Had the car for 15 days (1,060 miles) now and the electrical issues are building up.

Won’t Start – Day 3
The car would not start on day 3 with the radio on all the way up. Not sure if this is normal since we have the “Premium Sound”. Happened on 3 separate occasions to date. Started fine on the second try

No Turn Signal - Day 4 about 280 miles.
Left turn signal stopped working. Started working back up later in my dive. It works about 50% of the time now. I leave it on when it is not working and it seems that it starts working when I hit a bump. WTF!?

No Brake Lights – Day 15 (1,060 miles)
Today a guy behind me was nice enough to let me know my tail lights are out! Only my 3rd brake light on the trunk works. This may have been the issues since I got it. I can’t be sure since no one that I know drove behind me to notice. I had my fiancée check my brake lights tonight and they are sure out. Only the 3rd one works

This is mostly an informative thread. I did not hear of these problems on here before. I hope the dealer can figure out these problems since it seems like it would be a pain to figure out especially with the turn signal working on and off as it pleases.

Wish me luck and let me know what you think

 

thats definately odd...GL

 

Go through the fuse box and push down on EVERY fuse in there, that will PROBABLY fix problems # 2 and 3. Problem #1 is a maybe. My car had intermittant high beams for bout 7 months, till I went though and made sure all the fuses were in properly...problem fixed.

 

Let me understand problem #1 correctly. If you turn on power to the car at the key, and you have the radio at full volume, the starter won't engage? Or the starter engages and the engine just doens't fire? And what are you doing with the volume all the way up? Dude, I'd be deaf.

I have heard of the left turn signal issue before, from this forum in fact.

 

Didn’t think to check the fuses on a new car I’ll do that as soon as the rain stops.

It sounded like the starter started to engage but stopped. Just made a noise for a sec and then nothing. I could hear it because the radio did not go on till the car was on on the second try (and it was on full blast)

Why was it on full blast? I donno I think I turn it up all the way when I have the windows down and I really like a song.

Interesting about the signal. Know how it got resolved? I’ll start searching for left turn signal

 

I didn't either until the high beam issue got to be out of hand. I NEVER had high beams and it got to be annoying, had little time to get to the dealer so in a last ditch effort to fix things on my own, I just took the fuse cover off and pushed down on every last fuse in there and I've never had a problem since.

Try it first, you would not believe the problems than can be fixed in the simplest ways...my friend AJ "fixed" his CV joint on his Prelude that was "going bad" by re-torquing all the lugnuts. (Which BTW is something else you should do, mine were ALL sorts of messed up. Some were overtorqued, some were perfect, some were grossly undertorqued....think 60 lbs-ft.)

As for the radio...that has me baffled. Is there anything else that's going on at the same time? Wheels cut? (BTW the car will neither start nor give you your key back if you have the wheels cut entirely to one side.) Anything else?

 

nope, the wheels were not cut.

 

Okay now everybody is missing the most obvious cause. You have a Cobalt forum administrator\owner who waited till now to actually buy a Cobalt and GM figured to have some fun with you Jonel. Nothing really serious though.

 

Most of my lugnuts were undertorqued as well. It was a mess. Sorry, I know that has nothing to do with the issues at hand but it is a good idea to check them.

 

Electrical issues are pretty common with me Jonel. Both my Sedan and SS have been having issues every now and again. Dealerships best assumption is I need to have new wires ran throughout the car (fault somewhere).

If your car won't start it's because it has a bad ground in the headlight assembly. That happened to both my cars. Everything would turn on but no starter...

 

Well, messing with the fuses did not help. Dropped her off tonight. I’ll let you know what they find or don’t find

 

Best luck man.

I just had a rattle fixed, a piece of plastic on the passenger mirror fixed, and a door ding repaired. All in one day. Waiting on the passenger side liner to my trunk. Other than that I am as happy as a pea in a pod.

 

If you have access to a multimeter, check the ground on your left side tail lights. If you get full voltage on the ground side... you need to fix the ground. Not too familiar with the wiring layout and all, but considering the autolight system we have, it could cause your car not to start either.

 

My friend had an '05 base model with similar problems with the tailights. Took it to the dealer twice and they found some kind of grounding problem with them. He's since traded it in on an 06 LT.

 

the guy traded in his car because of a grounding problem? He possibly spent an extra 2 grand or possibly more to skip 5 minutes with a butt connector and a wire crimper...

 

Ok they still have my car but they figured out the problem. The computer module that controls the taillights and turn signals is bad. They had to order a new one. I’ll get the specific details when I pick it up.

As far as the starting problems, they said wait 3 seconds before you turn the key
We’ll see how that goes.

 

It's not a ******* diesel, you shouldn't have to wait to turn the key. Tell them to fix it.

 

Man, that's just sad. Whoever told you that should be shot.

 

No, thats not why he traded it in. It was because the base didn't have ABS so he bought an 06 LT. And yes, he went upside down pretty far.

 

Finally got my car back. The part was on "back order”...

Problem #1 was ignored and I was told to wait 3 seconds before turning the key.

Problem #2 and 3 solved:
Faulty BCM Comp Module 2.560
P/N: 15867054

 

Jonelz, also when you go to start the car get in the habit of just turning the key fast and let go the car will start itself
Like throwing a light switch, turn-let go has to do with autostart modules....the pcm fires the car when the ignition is turned or a start signal is detected

 

SHHHHHH!!!! GM POWERTRAIN SAID NOT TO TELL HIM!