1. I guess I will start with the worst thing first, act clutch kit installed in early june, everything was fine, master cylinder and throw out bearing were both replaced. Now the clutch's engaging point is slowly sinking down closer and closer to the floor, to the point where I had to remove my floor mat to make it home from work today since it wouldnt engage with the mat there. It used to be extremely stiff and now I have probably 4 inches or so of travel in the pedal before there is any resistance. I was possibly thinking it was the slave cylinder since it was only part not replaced...

2. E-brake light stays on and I cannot engage cruise control, is this just a switch located on the ebrake that is getting stuck? And if so does anyone have any pictures of where this switch is?

3. Coolant warning keeps coming on yet the coolant is full but maybe once every week or so the temps begin to creep when sitting at a red light. I was considering flushing the system this weekend and seeing if that fixed anything, since on another thread I saw the main cause to this was air in the system.

4. Had idle bounce and I cleaned my throttle body (as I have done 2 other times now) it fixed it and I noticed the last two times my idle would be a bit high for a day or two, but this was two weeks ago and upon engaging the clutch or going into neutral while the car is moving more than 10mph the rpms stay at 1200. But once I come to a stop it drops down to my set idle of 798. I felt this was kind of strange, is it possible I damaged the throttle body this last time? My buddy with a Cobalt ss/tc told me to disconnect the battery for 15 min and I did this and it didnt help at all.

Thanks for everything and I realize this was a lengthy post but I wanted to be thorough with my descriptions, any help is greatly appreciated.
-Matt

 

1.check where the clutch pushrod comes through the firewall to meet the pedal to make sure the metal isnt damaged.
There was a few guys with aftermarket clutches that had this issue.

2.must be the switch,pop the cover off the e-brake it should be right there.

3.a. Add a little coolant,mine would do the same thing ,only had to add a splash.
3.b. temps should creep up when standing still unlesss your fans are running on high.
Need more info on the situation!

4.The Idle does stay up a bit on these car coasting to a stop the ecm is programmed that way and will drop when the car is stopped .it normal

 

I would check brake fluid level. see if its down causing the light to come on. if it is, check for leaks, likely in the clutch system somewhere. if levels are ok, prolly an issue with the ebrake switch.

May have a possible vac leak causing the high idle. may also just need to relearn the idle with a tech 2 after cleaning the tb.

 

Thanks for the help, I am about to go check everything out, the only thing was,

-Coblasts, for the 13 months I have owned the car I have never had that problem with the idling staying high while coasting and not in gear. It just began after this most recent throttle body cleaning. And do you have a part number on the push rod or should I take it to my local speed shop and have them rape me on another clutch issue.

-blitzed, if all fails I will bring it back to my dyno guy and have him test the vacuum lines if that doesnt do it, perhaps just have it retuned, about to go double check the brake fluid reservoir since from what I understand is shared with the brakes and the clutch.

Thanks guys I will update you on how all this works out

 

May have figured out my brake fluid and clutch problem, the driver side rear caliper has all the tell-tale signs of a leak, going to order a new caliper and then have a full flush and proper bleed from my local shop, see if that sorts it out. The reservoir was low again (had to top it off last week) so there is definantly a leak I will have to check it out more thoroughly to make sure the caliper was the only leak. Also now I'm throwing a P1133 and a P0420 code, which is heated o2 sensor on bank 1 sensor 1 and a fouled catalytic converter (which i dont have so it explains the P0420 code) respectively. Topped off the coolant reservoir as it seemed a bit low. And didnt have time to check the e-brake since I now have to run off to work. Thanks guys.

 

whats the part# for the master cyl?

 

ACDELCO Part # 385599 for the clutch master cylinder for 05 cobalt ss.

Replaced the leaking brake caliper, said screw it and bought a 8 dollar bleeding kit, finished all that up, brakes working fine, clutch has returned to its normal engagement point figured the leak may have had something to do with it. Found the switch for the ebrake and everything is kosher once again. OOO also seafoamed it and i recommend that to everyone just disconnect the vacuum line suck up about a 1/3 of a cup of seafoam and dump the rest in the oil and gas tank and go for a "heavy" drive, its like the motor is brand new. (watching the huge plume of white smoke is also awesome, my neighbor had no clue what to think of it)

 

Hmm.. i may have to try this.. I'm having issues with my clutch not wanting to disengage myself... It looks like I have a leak in my RF caliper too... I just bought a new clutch master.... maybe. I'll fix the leak first to see if that works... I bet replacing the caliper will be much easier than replacing the master cylinder... Thanks for the info..

 

If you can, taking the calipers apart after winter is a good bet, I found mounds of corrosion built up on the rears especially, causes a sticky brake piston application most noticable when you yank the e-brake and get little to nothing. Clean em up, go into the console and check the acorns are still planted in the bracket, you should only have to yank 4-8 clicks for full engagement of the e-brake or like my Cobalt it'll fall out of the bracket on one side.

When you finish that, reset the e-brake by taking it to an open lot and reverse towards a very open area up to 10ish mph and yank the brake, this resets the e-brake spring. Only works with reverse. Be prepared to use the regular brakes if the e-brake is loose!

I am looking at replacing my slave after a clutch job, for some reason the seal isn't holding, I'm going to see if I just fat fingered the pin in to loose, or if it's done.