel alone.

Techron or simliar would probably be more effective too at cleaning your insides.

 

For sure brother! Yeah I used the gas treatment on first tank and will again on second tank with reg. gas just to clear old junk out and then I'll switch to the once every oil change deal. I appreciate the advice! You guys have been great, I love this forum already lol.

 

Seafoam doesn't hurt either.