The electrical system on this car has been the bane of my existence it’s so touchy I am definitely doing this because I’m having the same issue thank you for this video I appreciate it bro
THIS REALLY WORKS.. my 2006 cobalt giving me a message check charging system my dash board. after I change my thermostat and wash my engine. I didn't realize that I mess with this fuseable wire connected to the starter and make it gunky. I sprayed it with electronic cleaner, wire Brush and sand paper the washer that it was shown. Then sprayed it again. But while doing it I recharged my battery, cause it drain out. No more annoying faulty message. Thanks to this guy..
Great information, just wish you had recorded the process of how this was done from start to finish. Would have been great to know which wires came off of where and where they reconnected, also what was use to get the corrosion off of the wires 🤦
Let me enlighten you to another electrical Cobalt Gremlin! The ground wire splice pack has about 6 different circuits grounded to one ring terminal that bolts onto the engine block !They corrode inside the crimp terminal and cause all sort of starting issues ! On the front of motor near the battery vent tube you will see it. I tore a cobalt completely apart tracing wires ,and it ended up being ground splice pack
I’ve got a 2010 Colbalt with this problem and more. Car overheated 3 months ago and hasn’t started since. Also as soon as I would turn key to start all my door locks would go crazy and the key would get stuck in the ignition and to put it in gear I had to remove the cup holder and push the gear lever on the left side of the gear shift to get it to go into drive (when it was running before overheating) and also had check engine light and got an error for power steering. So I then put a new battery, new starter and also made a ground for the PCM and cleaned every ground in the engine compartment and completely replaced 6 of the grounding wires running to the fuse box and just for shits and grins I cleaned up the wiring harnesses to the fuse box and replaced all the fuses and cleaned all the relays to remove corrosion. Ok well I just finished putting it all together and every problem I had is gone. The main thing I believe that helped is by putting a ground on the PCM. Just need a screw and bolt to run thru the top of the PCM (hole is already there) with car wire and a wire connector that fits snugly on the bolt and then at the other end of the wire another connector to be grounded onto a good grounding spot (can put with another ground u find in the car also but don’t ground it to the fuse box post cause that wouldn’t be a good thing. Just make sure the battery is disconnected before doing this). I hope this helps.
Thanks for the video I forgot to take pictures or notes on how the wires work. Now I know the power and alternator wire go to the same contact and the small wire into the small bolt thanks 👌
I recently purchased an 07 cobalt myself with this same issue hopefully when i pull it in and look at it thats all the issue will be newish car for 180 bucks....keep you posted
Auto body phosphoric acid works great for cleaning electrical contact corrosion especially inside of plugs where you cant get a wire brush or sand paper.
I was crossing from Fort Lauderdale to Lucaya in the Bahamas during the tail of Hurricane Frederick. We were getting battered, full reef in main and jib, everybody but the skipper and mate is puking. Tried to go motor and main for stability but the Perkins diesel wouldn't fire. I was the onboard wrench, was sent into the battery room with Kiss Me Kate, a Phd student from Ohio. We scraped all the battery terminals( >12) with a steak knife and Crescent wrench, stopping to puke when needed in the bilge. Yelled up to helm, diesel started. Always keep your cables clean, should have married Kate.
@@reviewsandhow-to49 I am going to try this, as of yesterday I felt something out place with the way the car starts. It starts fine, turns over fine, but seems weird feeling during the ignition start. . We did have allot of rain out here recently too, so just in case it's not the Ignition coils (seems to be hitting all four cylinders), I am going under to check the Electrical just in case. No Engine light so I am thinking this could be an issue and the starter still good.
I'm going to get have to try this. Lately mine is not starting suddenly. Jump it and it runs again. It seems like this is more than likely the issue, since it's not happening consistently. Thanx for posting this!
My car is starting slow I just went to parts store bought a new battery terminal spliced it in it seems to be better but it's still a little slow starting it definitely isn't having flywheel engagement problems it's just slow starting
Your first picture showing corrosion on the metal end attached to the big wire and had a lot of corrosion in the actual wire its self as indicated by the green color of the end of the wire at 1.42 - 2.00. When you showed your cleaned metal end attached to the big wire, the actual wire the end was also clean of corrosion at 3.25 - 3.27. How did you get the corrosion out of the actual wire it's self that the metal end you cleaned was attached to?
I'll try this...Funny how I took my car to a Chevy dealership and the idiot's told me it may be a 790 dollar job for some BS part and labor and they are not sure if that will fix my issue. I'll let you guys know what happens tomorrow...I'll be taking a new battery and hauling it out of the dealership myself.
Hey everybody I just want to know I watch this video pretty cool cuz it made me think of some stuff but also before anyting check the relay fuse because that's what was wrong with mine all the sudden I was losing power the power engine or power steering light came on and sure enough it was a relay fused a good video
Talking from experience! That car will drive well over 200k miles! It will need all the timing components at arround 150k miles, flush all the brake fluid, undercoat the car with a 50/50 mixture of deisel fuel & Bar & Chain oil & fly down a dirt road! Repeat yearly or take it to a expensive undercoating place, I know there is 1 good one in N.Y. they use a clear system. My 2007 Pontiac G5 2.2ltr just hit 207, 050 miles in the rust belt.
Thank you so much for the video! I have had the same issue. I have been through 4 different starters. Only paid for the first one thankfully. The starter on it now is an ac delco. I went ahead and did the same thing you did in the video. Have you had any further problems with the car? Thanks again for the video.
A fuse is out. I had a similar problem yesterday, my 2010 Chevy cobalt, would not crank. When I turn the key the radio and air would come on but it would not turn over. I had to get my car towed. But luckily my insurance paid for that and it was only a fuse ended up only costing me roughly $20. Hope this helps
I have a 2005 chevy cobalt 2.2l. I cleaned the battery terminals, starter cables, and the grounds. The car won't crank, the check engine light is on. The car has a new battery, alternator, and starter. I tried seeing if i could get any codes but it says No codes in the ECU. Any idea?
I have a 2009 Chevy cobalt and I’m was having some issues with water in the trunk Unbeknownst to me. I had to replace the ECM because a connection was bad By the fuse next to the battery; because of corrosion. after I replace the ECM/PCM the car now cranks but does not start it was doing this for a while so I called a mechanic friend and he was able to start it with starter fluid so he told me to buy a new fuel pump, so I bought a new fuel pump on his word and replaced it but it still is doing the same thing do you think this could be the same problem? it’s pulling a bunch of random codes Most of them are about sensors and one of them talks about the crankshaft position sensor actuator something or other I can send codes if you think it will help but if not this then do you know if you have to program ECM/PCM to the new car? I bought the ECM used and I’m wondering if it has to be programmed to my car by the dealership I did the security key 30 minute thing with the new ECM already but I’m at my Wits end please help
I have a 06 colbalt. When the weather is colder outside. Below 70s the car will not start and run. The ldash message will say. Engine low power. Then it will say engine disabled. And the car won't start so all winter I have no car. I've replaced pcm. The battery. And a temp. Sensor. Nothing. It's getting too be fall again iam disabled and will soon have no car again ..and ideas or suggestions out there?????????
I had something similar after leaving my 07 cobalt in the winter without using it, aperently having it sit there is bad for it, I had to Jumpstart it to get it on, and it had that low power thing, we just had to drive it for a few minutes, and get the car to around 40mph and give it some throttle, the low power message went away and never came back, I think something got clogged because of the car sitting all most of fall and winter without starting it up. Hopes this helps.
@@santiagoedwin715 thankx. The problem is so bad the car won't even start if weather gets 50 or60 degrees. And won't be able too get it too start till it warms up too mid 70s. And I keep having too turn key. Pull key out .put it back in I'll do this over and over again. Then once it start rev engine up. Once the radiator heats up too 180 then car will stay running. It's truelly a pain. Thankx for info I'll try your suggestion.
Oh my car does the thing with the key too, it won't come out until I put it in neutral then park then it comes out haha, the car is a pain but for a first car it's not too bad. Good luck!
Hi good info, I got car not running. Cranks slowly like motor dragging, also cooling fan runs continuously, checked relays, with others. But when I unplug ECM fan stops running... any ideas? Thanks for your info...
Hi there, our 2009 Cobalt suddenly would not crank or start. For unknown reason, computer no longer recognized key so antitheft enabled. After towing car home, i found another video on how to have they key car code reset with car computer. It worked. I just left key in ON position for about 8 minutes and it reset and engine was able to restart. The BIG QUESTION IS, why did the computer suddenly forget the key code? Will this happen again? Is There another underlying problem? We are afraid to travel far. So far after 4 days its still restarting.
Steve Oliver I'm guessing because of bad electrical connections like shown in the video. One bump may ruin the connection and so your key loses its synchronization to the car so once you turn it off and try to restart it doesn't recognize the key so that's maybe why you had to do that.
I did this very thing on mine today. The wind was blowing like hell. When I buttoned it up I went to connect the battery and the car tried to start soon as it made contact. Starter kept winding non stop. So I'm feeling stupid hahaha .hmmmm
Yup dealing with this type of issue right now with the tcm and giving me a check engine light and T/C light and also low power and hard shifts. I think its the ground wire but not sure. Trying to get mechanic to fix this week.
There's a fuel leak recall for Cobalt's 2008 - 2009. When you smell gasoline it's possible it can be the fuel pump. I have a cobalt ss 2006 and they replaced my gas tank, fuel pump, fuel filter & fuel filler hose neck and some other stuff. It was a $2000 dollar job and it was all done for free. At first they gave me a hard time because my VIN didn't come up in the recall. But I fought it and said it was the same gas smell the other later models were experiencing. I also believe all Cobalts are under a thing called "Special Charge" at the dealership so they have to look at it and replace anything that's related to a gas smell, which is part of the recall. The smell of gasoline can be very dangerous and they know this. I dropped a few links for you; www.arfc.org/autos/chevrolet/cobalt/recalls/000049253000284658000000152/recall.aspx www.arfc.org/autos/chevrolet/cobalt/recalls.aspx www.thecarconnection.com/news/1128764_more-than-600-000-chevy-cobalt-and-hhr-models-investigated-for-fuel-leaks gmauthority.com/blog/2020/07/chevrolet-hhr-and-cobalt-investigated-over-fuel-leak-concerns/ www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2012/09/29/general-motors-recall/1602747/
Hey, we tried this and when we reconnected the contacts and connected the battery the starter kept activating when we didn't have key in ignition. Any thoughts on what we did wrong?
My cobalt ss for some reason wont crank but if I take the key out and try cranking again and again then eventually it cranks and starts.. wth is going on
What did you use to clean the wires ? I just bought this same car and im having some issues with my starter as well. I was going to buy one but i just wanted to see if there were alternatives before i did
Get a wire brush attachment bit for your drill. Hold the drill at a slight angle and lightly go over it. Brushes the corrosion right off leaving clean bare metal. Works good on paint too if you need a new ground.
