I have a recurring issue with the idle on my car. When the temperature outside is above 80 degrees F the idle will bog down to below 500 rpm and the car does not have any power
Asked by TheDudeAbidesss Aug 28, 2015 at 12:24 PM about the 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt Sedan FWD
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
I can shift to neutral, rev the engine to 4k,
then shift to drive and it starts driving and
idling normally for a bit before it returns to
the low idle and no power. Under 80
degrees out and it runs fine.
8 Answers
A weak oil pump? Seriously? ... Check the codes to see what the car is telling you. It sounds like an electronic/sensor issue to me but you won't find the answer here until we know what the trouble codes are.
TheDudeAbidesss answered 8 years ago
Only codes were missing cylinder and lost contact with abs. I replaced spark plugs earlier today they were in bad shape so hopefully that fixed it. Won't know until it's warmer out..
Seems unlikely, but new plugs can't hurt if the old ones were worn out. Let us know what happens.
TheDudeAbidesss answered 8 years ago
Well. It finally won't move. It will idle but as soon as you hit the gas it bogs down and dies. A mechanic at the auto store was nice enough to listen to it run. Said he had the same issues with another 2.2 ecoteck and it ended up being slipped timing.. Gotta love an engine that won't make it to 100 thousand miles.
If its a timing issue its a maintenance issue. Things do wear out and need replacing or repairing. If you're not up to doing it yourself you need to have a reputable shop take a look at it. Timing issues can be corrected if addressed early on. Ignore them for too long and you'll be replacing an engine. I learned that the hard way with my 2.0. My fault, not GMs.
TheDudeAbidesss answered 8 years ago
This is totally GMs fault. A car that can't run to 100 thousand miles without an engine rebuild is garbage. You want to buy this car for blue book minus the 1500 for fixing it?
My point is you don't likely need an engine rebuild if it is simply the timing chain that needs replacing. If however you choose to put off fixing it like I did, you will ruin your engine like I did and then you will need to replace it. It would be nice if machines ran forever without maintenance, but they don't. It is up to the operator of any machine to maintain it. If you fail to do that and it breaks you can hardly blame the manufacturer. And that may not even be the problem. You need to get a proper diagnosis. It may be something relatively minor.
