My dashboard starts going crazy after driving the car for longer than 5 minutes. Can someone tell me what's going on?

Mine did something like that and I cured it by replacing the battery. Get it tested first, but its possible its something electrical like that. Modern cars are extremely sensitive to things like improper voltage and do strange things. A 2010 seems a bit new to be needing a battery already, but they don't last forever and any time after about 5 years they need replacement.

check to see if its part of the recall!

Chevy is known for electrical problems. Mine started doing it a few months ago, and I scoured the internet for a definitive answer. It could be a few reasons. A bad battery, bad grounding, or, in my case, its a screwy ECM. My quick fix for it is to turn off my car, and smack the panel that covers the ECM a few times. It works for me. It seems to do it when the interior gets too hot, so I'd assume its a bad connection somewhere in there. I'd suggest checking your battery, cleaning the grounds for your car, and checking to see if it is your ECM.

Check fuse #25 (10 amp fuse, referred to as ECM/TCM) in the upper left corner of the Body Control Module (BCM) fuse panel on the passenger side of the center console. Our fuse was somewhat blackened and changing it eliminated the same symptoms you are experiencing.

Fuse #25 was the answer for me! I have a 2010 cobalt and the other evening I turned the car off opened the door and then pulled the key in that order and the door chime kept dinging. I thought that the ignition was sticking so I put the key in jiggled it around, but no luck. So I closed the door and walked off. I came back 5 minutes later and the radio and speakers were dead and when I drove all my needles, (speedo, tach, and fuel) would drop to zero hold for a few seconds and then bounce back to normal and this was often accompanied by a few dash lights like the red airbag symbol. It would do this every minute and sometimes more. I was baffled but didn't believe half the stuff I was reading online. I did what LBrown1996 suggested and replaced my fuse and everything cleared up and is totally normal again! I would have NEVER figured that out because the fuse looked maybe a tad bit dark, but not bad at all! Hopefully this is the answer for more people!

Hey Neil, are you still experiencing improvement for the fuse #25 change?

Well, the fuse change only helped for a few months. Then the symptoms reappeared and changing fuses again did not help. The Chevy dealer diagnosed the problem and changed the ECM and BCM for $1500. All better now.

Wow! I hope that is the final fix needed. I'm going to see if I can buy myself some time with the fuse change. Good luck! Thanks for your reply.

Fuse change is still treating me well! I hope it keeps on working, but so far so good!

Another update...an intermittent no-start condition and gages going crazy reappeared a few days ago. Chevy dealer tracked it down to some worn/frayed wiring in the engine compartment. Also apparently some wire insulation had become brittle with age and fell away. The bare wire would short out on the block. So another $500 to fix. New computers from October still checked out good, thank God. It is possible that the shorted wires caused the computers to go bad in the first place. I have no idea why changing fuse #25 helped temporarily, and neither did the dealer. Just trying to give everyone a heads-up on possible causes.

This is an old post but see a lot of recent comments. My 2010 Cobalt was doing this. Tried all kinds of things to correct. 4 trips to my mechanic trying to figure it out. After spending 4 hours one day, my mechanic found the issue with mine. The control module for the airbags located under the passenger seat was bad! It was causing a disruption in the ECM being able to communicate with any other module. He disconnect the airbag module and TADA! No more issues. No airbags right now until the control module comes from the dealer but it was the culprit in all the craziness. Not a cheap module, $400.00.

I thinknisbthe computer it happen to mines too

I had this same exact problem. All I did was pop the hood and started checking all connections. Made sure everything was plugged in properly and haven't had anymore trouble out of it. Something must have been loose though I'm still not sure what was.

I have had the exact same problem, everything went haywire. Had the car checked out, no problems found. Unplugged my dash camera, car runs fine no problems since.

My car is doing the same to 05 cobalt have you found out what it is yet?

Have you checked out the various things listed above? There doesn't seem to really be a common cause other than that the Cobalt's electrical system seems to be especially sensitive to bad grounds, weak breakers and relays and deteriorating electrical connections. A strong relatively new battery is also important I've found.

I have more of a question. I recently changed my speakers in the rear of my 05 cobalt 4dr cause they were blown and after i did my Highway miles per gallon went from around 35 to 40 up to 50 to 55 amd my drivings been the same. Could the new speakers effect the mpg gauge or maybe draw less power than the old blown speakers and lets the spark plugs work better?

The last mechanic to scan my system for another problem with RCDLR not communication with BCM and/or ECU found this similar thing with the gauges. Thie gauges would go down then back up to normal resting point after the key was turned off and you could hear a click from some relay. He thought there was a short somewhere. Now this has not fixed my Service Tire Module message that appears on my display each time I start up my vehicle and the low tire pressure light that is always on. At this point it doesn't matter how much pressure I put in the tires it keeps blinking then stays on. I have always had a problem with this low pressure light from new, but when adding pressure in the rear tire would turn it off after driving for short while. This was when I didn't have this message and I was able to see my tire pressure of each wheel when scanned on my display. Now I'm going back to my original problem of the tire pressure display and fobs not working after losing this memory in the RCDLR module. Which basically happened when I was going through the programs with my key on that killed my old battery. I found this out later and it is a known fact with GM but they won't reflash the lose memory out of warranty. I though they could be nice just like my computer to give me free software or OS updates. All they want to do is scan your vehicle again and follow their procedures to replace modules or parts that necessary (that are tire pressure sensors in each wheel and fobs that are all working) then reflash your ECU, but this is no guarantee it will fix my problem. I also have the ABS light come once in a while and the sensors are working and wire harness is good, but I have no way of checking the signal from the sensors while driving. They say it could be a front wheel axle problem that changes the signal on the sensor. The only way to know for sure is to have professional scanning while driving and/or change the front wheel axle. This vehicle does not have sensors in the back wheels and I can't find any on the drivetrain (reend). Anyway this is my long story of my problems that I don't care able seeing my tire pressures that I can check myself, fob that I can't lock or unlock the doors which I can do manually, but I won't have security and the ABS which is still working.

Theres a good chance that the batteries in your TPMS are just dead and need replacing.

Same thing happened to my cobalt, what i did i push in all fuse just make sure thier tigth enough.then back to normal

If somebody can help me out with this my car is pretty much having the same symptoms the gauges start jumping it shifts hard my buddy grounded out the transmission control module cuz that's what the computer was saying that it was we grounded out it still is not working the gauges jump up and down sometimes everything is just fine if somebody can please please help me out with this is driving me crazy thank you

There are a number of ground packs on that car where several wires are grounded to the car's chassis. Find them, clean them and make sure they're tight. That often solves some problems. Make sure your battery is reasonably new and is taking a full charge. Have it load tested if you're not sure. Modern electrical systems are super sensitive and even a weak battery can wreak havoc with your electrical system. If its saying the problem is related to the transmission control module, trouble shoot that. Find out what sorts of things will cause the computer to think that's the problem. It's not always the component itself. Consult a transmission shop or a general repair shop if that sort of trouble shooting goes beyond your skill level. Good luck.

I d like to thanks those who posted on here about checking fuse #25 when it come to irrationally gauges and flashing dash lights.... I was panicking thinking I had more $$$$ to put in my car( put a lot already) but looking on here really helped to fix my problem! I had fuses and took a chance that was it! Sure enough.. at least for now it cured my problem. Fingers crossed it fixed it permanently. Thanks guys! #woman fixed her car alone

Love hearing success stories. Thanks for posting.

The problem is with the grounds no matter if you clean them or not if you look at the battery there is no ground to the battery to the chassis of the car thats why the tcm and things be going crazy but if you take a wire run it from the tcm to a ground on the frame then take another wire and run it from that same spot on the frame to the trunk and ground it directly with the battery you will never have this problem again the whole car will be grounded after that your car will work fine after that i promise

Had this occurred to me in the my transmission quit in one trip??

I have a 2005 Malibu. My dash gauges started going up and down and a warning chime would sound. I did notice that this seemed yo happen in hot weather. It did not happen in the fall or winter. Strange. I thought it had fixed itself but as it warmed up and temperatures neared the century mark it started happening again. Very annoying. I called a mechanic and he tried to diagnose the problem. He was totally stumped. He turned my ignition to the on position and checked the fuses. All fuse were fine. He went to start the car and it wouldn't turn over. He noticed my battery was 4 years old. We jumped the car and it fired right up. He suggested I replace my battery. I did. BINGO problem solved. Evidently I had a slow failing battery and the heat was a problem. We tested the alternator and it was fine.

Perfect example of how sensitive modern auto electrical systems are. Same thing exactly happened with my '06 Cobalt. New battery, new car. It was amazing.

My 2010 Cobalt was doing this. Many trips to my mechanic. I finally just let him keep it for a while to figure it out. He was determined to fix the "demon" car. Eventually he found that it was a ground issue at the chassis. Some of the other stuff people have mentioned like bad ECM, Bad PCM, bad Module, etc. will all show as the issue and replacing them is expensive an only works for a short time. I tried a couple of those fixes. What my mechanic found is a bad ground. Could be any of the grounds in that car. Mine just happened to be at the chassis.

Grounds and electrical connections are always my mechanic's first stop before replacing anything. He also meters and double checks everything before and after and almost always notes some improvements. Once that is out of the way we make decisions about whether certain parts should be replaced or not.

Roadrunner I had the gauge problem on my 2009 cobalt My fix was a bad connection at the crank relay on under hood fuse box(crank relay not run/crank) This connects fuse #25 circuit to ground

I get that this post is old and I tried everything on here. I had same symptoms - wacky gauges, power steering error, check engine light, most of which went away with power steering motor unplugged. The solution I found on https://www.yourcobalt.com/threads/loss-or-power-steering-computer-issues.68329/ which is to remove the body control module, clean the connections, add dielectric grease, and reinstall. 20 minute job in itself, though many hours trying everything else on this post. I suppose one might find the BCM bad and need to replace it but easy to find in junkyards (though used part might have same problems.) Removal of BCM here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QY-t4-zLaM.