Dr Mushi

For the past few months, I've been experiencing problems with the electronics on my 2.2L Ecotec 4.

Here is a timeline of the problems:

September, the CD player had trouble reading CDs, and gave an ERR message. So I turned off the car, started it up again, problem solved.

Periodic times from September -- December: Car would give "POWER STEERING" message, gauges would go haywire, then reset themselves. Problem solved, no action taken.

Sometime in October, I drove through a large puddle, which also soaked my circuits and brought up a "LOW ENGINE POWER" error message, which I believe may or may not be unconnected to the problem.

December 3rd, 2006: Returning home from Texas, car starts shifting awkwardly, without "POWER STEERING" warning. Turned car off in New Orleans, got lunch, waited 30 minutes, began to drive again, without problems, until later on December 3rd, within 30 minutes of home, the shift problems began again. All conditions where this problem has occurred has been cold, except for last night, when it was wet.

In January, the similar "POWER STEERING" problem continued, until finally, the actual Power Steering failed. The next day, I towed the car to the dealership, and had it worked on for three days. Afterward, the power steering issues were solved, but within minutes of driving the car back home, the shifting problems began anew. The day after that, I brought the car to my consultant at the dealership, and he drove it for fifteen miles or so without incident. Thus, I determined from my brother to clear the ECU and move on. This has worked for the last month, until now. Last night i had to drive through some terrible weather, including some high water, and of course the problems kicked in again. I have recently cleared the terminals again, and am preparing to try to drive the car.

Does anyone have some thoughts on what the problem might be?

I get the feeling that since there isn't an actual Power Steering problem, that this error message is creating a chain of errors that rears its head in the automatic transmission. Am I way off?

an0malous

first off...you dont say anywhere in your post that youve taken it to the dealership.

Surely if your having problems this frequent, for this length of time, you would have taken it in to be fixed???

Is your warranty gone or something?

Dr Mushi

When I took it in, they focused on the power steering issue, and only fixed that. I'd told them numerous times about the shifting problem, but they found nothing wrong, and so the problem continued unchanged, I guess. The next day I brought it back and had the consultant drive it with me in the car, and the errors never showed up. I'm thinking it might have something to do with the cold, or the circuits getting wet, but for now it seems to be a phantom problem.

YSUsteven

If it does this on a regular basis, once every 2 weeks maybe, ask for a data logging module that the dealer can hook up to the car. It sits in the cup holder. If you get messages on the DIC it will log the conditions that occed at that time.

Sunburst_SS

what did the dealership do to fix the powersteering problem??? I have seen numerous cobalts, malibu's anything with the new electronic p/s and I have replaced a few columns in those cars. The electonic gear in the column goes bad and causes the p/s issues...

Halfcent

You are having a problem with your ECM/TCM/wiring harness. It may be a tricky one to find. The ECM controls everything you just described. It controls your power steering, your limp mode (engine power reduced), your instrument cluster, and it is the master device to the slave TCM, which controls your trans.

I suspect the wiring harness because of the comments concerning weather. It sounds like a wire is getting contaminated and shorting/opening somewhere. You can check a few connectors yourself to look for obvious loose pins. There are 3 on the ECM, 1 on the TCM, 1 on the transmission, and 1 on the Power steering motor. There is also the one that passes through the firewall.

Troubleshooting electrical is real pain in the ass.

Dr Mushi

So I spoke to the dealership today, and as it turns out, it was the ECM/Wiring Harness. One of the wires was grounding out on some aluminum.

Halfcent

Boy, I better get some rep points for that one!

Dr Mushi

Kudos to you, man. You really called it.

Dr Mushi

The problem has returned, and may have gotten worse. I'm taking it back into the shop tomorrow. If it doesn't get better soon, I'm putting in for Lemon Law.

wbrault

sorry to bring this back to life. but i have having the same symptoms as this guy.

ding ding ding, power steering, instrument panel goes nuts. turn off.. wait a few.. goes away.. comes back in random times.

ever get this fixed and what was it?

thanks

Novajoe

as far as the shifting goes, I think there's a reflash that covers it.

there's also a reflash for the power steering problem. It seems there are times when not enough power is sent to the motor to help turn(setting the code), so it over-exerts the motor and causes premature failure. I don't know if this is your problem though. I also don't know what about this would make your guages go haywire.

wbrault

yea.. all the problems go away for awhile after a simple.. turn off, turn on.

all i know is it goes.. ding ding ding(like if you got low fuel) but shows POWER STEERING in the dash, all the gauges bounce around. car shifts hard. if your at a speed, id say 30mph things seem fine... when you start slowing down the engine starts like bogging.

i just been pulling over.. turning off.. sit a few mins, turn back on and its fine... so far its happen 3 times over a 1 week period. no check engine light or anything. also with todays spaz out.. radio showed LOCK

Novajoe

try taking your car to the dealer to have all the latest updates flashed in.

WopOnTour

I've seen similar intermittent errors and electrical gremlins when the underhood fuseblock is incorrectly seated/connected to the underside connectors.
Try this
Remove the lid to the fuseblock
Place both hands on the fuseblock placing the lower palms of your hands on the outer edges, and push down firmly with a few thrusts. (Using "resonable" force but not trying to break anything of course) If you hear any "clicks" or "snapping" sounds, you may just engage some of the bottom-side connections and rectify the problem yourself.
Wop

Dr Mushi

I got mine fixed when they changed out the BCM. Since then, not a single problem.

ItalianJoe1

iTrader: (10)

Thats some GM build quality for you right there.

InfinityzeN

Woop! Pride in the vehicles they build, they gotta get everything slightly off you know.

wbrault

I'll be taking my vehicle up this morning to have this checked out. I'm at 60k miles but I bought the extended warranty up to 100k. I was looking at that paperwork today and it seems it covers everything. It list 4 types of packages you can buy. I got the comprehensive package that covers all the groups.

i just hope they figure it out right away.

wbrault

so. i took my car to the dealership to get checked out this. they cant really get it to do it themsevles. they had the car 2 days and seen it happen once. the car had about a dozen codes. four of those codes were p codes and were all updates. they are fixed. however. the rest of the codes are U codes. and they cant determine the problem

anyways the issue is bigger now. they aren't sure if the extended warranty will cover it if its electrical. also they charge 50 dollars an hour for diagnostic. they said it could take them 1 hour to whatever. and dont think the warranty will cover it. also they said depending on the parts. the warranty place will only pay x amount of dollars for that part. so if the part or parts are bad. warranty only covers list price. so if my dealership charges say 50 dollars more for the part i have to pay the difference on top of my 100 dollar deductible.

kind of in a bind, don't have lots of money but need the car fixed. and i think its kinda of crazy that they cant determine it with in a few hours. they said last electrical problem they had on a car it took them 15 hours to figure out.

this extended warranty i bought from the dealership where i bought the car. i was told that it covers everything like the factory just extends it. only difference is the only thing i pay is 100 dollar deductible. apparently that isn't the case.

what i don't get is i took my car to this place a month ago to have a steering shaft fixed. only dime i paid was 100 dollars. looks like this dealership changed their tune for some reason.

any insite on U codes. i didn't write the numbers down. i should have.

wbrault

So this MOM and POP GM dealership can't find the problem yet. They don't want to honor the extended warranty my dealership sold. My dealership where I bought the car basically called it bad practice because they are losing money or something. So I am having the car towed a half hour away to the real dealership.

Problem is this mom and pop shop made the problem worse so I can't even drive the car. They blame it on the problem getting worse, my ass.

What a hassle. This dealership is just going broke thats all. They will no longer be getting cars because from what I understand. GM is starting a new thing where cars are paid for before they are dropped off. So this dealership only has 500k in cash and can't afford to do so. I guess they are going strictly service. Just a pain in the ass.

KEICH MOTORS in Tamaqua, PA

wbrault

so car is fixed. they tried swapping out the computer and still didnt work. and a few other things.

last option the guy told me was to remove the after market alarm/keyless entry thing i had installed. he was pretty sure at this point that this was the problem. agreed to remove it, cost 212 dollars to remove. and it seems car is fine. a strange thing is though the car feels way different but in a positive way. he doesn't believe any problems are permanent.

nice guy said that if there is a problem from it, not to worry about warranty they will still take care of it.

lookatSTEVEwithhisSS

im having these same problems driving 15+ and beep beep beep low fuel power steering and hay wire / dead cluster for alittle bit i've had the bcm replaced didn't work 1 week later i had to remove my aftermarket alarm / starter / radar because they blamed it on faulty wiring from my alarm now my car is sitting at the dealer while they try to figure it out

anyone else think its the cluster or a bad soder / wire??