Shaking and vibrating Steering wheel and rattle in dash.

[britbrit12]

Hey I have a 2005 Cobalt LS and I bought it new. I now have a rattle in my dash behind my stearing wheel that i have had for a while. Now it has gotten louder and my stearing wheel shimmys and shakes really bad.....if it was just when I hit my brakes i would know the stearing wheel shaking would probably be my rotors....but it also does it when im driving down the road...along with the rattle under the dash and it has gotten louder. It has done it since i had new tires put on it. Im thinking maybe a alighnment might help becuz i didnt have one done cuz they didnt have enough time....we went in there like right before they closed so i had a certificate for one but i never had it done. yea i know big mistake...but does anyone think maybe they know what it is? Needs Alighnment or maybe a tire outta balance?.....I leave for a week in florida next week so i kinda wanna get it fixed lol. thanks

[cobalt05blue]

im having the exact same problem right now, it started a few months ago after i got my tires rotated...

[Wr_guy]

Tires are most likely out of balance.

Rotate the tires again and see if it stops.

[cchaffee]

I have been a a number of sites and I am an owner of a 2006 Cobalt. I also have a rattle in the dash. After an alignment I noticed I only had the rattle in a gravel driveway or on a dirt road. I agree that a bad alignment would accentuate the rattle but it is not the root cause. The root is in the electric power steering unit. When I travel I have gotten Cobalts for rentals and some have the rattle, some don't. I have been searching and found a number of people have this problem and I was tryng to find out if Chevy was doing anything about this. If you have any info please email me

[osylith]

I had the same problem, about 2 weeks after i bought my cobalt. Took it to the dealership they balanced the tires. Still vibrated so they balanced the tires again and rotated my rotors, has not been a problem since.

[corvairbob]

we had that problem and it was a broken/worn steering wheel linkage in the or around the rack and pinion area. the dealer replaced the rubber bushings then the linkage for the sway bar then the steering wheel and then the linkage below the steering wheel assy. the cobalt has electric steering assist and after this and before the rack is linkage. the u-joints and bushings in that area were bad and they replaced them last it cured the problem. i got the car from a used car dealer and the new car dealer repaired it free. i got a whole new steering assy out of that deal. the dealer i got it from did the tire thing but no help. good luck. bp.

[dwalmop]

FYI an alignment will not make a vibration go away. Alignments do not cause vibrations, the tires and/or worn parts do.

[staytrue2007]

Gm has a service bulletin out for this problem. They are advising that the sound is coming from the steering column. They have an updated version out. I had one installed in my 07 under warranty and havent had a problem with a rattle since.

[txptree1]

hey staytrue, do you happen to know the number for this updated SB? I think all of us Cobalt owners would be interested in getting this "rattle" noise cured. Thanks for the info.

[parisfisherman]

I have had the same rattle/ flutter in my stearing also. i took it to the local dealer this morning and I had a tech ride in the car with me and he immediately told me it was the column that it is a common problem in these cars. Well they kept the car for a few hours to investigate further and replace my fuel pump recall. When they called to tell me it was done they told me that is was my tires and I said there is no way that its my tires when the tech just told me it was my stearing column. so the tech when i went to pick it up i had that tech confirm it was the column. they need to make a recall on this!!!