cadman

Hi, I'm new to the forum and hope you all might be able to help me out.

We have a 2005 Cobalt LT, it is my wifes car. It has been a great little car, we bought it in July of 05, and in September/October time frame of 2005 we had a Viper 791 alarm installed. This had the remote start and the works. And no problems, the car and the alarm worked great until just recently.

Starting in April of this year (2007) my wife started to have problems. Here are the list of issues, the Traction Control light on the dash (T/C) would come on and she would lose power steering, the key would not come out of the ignition, there is 'clicking' from the shifter (the same sound you hear when you put your foot on the brake to shift out of park), the check engine light will come on, when the car will shift gears it chugs and jerks and each shift point, the speedometer will jump 5-10 MPH while driving along at a normal pace, and the brake light will flash every now and then.

These issues all happen very randomly, as an example, the car had been criving fine for 4 days, then out of nowhere the dash lights up and you get that 'ding' alert. This happen after the car had been on the road for 45 minutes with no problem, it happen while cruse was set at 60 MPH going down the highway.

I have taken it into the dealership twice, the first time they replaces the 'ignition switch'. The second time they could not find anything wrong but hooked the computer up and saw a bunch of 'communication errors'. They said this was most likely caused by the Viper Alarm. I have not yet had a chance to get the Viper removed, it was installed at Best Buy, and the same guy installed the same model Viper on my s-10 Truck.

Just looking for any help I can get, I have found people who have had the shifter issue, and different people with the power steering problems, and even more that have had the 'hard' shifts. But no one I have seen has had all of these issues at the same time.

They seem to come anc go all on their own, and it really has me stumped.

Any and all help would be great, I just went under the hood this pass weekend and verfied all of the fuses in the block where down and seated, many where not inserted all of the way in.

Also, we have stopped using the viper alarm, it has not bee armed or activated in 3 weeks now. We have been using the standard keyfob, and are still seeing the issues.

My next step is to get it into Best Buy and see if they can look at the Viper and make sure all is well there. Was just hoping for some other insight as well.

Thanks
Dan

Halfcent

It is not your alarm system. Don't have it removed.

There are two issues in there that I recognize. The trans shifter issue and the brake light issue. Both of those are the subject of separate TSB's The shifter TSB has to do with 2005 automatics, where the shifter itself actually breaks inside, and the assembly will need to be replaced. The brake light TSB requires a reflash of the gauge cluster, which will correct that problem.

Do not let the dealership tell you it's your alarm.

3fo893013L

my automatic car start does that. Stupid Security light comes on though and the car doesn't start for 10 minutes until you wait the time.

You cannot start the car without unlocking the doors, starting the car with auto start and relocking them. The light would come on if you didn't do it in sequence and lock the car from starting for 10 minutes.

BTW, this is for a 2005 Cobalt LT 4-Door Sedan.

cadman

Would this also cause the 'hard' shifting? and the T/C light and the lose of power steering?

Thanks
Dan

Halfcent

Fix one problem at a time. Deal with the issues separately.

OrngBalt

i have the viper 791 and never had this issue. i simply start it and go. it does not matter by order or anything else.

Don't know the hard shifting... except that in my car I have a Shiftplus which makes the car do this (desired effect). Ding's gauge flashing and loss of power steering soudns like electrical system failure. I had a rental car that did this. all of the sudden ding ding ding and I have no power steering no electric in my dash... it was a total electrical system meltdown.

BTW if your shift is broken inside it could be touching a lower gear which would disengage t/c or the light could just be part of the alarm when you lose power.

Halfcent

If I remember correctly, the shifter TSB has to do with the a switch inside the quadrant. The shift linkage itself is fine.

Coblasts

Iybwould check all those connections for the viper that the best buy did,from what I have seen is they just hack off the insulation and wrap the wires and tape them ,maybe with the heat some of the tape came off and you have short or loose connection.
They also tap into the communication wire for the pass key circut for the key bypass unit maybe that is where your problem is.
If the viper is in less than a year bring the car back to Best buy and have them prove its not the car starter or key bypass unit.

cadman

Thanks, Yeah taking the car into best buy and having them check the viper.. But as for the hack and wrap, I know for a fact the guy that installed it did it right with soldering the wires together, not just wrapping them. doesn't mean a wire hasn't come lose. but the install was done well.

GreenPurgatory

Sounds like you should get a reflash, or w/e they call it. Don't know about the shifting though, should definitely have the dealership check that out for you. Goodluck too, sounds pretty scarry what your going through, with the power steering and all.

cadman

yeah, hope to do something with it this weekend. Was out last night, had cruise set at 65 MPH going down the highway. cruise had been set for at least 5 minutes, all of a sudden 'ding ding ding' the cluster lights up like a Christmas tree and the T/C comes on and no power steering. I pop it into neutral, turn it off, started it back up and it cleared the instrument panel. But we still had 'Hard' shifts. and when I say 'hard', it's like the transmission is tiring to leave the car during shifting, it jumps and bucks then shifts and keeps going.