oh noez!!! cheby cobalt FAIL.........
 

http://www.click2houston.com/news/22685627/detail.html

Cobalt Power Steering Investigation
By Amy Davis

POSTED: Friday, February 26, 2010
UPDATED: 10:00 pm CST February 26, 2010

HOUSTON -- Local 2 Investigates power steering problems in a popular American-made car.

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FIND IT: Read Complaints Filed With NHTSA
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FIND IT: File Complaint With NHTSA
While Congress is calling special sessions to get to the bottom of serious issues with Toyota vehicles, some drivers want to know why General Motors is not getting as much heat for the growing number of complaints about one if its popular vehicles.

KPRC Local 2 investigative reporter Amy Davis explains the problem and uncovers at least one death that may have been caused by the malfunction two years ago.

"Hi. I'm Will Mattern. I live in The Woodlands, Texas," said Will Mattern, in his video posted on YouTube. "This is my son's car. It's a Chevrolet Cobalt."

Mattern took his story to YouTube when, he says, General Motors wouldn't help when he told them his son's car began losing power steering intermittently while he was driving.

Cara Jones of Pasadena called us with the same complaint.

"I couldn't steer my car," Jones told Davis.

Both say the power steering on their Chevrolet Cobalts started failing abruptly and without explanation.

"Then when I called GM, they acted like they hadn't ever heard of the problem before," Mattern told Davis.

It was seven months ago when Mattern took a video camera and took his story to the Internet.

"There's one thing you can do that can make a difference," Mattern says to his online audience. "You can call the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration at 888-327-4236."

When Mattern first called the government agency that investigates vehicle safety defects, he says it told him the agency had only received six or seven similar complaints.

By late January, the NHTSA began a preliminary evaluation when it said the number of complaints jumped to 1,132, with 11 accidents reported when drivers said they lost control of their car when the power steering failed.

GM sent us a statement that reads, in part, "GM has been cooperating with the NHTSA in its investigation of the issue. If a loss of power steering assist should occur, a 'power steering' message is displayed in the driver information center and a chime sounds to inform the driver. At highway speeds, there will be little change in the effort required to steer the vehicle. At lower speeds, the effort required to steer the vehicle may increase, but the vehicle will still be controllable."

"You could be in the middle of a turn," said Mattern, in response to GM's statement. "You could be on the freeway. You could be trying to make an emergency maneuver. And if it happens at that second, you're going to be in big trouble."

"I weigh 100 pounds," said Jones. "I can not steer the vehicle. It takes everything in me just to try to move it just a little bit."

Local 2 Investigates uncovered similar complaints in the NHTSA's own records posted on online.

In November 2007, one driver said they spun out of control and into a tree. In February 2008, another driver said they lost control, the vehicle went airborne, struck a guardrail and dropped four feet from the interstate.

The most disturbing entry is a "steering" complaint. It reads, on "June 13, 2008, a driver was driving approx. 55 mph when the vehicle veered off the road into the opposite lane where it was struck by another vehicle. The driver was killed as a result of the crash."

The problem centers around the Cobalt's electric power steering system, installed in every Cobalt made from 2005 to 2009. The NHTSA estimates there are about 905,000 vehicles. The majority of these complaints reveal the problems don't start until the Cobalt has about 30,000 to 40,000 miles.

Repairs cost Mattern about $1,000.

Jones wants a recall, but all Mattern asked GM to do was alert owners.

"I asked them to send out postcards, just warning postcards to every parent letting them know of the possible situation of loss of steering," explained Mattern.

"For Chevy to know that this is a problem, and there's so many complaints, you know, what are they waiting for?" asked Jones.

GM tells us it is very close to concluding its investigation. The NHTSA has asked the car maker to respond to its inquiries and requests for records by March 26.

The NHTSA says the one death we found in its records wasn't reported until after it released the summary of complaints and injuries. To date, the NHTSA has received at least 1,861 complaints regarding the power steering failures in Chevrolet Cobalts.

If you would like to file a complaint, you can call the NHTSA at (888) 327-4236 or fill out a complaint form online.

You can search complaints already filed on the NHTSA's Web site.

GM plans to stop making the Chevrolet Cobalt at the end of 2010.

Obama! Come quick, your new auto manufacturer is having a problem!!!!

I can not wait to get the new car to get here, makes me hate gm even more

Imagine how'd they would feel driving a car without power steering at all at all times :lol:

The cobalt is a crappy car, really it is.

OMG, I lost my power assist steering.....however will I drove with one hand while holding a cell phone to my head now?

Fore arm strength for the win!! Dont ask me how i got it.
Toyotas cant stop, Cobalts cant steer, Next thing you know Hondas wont start...What to buy?

The supercharged one is supposed to be a good car, but if it's anything like the base model I drive, it will have torque steer from Hell, even when just passing someone.

It does.

no surprise there. I prefer no power steering honestly. helps keep your arms strong, and its one less system to worry about.

if you cant operate a car with a manual rack your weak ass should not be driving. at least once a week i get sent to look at cars that have "stuck" e-brakes. :rolleyes:

Especially on a small ass car like a cobalt!

Now if you're driving a Mac truck at slow speeds and have issues, I'll cut you a little slack. As long as you are a 13 y/o girl :lol:

hell, I've driven all kinds of shit with no power steering. its good for ya. muscle building opportunities.

my nsx doesnt even have an assist rack fer godsakes

Umm...I skimmed through the article but did it mention that the electric steering in the Cobalt is from the same manufacturer as the Corrolla?

Same hardware...

So does lifting weights. :lol


This has been going on (or at least I've heard about it) for years now. However, over 35mph even w/o steering assist, you can still steer the vehicle.

People are looking for a free lunch, but GM should pony and fix the issue.

The steering wheel size is offset for vehicles w/o power steering.

Autos did.

they all did after 93'

I agree with most of you that it's a pretty poor excuse for an accident and I agree that GM should go ahead and fix the problem.

The original Mini had no power steering, a tiny steering wheel, and the majority of its weight on the front. Its total weight was only ~1,500 lbs and had 145 width tires though.

No problem. He'll just find something wrong with Honda to divert the attention from Government Motors. I'm sure there's a faulty cupholder somewhere.

I had a 1986 Chevrolet Celebrity. Broken door handle (comes standard on Chevys) and power steering fail. Plus many other fails.

Power Steering had gone on a MX-6 I used to own.
Being a poor young-in that I was...drove it around (daily commute between work , school, hanging out) for 2 months until I could get around to fixing it.

Biggest reason the Cobalt fails is that at that price point, it should lure in tons of young buyers in their teens and 20's, but the interior is too boring for most of them. At least when you compare it to something like a Mazda 3.

The Cobalt looks like it was styled to be as non-offensive as possible, to make sure senior citizens would still drive it. Too bad they usually don't drive that class of vehicle anyway. Marketing fail.

No shit dude

http://www.automedia.com/NewCarBuyer...balt_int_8.jpg

My uncle had one, mind you he had a stage 3 supercharger kit on it. It was fast, handled well in smooth, tight turns, but rougher than a rodeo bull.

I used to race dirt oval cars with no PS, sometimes PS, and suddenly no PS. 2 brakes, 3 brakes, 4 brakes. Once i had an engine mount break mid race, the engine would rock under the torque of acceleration keeping the throttle hung open. I just pushed in the clutch, the engine dropped back in place and the throttle magically 'un stuck'. I drove 10 laps that way...

I think better driver training is needed for all these pussy drivers out there...

Ha. Mechanical systems FTMFW.

Fly-by-wire? Die by wire.

Electric power steering. Who coulda guessed that'd be a bad idea, huh?

Agreed on all counts.

'cept fly by wire is the direction all sportbikes are eventually going...

Reminds me of pontiac sunfire.....think its the same chassis. Rear end kept kicking out over bumpy turns. Just a solid beam axle basically.

For the record, my first car was a fully manual '70 Chevelle Malibu [zero-option stripper, orig with 307, and a 'glide]. The 'glide was DOA, so the build was on.

I assembled it (on a kid's budget, mostly used parts) to have:

Manual steering [with a 14" Grant wheel, no less!], Hurst Competition Plus shifted M-20 Muncie w/low 1st gear [yes, I cut a hole in the floor, and hung pedals], and fully manual brakes [gasp! DRUMS all corners!]. The mechanical secondary Holley quad 650 [on a single plane Edelbrock intake] had a huge fucking return spring on it too, as did the 3800Lb. clutch. Stock open 10 bolt [held up for a while in the back, was later replaced with a 12 bolt], a solid cam [sic], and some Blackjack headers, and the little 307 smallblock woke up nicely. The stock 2-bolt cast bottom end held up to everything, even though the powerband [with the solid stick and single plane] was high as balls, and the motor routinely saw 7000 RPMs as a result.

The thing was a fucking animal to drive.

I got to the point that I could actually drive that car, and eat a cheeseburger, fries, and a Coke...but I wouldn't recommend it.

Once you learn to drive on that shit, though, anything else is cake. Thus I can say that I agree driver training could be a lot better - clearly not everyone should learn like I did, but evidently training helps. I would say I feel more prepared than most behind the wheel based on emergency driving situations I've experienced since, I feel, by my "training" in a challenging car.

How challenging was this thing [my first car] to drive?

Not ONCE in the 5 years or so that I had that fucking beast, did I ever have it successfully valet parked, and I used to drive to NYC often (LOL!). I got to walk around in a lot of NYC parking garages with the attendant as my guide. I used to try and park on the street as much as possible, as a result. Not like anyone could drive it to steal it...lol.

It didn't even have a security system (if they existed back then, I couldn't have afforded it).

And to their credit they dont seem to be suffering any big setbacks. I remembered how shocked and appalled I was when I first heard of Yamaha's Fly by wire throttle. I was having issues with my Chevy T blazers linear potentiometer throttle at tha time.

More like all vehicles.

Just curious, what was the point of having manual steering on a car that size? Sure, power steering robs a little power, but I can't see it being a noticeable amount on a car like that.

18 year old kid, limited funds. I started with a 307 Malibu stripper. If it didn't make the car go faster, it came off the car. The car came with no power anything, and I clearly made it worse (in terms of effort to operate)...but just a wee tad faster.

There's a difference between a non power gear box and a power gear box that lost pressure.

When power steering goes out you're manually pushing fluid back and forth, so yes it does get stiff unlike just a regular old gear box like whats on my vehicle that has no pressure or anything to fight against other than friction.

This is definitely true, and I was gonna bring it up if no one else did...but I will say this much about that:

I still argue that if you HAVE driven a manual steering car, you are still more likely to wrench it hard for control if the assist goes out. How do I know this? How do I know that an assisted steering that goes out is even harder than a plain manual? I've lost power in an assisted car before (my next Chevelle had PS)...but I'm still here, and I could still steer when it went down. It was just hard as balls, but I kept my composure, and pulled my ass off the seat turning the bitch, but it turned.

I guess if you never tried steering a car with no assist, you might just assume total failure, and not pull for your life. Recently, a fucking CHP cop died in his "out-of-control accelerating Lexus [Toyota]". The guy had time to call it in on his cell phone, but apparently couldn't stop the fucking car. I'm sorry but, WTF? We don't even teach cops how to drive now?

^ that guy died because he was too stupid to put it into neutral.

OR, he could have brought the car to a stop using the brakes, had he tried hard enough. Pretty much any modern car is capable of doing so, even if the gas pedal is stuck to the ground.

that guy wanted to die. Period. That test c&d did proves he didnt make any serious attempt to stop that car

So the used market will have one more buyer...

Yikes. Bikes that wont stop.

please, we have kill switches

and that nifty lever on the left bar, whats it again? oh right. a clutch lever! helps with prevention of acceleration.

www.youtube.com Search "bike wrecks."

Maybe I should have specified OEMs who actually know how to properly engineer something. My bad. :lol

Detroit has proven itself incapable of engineering a car with the steering feel and precision (not to mention the fantastic overall handling) of the original Mini. Maybe if they could they would have a car continually in production with virtually no changes for 40+ years.:lol:

yes, im sure the 1k vids of some douchnozzle wearing only shorts looping his gixxer were due to a "stuck throttle"

Its official recall March 2
 

CNN has the story, 1.3 million Cobalt and Pontiac G5s with steering issues...

so when are they gonna make obama apologise to congress for his company's failures? he bettered have tears

Moron.

Watch it with the name calling.

Sorry, allow me to rephrase: His comment was unnecessary, and meant to incite.

I like how GM's recall was conveniently announced right after the Chile earthquake, so that it gets buried in the headlines.

:scratch:

If you think THAT was unnecessary and meant to incite, then so is almost every post on this board.

What the motherfucking hell does Obama have to do with the Cobalt recall?

Really? I know there's a lot of crosstalk here. Some of it is so fucking stupid, it's hard not to point out, I guess.

You remember the bailout where GM took all the money from the govt?

Yeah, so now it is jokingly called "Government Motors" and Obama (being that he is head of the govt) is the head of it.

:lol: So you're claiming that they waited on purpose for a huge disaster to announce it ? :skep:

So what did Toyota wait for...several deaths and injuries ? Oh and that $100 million savings ?

Yeah, I got that. Still, this has exactly shit to do with him. Troll failure by Dave.

Because of the government's bailout.

Also because of how they took Toyota to task. Appearances before a Congressional hearing? Really? If I was Toyota's CEO I would have said go F yourself, I ain't flying over there just for some ghey hearing.

What's next, are they going to hold a hearing to "investigate" Tiger Woods' adultery?

That's a definite possibility unfortunately.

Of course not...he and the prez are tight.

eh, it got you yelled at. I'm still gonna file that one in the win folder.

Looks like it was a success actually, it got YOU going.

:lol:

It was worth a try :lol:

:lol: :cheers: I mean I have no proof otherwise but I was thinking wtf ? :rofl:

hardly a challenge

Hehe, dis thread got all ugly and shit...LOL

See? I told you that I wasn't necessary for things to get nasty around here!:lol: I'm just glad that I'm not the target!:rockwoot:

How? I just dismissed him as a moron. :idk:

Not since the steering went out in his GM vehicle.

Once again I repeat my earlier post...What do you buy? Who do you trust?? Is any OEM recall proof? Is it now a question of how they perform their recalls and stand behind their product?

Hey he's smarter than I am! I was in that exact situation, I gave my opinion, got called an a-hole for it and instead of just laughing it off like Dave did, I retaliated and was moderated. Heck, I'm taking lessons from him from now on. If I had played it his way, Tracy would be in moderation and I would be the one laughing...

Doh !! Good one !! :rofl:

hey, he calls me stupid and then fails to get a joke everyone else got. ill let you guys do the math :lol:

Yeah no kidding. I just buy what I want and trust for my $$. He11 I just bought a brand new vehicle two weeks ago and if I went just by ratings I would have never bought it...it's one of the worst evidently. :lol:

I bought a 2010 Jeep Liberty 4x4. My 99 Jeep Cherokee 4x4 that I traded in had 152k miles and I loved the thing but I would have never bought it if I just went by a few published ratings.

I didn't care for the 03'-07' Liberty's that replaced teh old Cherokee Classic...too much like a chic vehicle imho but I like the redesigned Liberty.

The Liberty is actually a solid off roader. Compared to the GC. Considering the state of the Wrangler nowadays the Liberty seems like a more attractive option if you need off road capabilty in you daily driver.
I hated the Liberty when it first came out. I much prefered the Cherokee classic especially in 2dr \I6\5spd form and the Liberty just seemed like a bloated attempt to attract certain demographics to the brand. However, I'm a little behind the times. I still call them trucks and threw a hissy back in the 90's when marketing teams started pushing SUV label on the market.

Now that a few years have past, I actually like the old liberty vs the new one.
Sightlines seem better. However that could just be me as a "I don't own one but I see em on the road" type.

I wouldn't buy one though. You'd have to be a moron to buy one of those hunks a shit..

I agree with "most" of what you say here. I do like the new Liberty better though.


Oh and as far as your last sentence :fu2:...Avatard. :lol:

*Disclaimer* If that was directed at the 03' - 07' Liberty then please disregard but if directed at me...here's another...:fu2: :lol

when you say gc you mean the new ones right? My old zj is a pretty decent offroader, not as good as my ramcharger was but hell, what is?

Grand Cherokee meaning the 2005+ version

I "got" it. It wasn't funny, it was stupid, and irrelevant, and meant to incite.

gotcha, my folks have one of those. I dont think they've tried offroading it yet

it was hilarious. Your sense of humor sucks, just like your online personality :P

Talk more. It's always funny...but never for the reasons you think

:lmao:

boy, this thread turned into a :lol: fest

Push me, shove you, oh yeah, says who?

You know what? Regardless of how bad I was in the past, it still had to be acknowledged that I at least posted a few motorcycle related posts now and again. It seems that some people here only post arguments on religion and politics...:idk:

rex harrison?

Did you see my new dirt bike?

http://www.twowheelfix.com/showthrea...t=13358&page=5

Perhaps you were talking about someone else.

Without a common love of two wheelers where would we be? When I used to race you saw everyone from green haired punks, pimple faced kids, grey headed white collar types, hard ass tattoo brothers, even bible thumping evangelists. We all put on our leathers, saddled up and went balls out for a chromed plastic trophy, but back in the pits we shared water, laughed, helped wrench on each others bikes, and never

Even thought about calling each other out on lifestyle or creedo...

Perhaps...

Yea well that was then and this is now, pops....:lol: Don't get me wrong, I loved to argue on here as well, but I don't remember telling anyone that they were "morons" or "sheep" for believing what they did. I'd put up a ridiculously adamant defense for what I believed in though...:lol:

Agree 100%.
However, very few people on forums are ever face to face. Completely changes attitudes, IMO.

Truth man! Eye to eye makes a difference, tho it shouldnt really.

back on topic, Nissan announces truck and mini van recalls today. It is the new face of manufacturer accountability. Your simply not 'IN' unless you have an embarrassing piece of engineering to flaunt...

There are recalls all the time. Mostly they fly under the radar since only those affected really care. Because the media lacks any real imagination and they smell blood in the water with Toyota's issues they are circling any similar story like sharks. In another 3 months they will realize recalls that don't result in fiery deaths make for boring stories and drop the issue.

Actually I'm glad they're covering Nissan and Ford. Maybe it will force the public to finally wake up and realize that recalls are an everyday thing, and that Toyota isn't special.

Well hopefully BEFORE they totally destroy what little consumer confidence there is left...

You have little clue what you are talking about. My Malibu has 3times better steering feel then a Mini will ever have.

The reason electric P/S is used is for better fuel economy. And an upside as well is that you can control the steering assist in a non-linear fashion based upon vehicle speed and braking inputs. You simply cannot do that with conventional p/s.

I can guarentee that GM did not "wait" for a disaster to put out a recall. This was in the works for years. Knowing how most car companies operate, they wait until the government gets involved and forces them to recall something or force a recall themselves if the cost to replace X number of units in the field later on will be too excessive.