2009 Chevy Cobalt LS Coupe XFE

[Fr3AkAzOiD]

When coming home at night (usualy around 9:30pm) in my neighborhood I take a 90 degree turn from one street to another at about 15 mph and while I have to use both hands I'm easily able to take the 90 degree turn and I'm a 130 lb weakling.

You should only have to turn the key back one possition while it's running, wait a sec for the engine to stop and then move one click forward. If you move the key past that one click you turn the starter. Not I've EOCed in a '94 Chrysler LHS (same as Concord/New Yorker) and that is a big car and I was able to turn the wheel although a bit heavy.

I would simply double check, you need to be able to turn the wheel with the engine off. What if you ran out of gas going down a mountain? You would just fly over the edge.

And with the power brakes, even without the power I have enough to hold the car at a light on an incline even after I exhausted my 1 or 2 stop braking reserve.

[Jammer]

Thanks gang!

Guess what?

I got it to work here on the little street in front of my house, FINALLY! I must admit once the car slows down to less than 5mph the steering is very hard, but not impossible to operate. I think I now know what the problem was, but I'm not sure. I do know that my former mistake was NOT leaving the key in the "off" position- I did the same thing with the key every time I tried this.

I have a cb radio, GPS, radar detector, cell phone charger and all of those wires are tucked and hidden the best I can do. This means I have a remote radar detector wire wrapped around the steering column several times to take up the slack. I may very well be barking up the wrong tree here, I do not know that this makes any more sense. But, when I un-wrapped my remote radar detector wire (Like I am worried about a ticket!! haha) from the steering column and moved the steering wheel up a notched things worked fine after that. I have to wonder if somehow I had a wire jammed into the column in a way that could of been very dangerous for me if I lost power at high speeds. My brakes worked fine AND my steering worked fine too, except the slower I moved the harder it was to steer, but I did manage to pull into my driveway without the engine running and park it.

It is now after dark, so one of the things I made sure of was that my LIGHTS were in the always ON setting because I did not know how turning the engine off would effect my lights.

So, all worked fine this time.

Thanks for the help!

Man I feel better knowing my car is not broke. I still may be wrong as to what happen on my first two attempts, and I do think it's a little bit dangerous, but if I can safely drive my car and manage to bump the MPG to over 50 then it's worth it for me!

[cfg83]

Jammer -

Originally Posted by Jammer

Thanks gang!

Guess what?

...

It is now after dark, so one of the things I made sure of was that my LIGHTS were in the always ON setting because I did not know how turning the engine off would effect my lights.
So, all worked fine this time.

Thanks for the help!

Man I feel better knowing my car is not broke. I still may be wrong as to what happen on my first two attempts, and I do think it's a little bit dangerous, but if I can safely drive my car and manage to bump the MPG to over 50 then it's worth it for me!

I'm glad you did this test because some people lose their lights when they turn off the ignition.



CarloSW2

[Fr3AkAzOiD]

I'm glad you were able to diagnose and correct the problem in a safe enviroment.

[Jammer]

Yeah, it's one of those things that makes ya feel real dumb when you find out what you did to yourself. haha- I never thought twice about this long wire I had wrapped around my steering wheel column, it had somehow found it's way inside the column so it made it very difficult to even adjust the steering wheel. Now even my POWER steering works easier!! Shesh I feel like the guy that cut off his nose to spite his face.

I figure the issue with the brakes was in my head. I had a serious accident last July because of my brakes going out in my 2005 Chevy Colorado and it ended up missing a curve. I can remember the truck bouncing back on the rode after hitting a hillside and having my glasses thrown off so I was then blinded, and the truck flipped maybe 5 or 6 times before it stopped rolling. I believe when I first tested my car with the motor turned off in neutral that my steering was jammed just enough by that wire and then my panic lead to a flash back of my last and only wreck of my life. I know that sounds like a pretty tall story, but it's really what happen.

I'm certain in my previous tests of the Cobalt that I had the key in the ON position because my entire dashboard was lit up showing my speed and everything except ,my RPM was 0. Now that I got that dang wire relocated the steering works much better all the way around, I feel like an idiot. But, as they say, it's better to live and learn by trial and error than to never learn at all.

[Jammer]

Oh, I thought I should mention one other thing before this thread comes to an end. I think it's important that people with stick shifts that drive EOC know how to start their cars back up just by matching their gear with a speed and going from neutral to gear to restart their cars when they slow down too much. I find the best gears are often 4th and 3rd on my 5 speed, depending on my speed I wish to restart at during EOC. On my Cobalt XFE if I use the ignition switch to restart my car after going EOC it normally will cause all of the lights, headlights and all, to "blink" off/on even though the switch is turned ON always for the lights- this may draw attention to one and the police might not approve of drivers going EOC, so I think it's important that driver's with manual transmissions start their cars back with a bump start by simply syncing the speed with the right gear before it's moving too slow and using the clutch to start the car the old fashion way- at least in the case of my car the lights remain ON when I restart my car with a so called bump start, but my lights turn off/on whenever I use the key to restart.

It's really surprising how smooth one can drive EOC with practice.

[cfg83]

Jammer -

I almost always use my top gear, 5th gear. I even used it at 15 MPH today, which is rare, because I almost never bump start below 20 MPH. I am pretty sure my lights don't flash on/off, because no one has mentioned this before on my S-Series Saturn.

EDIT: Saw your post in the bump-start thread. Interesting differences.

CarloSW2

[Jammer]

Good point.

I just got back in from trying the bump method as described in in the forums here and it went pretty well. So, I can not argue with shifting to the higher gear. It works fairly well at most speeds, but for whatever reason it still seems like certain speeds give me less of a "bump" at 4th gear. And at least once my engine stalled going into 5th gear, but I was going VERY slow when I did it- the RPMs were too low and it stalled before I could shift to Neutral. I'm still sorting this EOC thing out and practicing the method. At least it's going better now that when I first tried it.

Oh, without a doubt my lights flash when I restart using THE KEY- NOT when bump-starting.

[MadisonMPG]

Glad to hear it was human error.

[Old School Chevy]

"cash for clunkered" my 96 Chevy Lumina LS (by the way with 205,000 on the clock)..and it broke my heart...could still run along at 85mph @ 2500 rpm.
Ok, so now I am back to the 70's with the whole fuel mileage thing...just picked up an 09 Chevy Colbalt XFE 5 spd...well its no Vette, but, I am looking to be more "green" (and I do not mean after puking up 30 Bud Lights)..
So far I am surprised in a good way on the push this tiny tot has and I will evan admit I like the quick handleing...

Anyone out there with any longer term thoughts???

Chevy has been good to me over the years, I hate when I hear American cars don't match up the the Eastern competition...