Just bought a 2006 Chevy Cobalt Coupe LS at auction for my son’s first car. Got a great deal but beating myself up that I didn't look at it a little deeper. The main two issues are:

Anytime you get up to 55mph, there is a violent shake that continues until you either go above 65 or back down below 55. It feels like the entire front end, not just the steering wheel. The car had General Brand tires on them that were completely chopped up, so I put a new set of Uniroyal's on. It didn't fix the problem. I don't believe it's the alignment, as the car has no pull whatsoever. I took my hands off the wheel for a good 10 seconds and it took me straight as an arrow. Now, the guy that put the tires on did say that the back-passenger wheel looked as though it had been welded. (It has alloy wheels) He said this could be the cause.

Also, there is something weird going on with the electrical.
1. Instrument Panel / displays are very hard to read at night or when lights are on. Dimmer Dial Switch does not work.
2. Driver’s Side Door Switches: Driver side Window works 1 out of every 10 attempts, Passenger Side Window works fine, Door lock/unlock does not work at all, and mirror adjustment does not work.
3. Passenger Side Door Switches: Windows will roll up, but not down. Door Lock/unlock switch will lock doors but not unlock.
4. Trunk pop will not work.
5. Radio display shows a few random letters/numbers but that's about it. You can change the stations and I believe a person could make sound adjustments if they knew the steps without having to read the display.
6. The RPM Instrument will "twitch" after the engine is cut off and the key removed. It will only last about 30 seconds once the key is removed.

We have checked all the fuses, but didn't find any problems. Any chance these are just individual problems that need attention or does this point to a bigger issue? Thanks in advance for any response!

 

I can answer one of these questions surely. The twitch of the gauges is absolutely normal, it is the car discharging current, if I remember correctly. The switches could be bad in the window/door switches. If the dimmer switch is broken that could be the problem for the instrument panel readability issue.

 

I believe the dimmer switch would just be a resistor gone. Only one I knew for sure was the switch twitching which was already answered.

They seem to mostly be wiring issues which need to be individually tracked down the switches themselves check then the wiring. Trunk pop on the key or in car doesn't work?

I want to say a wheel is off balance but that would continue to get worse at speed.

 

Sorry bout that. It is the trunk pop button inside the car.

 

Yeah then it's pretty much all finding where the problem wire is unfortunately, that's if the switch checks out.

 

So let's say that I replace all the switches and dials, and everything remains the same. Where do I start the process of looking for the problem? Do I start looking under the steering column and glove box for corroded wires? Not a car man at all, but can follow directions if someones willing help.

 

How many miles are on this car? The suspension issue can certainly be fixed. Can you do some or all of the work? If so, you need to get under there and check it out. You need to check the front end parts. Tie rod ends, ball joints, control arm bushings ... things like that. If it's violently shaking, you will see some slop in these parts. There are some youtube videos of people doing these kinds of inspections. It's not that hard.

The parts are not very expensive. Some of the front end work can be a pain in the neck if the car has a lot of rust and corrosion.

 

If the trunk pop does not work on the key fob and the button on the dash, I may know what it is. In the trunk, you will see the mechanism that pops the trunk. It actually has a switch on it (I think it's red). I think it is some sort of safety device to disable the electric trunk release. Give that a flip and see if that fixes it.

I had a a 2006 Saturn Ion, the power mirrors did not work. It was the switch. I popped in a new switch and the mirrors worked. You can just knock these problems out one at a time (unless there is some sort of common problem - which hopefully it is not).

 

All these switches can be had for a reasonable price. Look around here in the parts section and also on eBay. Some of these parts are not that expensive new. It's a simple matter to swap these out and narrow down the problems.

 

Car has 94k. I'm disabled, so doing any of the bend over or get underneath kind of work is pretty much impossible. But my son is willing and able to do it. I will get on YouTube and search for suspension inspections. Thanks for the advice!

 

The only problem is that the car did not come with an FOB and the key does not work. I've got a locksmith coming tomorrow to hopefully re-key it. I will look for the switch if we can get in. Otherwise we may have to remove the seats, as I've been told that cobalt's do not have a seat fold-down knob.

 

There actually are seat releases, but they're in the trunk. If you can reach your arm between the seats, you can feel for them. I've had to do it before. And my power lock switches weren't working and my issue with those were corroded pins in the connector.

 

OK, they did not have the FOBs. Strange that the ignition key does not fit the trunk lock ... I am assuming you have a key to start the car ... I must be missing something. In any event, a locksmith can get these kinds of problems sorted out.

If you want, you can get replacement FOBs and the dealer can program them. Make sure to get two FOBs and get both programmed at once. This is of course optional. You can live without keyless entry if cost is an issue.

This car does have a few issues ... this is also strange. Violent shaking in the front end - I would usually not start by looking at a rear wheel. If one of the wheels was not balanced, the tire guy should have seen this when he balanced the wheel. In any event, the alloy wheels for these cars and plentiful and inexpensive (around $65 and up depending on condition). You may just have to swap out that "questionable" wheel and rule this out as a cause.

At 94k miles it would not be uncommon to have some front end issues. You can just address the parts that seem to be bad. Here is a rough estimate on the parts cost for most of the front end parts (Amazon has them - along with many other sources):

control arms = $140 pr (has new control arm bushings and ball joints)
outer tie rod ends = $50 pr
inner tie rod ends = $70 pr
sway bar links = $50 pr
Monroe 172203 Quick-Strut Assembly = $240 pr (entire strut and spring ready to install)

Some of these jobs are harder than others. Most will require an alignment when done, but the violent shake will be gone when you are done. The struts may still be good. Ball joints and control arm bushings may still be good. Perhaps its mostly the outer tie rod ends. Get the kid out there and check out that front end.

 

Nor sure if you use salt on your roads or nor. But lift
the driver side seat up and pull the carpet back. I had a bunch of wires corrode and **** not work. I lifted my seat and fixed all my problems by timing the affected wires back together and shrink wrapping

Like they were bad... A sespool of salty rusty water. Ate a whole bundle of wires