2005 Chevrolet Cobalt: stuck in gear or won't shift

Filed Oct 23, 2023 · Steering · MI

Power steering was lost while driving, speedometer stopped working and will not shift from low. Other sources say there has been a recall.

Filed Oct 9, 2017 · Acceleration, Electrical · 117,500 miles · PA

Car alarms power steering display comes on, car shakes, won't shift gears, was looked at , comp said lost connection to tmc trans modular control. While in motion

Filed Oct 1, 2014 · Driver assistance, Electrical · KS

I have had problems with traction control light coming on and when it does the car won't shift properly (automatic), jumps and stutters and dies. Also lose power steering. This has been happening off and on ever since I got the car 5+ years ago. I have had it back to the dealership I bought it at (dodge dealer) at least twice who took it to a chevy dealer and have had it to local chevy dealers multiple times and no one can capture any codes or fix it. Now it thinks the key is in the ignition all the time and locks don't work properly even tho I had switch replaced on recall. Searched internet and see many others have had this same problem and some said it was ABS issue. Why has there been no recall?

Filed Jun 30, 2014 · Electrical, Steering · 120,000 miles · MI

Not sure exactly when it happened, but it has been occurring for years now. I have spent thousands of dollars in diagnostics, parts, and labor trying to fix the mystery problem! I'm fed up! It seems to happen randomly and fix itself randomly. Sometimes it lasts a couple days and sometimes longer than a couple weeks. The problem: my car will lose power steering, it starts shifting really hard and the gauges inside get all screwed. Occasionally when it happens it just won't shift at all. It will stay in first gear. The inside gauges: the speedometer will bounce all over the place, never staying still. The radio will also get loud and quiet by itself. The power locks would frantically go up and down themselves, until I took out the spark plug for those. It is very difficult to drive when the power steering goes out, not like cars that were built without it in the first place. The very hard shifting cannot be good for the car and is dangerous when I am driving during winter months or rainy weather. I live in michigan and it snows a lot. Even the chevy dealership can't tell me what is wrong and I have paid to have numerous parts replaced that have not fixed the problem. I've read other boards online with people having the same issue. I just cannot afford to keep paying to not get the problem fixed. I hate driving such an unreliable car with two young children, four years and 10 months. It happened multiple times when my little one was a newborn. Felt like I was giving the poor baby whiplash when the car switched gears. It's an automatic so there is nothing I can do about it.

Filed Dec 29, 2010 · Driver assistance, Electrical · IL

*please note...the incident date is approximate. We have a 2005 chevrolet cobalt sedan that was involved in the recall for the power steering motor intermittent power steering failure. We had never had a problem with the steering prior to the recall being performed. After the recall was performed, we began having trouble with intermittent power steering failure - plus additional failures. Upon start-up, we have experienced no power steering, and had to shut the vehicle off and retry numerous times before the power steering returns. In addition to loss of power steering, we have experienced the following electrical problems: traction control light illuminating random clicking of the brake safety interlock relay / actuator (without touching the brake). Check engine light transmission going into "limp mode"..."slamming" into gear when shifting from park - or improper shifting while driving. Random dash gauge failure random failures of the "driver's information center" - flashing, etc. This was initially happening only upon start-up...but started happening while driving as well - nearly leading to an accident while my wife was driving on a busy urban street. She was fortunately able to drift into the turn lane and come to a stop to avoid a collision and likely serious injury to herself and others, as it was virtually uncontrollable. In addition to the loss of power steering (while driving), the transmission also went into "limp mode", causing very hard shifting and much difficulty in drivability. This has also happened while I was driving the vehicle. I am 6'3", 260lbs., and I was struggling to control the vehicle. I have also been in contact with other cobalt owners with the exact same set of "symptoms". It is clear that the motor replacement was not sufficient to repair the problem, and - in some cases - may be leading to further problems as in our case. This vehicle is very dangerous!

Filed Feb 7, 2010 · Steering · 40,000 miles · OH

Powersteering cuts out for no real good reason. I believe it is a bad design. Motor not powerful enough or circuit breaker value too low. Its a !@#$% problem. There is nothing wrong with it. It happens every time you drive the car. There are thousands of complaints on the internet with the so called fix done 3 times with the same result. This isn't rocket science and it tempts you to just increase the available current. Gm deserves to go out of business for their careless handling of it. This car is a certified lemon with numerous problems that every one off the line has, just google it. My car has an evap error, bad unlock button on remote, pws error, cabin air quality sucks, like sucking on the tail pipe in front of you, transmission doesn't shift up properly, you have to have a feather touch to get it to shift up. Clicking sound on shifter every time you hit the brakes, key gets locked in steering , you have to move shifter and or hit brake to get it to release it. They need to get to the root of the steering problem so that when it is fixed it stays fixed. Insanity - using the same parts and expecting a different outcome. Being a electronics major I know this is a !@#$% error that is rooted in the design.

Filed Jun 18, 2009 · Steering, Suspension · 72,100 miles · PA

I own a 2005 chevrolet cobalt, and about a month ago I was driving down a country road when my "power steering" message was displayed on my dashboard stating it had shutoff. This then lead to my car trying to shut itself off in the middle of the road going 55 miles per hour. The gauges were flashing, radio was flashing, the car would not shift gears and was rocking back and forth, and I couldn't really steer the car. After I was able to get it under control and stopped and shutoff it seemed to reset the system and I had no problems until a few days ago. I was driving on a very busy interstate during rush hour while going about 80 miles per hour, and the situation happened again except I was nearly in a collision with semi truck trailers, it took all I had to get it off the road without hitting anything. This scared me to death. This time the system did not reset , but I was able to limp it to the chevy dealer near my apartment. Come to find out it was the :body control module" that was bad. It cost me $508 dollars to fix this one issue. Two weeks ago I had to take it in for a lower left front control arm bushing that was bad, and also the shifter solenoid was bad, and I had spent nearly $1100 for all of those safety issues as well.

Filed Jan 19, 2009 · Electrical · 87,000 miles · MO

Key locked in ignition - unable to remove. Car would start but was in limp mode.

Filed May 22, 2008 · Electrical · 70,000 miles · NY

Power steering light warning light comes on check engine light comes on, security anti theft light comes on all gauges fail, speed, gas,tack the car will run rough and stall car will not shift multiple computer error codes dealer replaced a computer component didn't fix problem. The car is unsafe to drive when problems occur.