2005 Cobalt LS

[95naSTA]

Well, in an effort to keep my daily M5 and Bonneville out of the salt, I started thinking about getting a winter beater that I also wouldn't feel bad about street parking in my tight Philadelphia neighborhood. I was either going to attempt to find something for next to nothing or go for something somewhat fun/interesting for a few grand. My only hard requirement either way was it had to be stick. With the way the market is here, it seems like any running/driving/no CEL car is at least $1500. Cars I would actually want could be had for $4-6k.

I was at my buddies shop last weekend and I overheard a customer there say '$500, you want it' to someone else. The guy who was asked wasn't interested so I walked over and asked if the car he was selling was automatic and the seller said, no, it's stick. So we went to take a look, I test drove it and called the next day to make arrangements to buy it this weekend. Lets just say I didn't pay more than he was asking.

Deets/Good:
2.2L, 5MT, 145hp(when new)
Seems to be optioned out with heated seats, (p)leather, Pioneer sub.
PO had it 9 years/150k with a few trips to Nova Scotia and Florida
Fluids changed often brake/dex/oil/MT fluid
Fuel filter, plugs done recently
Clutch has under 80k
Krown oil treatment done at some point, rust seems to me minimal
Not so good:
228k
Burns oil (add this to my 2 stroke list)
Muffler or some other rear exhaust leak
Needs 2 tires, wipers and a couple tail light bulbs

I'm sure I'll tinker with this in some fashion but this is pure a driving appliance. It owes me nothing and it'll be interesting to see how it does.

[Sirius]

Well, that appears to out-class my 88 Accord that I bought for $175. Sometimes I wish i still had it, but then I remember the carburetor issues and I'm glad its gone. It did help keep mileage and winter off my other cars. Looks like you made a respectable buy and it should serve its purpose.

[95naSTA]

Thanks. Honestly if someone was selling an '88 Accord for triple what you paid that still had rockers and was stick I would have reacted the same way I did with this.

My first fix on this thing is the key fobs. Both worked intermittently but the unlock buttons never worked. The real motivator to fix this is if you lock the car with the fob but unlock it with the key, the alarm gets triggered and it'll beep slowly for a few seconds before it goes full blast.. unless you start the car. All I needed to do was resolder the positive contact bracket for the batteries and clean the button contact areas with isopropyl alcohol.

[Sirius]

My Accord was a stick and rust-free (for all intents and purposes). Looks like a cold solder joint on that fob!

[95naSTA]

Overall this car keeps surprising me which how decent it is. I went through all the wheels and there is no play at all in the suspension. The axles have no play either. The undercarriage is way more rust free than I was anticipating and everything I look up for the car is very very cheap. I did find the serpentine belt needs to be replaced and the wiper transmission had broke in a way where it still sort of worked but should be replaced. I pinpointed the exhaust leak and I'm going to see if I can't just wrap a butt connector around the area to seal it up. The heat shields that attached to the exhaust pulled away and left a hole. In the third pic below you can see the hole and heat shields pulled up.






I ended up with too much free time today and decided to cut and buff this car. These are in somewhat of a before and after order.





















After I polished, I applied some CARPRO Reload Spray Silica Sealant. I had it on tap for the PPF I applied to the M5 and decided to try it out here. I didn't touch the front bumper other than cleaning it because it's a mess and I also didn't cut and buff below the middle door molding.

I did what I could cleaning the interior for now. The door cards, dash, seats, etc. were way more dirty. The carpet could use some attention but that'll have to wait.




This trunk is very large for the size of the car and the rear seats also fold down which is awesome. You can see my replacement tires easily fitting in there.

[Sirius]

Wow. I'm impressed with the lack of rust underneath that thing. Looks like you made a nice score. Low cost of parts is a bonus. I found that to be the case with the 88 Accord. I could replace the entire exhaust from the Cat back for about $60, sent to my house. Unbolt (or, more accurately, cut off) the old and bolt in the new one. An upper control arm, with ball joint, was less than $10. And most everything was fairly easy to work on...double bonus! The UCA took less than 20 minutes to replace.

I'm starting to wonder why I sold that beater. LOL!

[95naSTA]

Well, you have me convinced you should have kept it.

Here's some pics from the wiper transmission replacement:

[95naSTA]

Got the serpentine belt changed today then headed to a buddies shop to have my new tires mount/balanced for the front. While there we hooked up the a/c machine for s&g. Although it was completely empty, it held vacuum so it got charged and the compressor kicked on. If I'm lucky it'll still blow cold in the spring but I'm all set for Indian summer.



The only other thing I have planned is swapping out the head unit for another oem one since the display and buttons are dead on the one that came with the car. The radio is always on though and the steering wheel controls including presets work just fine. The bummer is it looks like after 2003 GM started programming the vin into the headunits and the old unlock hotline method doesn't work for this car. I have a lead on someone with a tech 2 which is required to program the headunit. Hopefully that comes through.

[95naSTA]

I lied in the last post. I had planned on trying to patch the exhaust leak with a butt connector band clamp. It came in the mail today so I knocked it out. The noise was livable before. This didn't completely kill it but it's now almost non-existent with the windows up.





The space between the band clamp and the rear axle beam in the last pic is a little deceiving. There's a good amount of room there.

[95naSTA]

First completely unnecessary purchase and install complete.

[Sirius]

I beg to differ. It would have driven you crazy to leave the wheel like that. Therefore it was a necessary purchase and install.

[95naSTA]

Haha. Can't argue with the facts.

[95naSTA]

The last issue that I had panned on fixing is now done. My ebay replacement radio got unlocked by a friend of a friend at a GM dealership the other day. It's an MP3 CD which I may actually use but the primary reason to get it working was for some sort of aux option.




I think the only thing that doesn't work on this car now is the passenger heated seat. I'm not sure I'll fix that but we'll see.

[95naSTA]

I've been driving this car most days and the only issue so far is the turn signal canceling mechanism in the turn signal assembly broke. The PO actually JB welded the shaft back together at some point but that was holding up well. $20 and 5 mins later, it was fixed.





I've also been using this as a truck to move out of my 10x30' storage space back into my house in Philly. It fits wayyy more than you would think, even with the rear seats up. It fits 11 full size plastic bins, my bar height kitchen chairs, (disassembled) kitchen table, random furniture, etc. My M5 could definitely fit more but I would have to worry about extra wear on the minty interior. With this I can just chuck and go without consequence.

[Sirius]

Yep. There's nothing like having a car you can use any way you want and park anywhere you want and not worry about dings, scratches, nicks, etc.

BTW, what's the status on the Bonneville? Still in the shop?

[95naSTA]

No Bonnie updates yet. I'll ping that effort after the holidays. Since he basically painted 2 doors on my M5 for free, I don't have much room for complaining.

[camopaint0707]

nice winter ride

[95naSTA]

Thanks. It certainly does the job.

[95naSTA]

I decided that I didn't want to risk breaking my finger over $20 trunk struts and replaced them.

[camopaint0707]

It's the little things that make a difference.