Funny "fix" on a check engine light, and transmission slipping...

580 Views 9 Replies 9 Participants Last post by MIGHTY, 2 d ago

mrb1

Discussion Starter · 3 d ago (Edited)

I bought this 2008 Cobalt 2.2l auto from the original owner in 2013. Always well maintained by him, and then myself. Great little backup, winter beater, grocery/beer getter, or if someone needs a loaner for a few days. Runs like a little sewing machine, easy to work on, and parts are cheap. Keeps the miles and salt off the Silverado when it's not needed.

A month ago the CEL comes on. Did a scan and of course the only thing that shows up is the oxygen sensor. Trans starts to feel like it's slipping shortly after. Not wanting to put much money into it, did a check at "youtube university"

A known issue of a bad ground on the TCM, ECM or what ever M&M runs the car. Sends a "Power Steering" warning in the message center first, and the speedometer quits working. And will NOT go into third gear. New jumper ground wire from the computer to a clean solid ground on top of the shock tower....100% fixed. Still laughing over it. Went from possibly hundreds for a fix.. to a six pack 🍻

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floater99

· #2 · 3 d ago

Congrats nice work U tube has helped me a lot with repairs

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codger

· #3 · 2 d ago

That's certainly a cheaper fix than I would have suggested. I was going to suggest you jack up the radiator cap and roll a new car under it

. As a strong believer in DIY, YouTube has helped me on occasion.

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dculberson

· #4 · 2 d ago

Think the cobalt has it bad with the cheap fix at least it was a bargain car new. I had a 92 Lexus ls400 that was expensive when new and it started into some kind of limp home mode and wouldn’t go past second gear. I limped it home and did the GoogleU thing and found there are wires in the trunk lid (!!) that wear from repeated opening and closing. I patched in some longer wires and sure enough it was 100% fixed. How the trunk lid convinces the transmission to stick to second gear I’ll never know.

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mrb1

Discussion Starter · #5 · 2 d ago

Makes ya wonder how many unscrupulous repair shops when faced with the same kind of issues would charge hundreds for a repair that is literally zero.

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G.lock

· #6 · 2 d ago

That's the great thing about the Internet.
If your car is acting up, there are hundreds of thousands that have experienced the same thing.
I'm getting too old to be crawling under my cars but I always search the problem and it's cost before it goes to the shop. When a control board overloaded on my truck I searched and found that it was a common problem and even got a service update number. The dealer poo- pooed my explanation for the problem but then had to eat his words when I picked up my truck because I was 100% correct. He also was aware that I knew the dealer cost for the board and average labor.

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Rocknut

· #7 · 2 d ago

There are DIY grounding upgrade to certain models that suffer from similiar issues. Glad you figured it out versus throwing money at useless high dollar parts

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threeten

· #8 · 2 d ago

codger said:
I was going to suggest you jack up the radiator cap and roll a new car under it .

That was a favorite saying in the diesel shop I worked at through high school.

glad it was a easy fix. Poor/ bad ground wires can really cause some head scratching problems.

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UFM82

· #9 · 2 d ago

Mrb1, you don't want to know. I am in service and see misdiagnosed issues all the time. Sometimes to the tune of thousands of dollars. I've caught and corrected a couple jobs that would have been quoted at $50K+ had the tech simply proceeded as he thought. Upon getting some help and some education, those figures were dropped drastically. It's an
all about the tech you go to. Some are good. Some are terrible. But YOU don't know that usually.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

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MIGHTY

· #10 · 2 d ago

codger said:
That's certainly a cheaper fix than I would have suggested. I was going to suggest you jack up the radiator cap and roll a new car under it . As a strong believer in DIY, YouTube has helped me on occasion.

…….yes

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