Josh's City Goblin - 10 XFE Donor

jirwin

Goblin Guru
Hello, all. I am from Bay City, Michigan and I plan on building a City Goblin with a 2010 XFE as a donor. The XFE was actually my dd for about 5 years before I replaced it. The only reason I replaced it is because the rockers and whatnot were completed annihilated by the salt we put on the roads in the winter. Mechanically the car was fine, but it didn't look it. In the shape it was in I would have been luck to get $1000, so I just left it sitting in my driveway. It was around that time that I remembered seeing a post Adam had made on Reddit about the kit car he was making, with a Cobalt as the base. I looked into it some more and fell in love. Ordered my kit soon after.

More about me: I've always liked cars and go-fast machines in general, but I've never built a car. The extent of my car experience has just been basic maintenance, although I have a pretty decent understanding of how things work. I'm a programmer/webdev by trade with a little experience in electronics, so I'm pretty comfortable with wiring and whatnot. Every car I've had since I turned 16 has been a manual, the Cobalt included. Most of my experience with engines has been with motorcycles. I've had an 84 Honda Interceptor VF500F as my first bike, which I had to almost completely rewire. Sold that one, and now I own a sport bike and a street legal dirt bike.

I've been procrastinating on putting a write up in here for a while, so I'll try to catch everyone up on where I'm at. Looking forward to talking with everyone.

8388


11/25/2018 - Donor body stripped
8389


12/17/2018 Frame Arrives!
8390


12/17/18-3/11/19 WINTER HIBERNATION

3/11/19 Got the frame back from powdercoating! Gloss black
8391


3/11/19 - 4/20/19 - Second winter

4/20/19 Subframe out!
8392


4/27/19 Engine hoist picked up
8393


4/28/19 Engine is out! Super proud of myself for getting this far. I've never done anything like this before.
8394
 

BaltimoreHokie

Goblin Guru
Nice, Welcome to the forum! The black frame will leave you tons of options for a wrap / paint down the road. Nice engine picker, I also bought on for the build but then really only used it for the painting / prep. It did come in handy when I moved houses so its prob a good thing I had it...moving a engine around is not an easy thing.
 

JSATX

Goblin Guru
Looks like we had identical donors. Dunno why but seems like not many use the 09-10 base.
 

jirwin

Goblin Guru
Last night I worked my way through removing the wiring harness. I have everything done except for the rear. In they video they have a coupe, and I have a sedan. It seems the taillight wiring is a little different there. In the coupe there are plugs in the wall of the trunk, whereas in the sedan the wire just appears from behind the bumper cover. The step where it says to disconnect the trunk wiring is different too:

8591


I didn't want to cut the wires without asking first. Can anyone shed some light on the differences in the sedan and coupe as far as the rear lighting?
 

JeffsGoblin

Goblin Guru
I’m fairly certain those wires are for the side marker lights which are not use in the Goblin unless you are doing something custom.
 

JSATX

Goblin Guru
Your best bet would be to identify the lights function based on the color of the wiring. There are several posts on the wiring diagrams if you don’t have them.

You’re going to need to do this anyway to correctly wire your goblin, so ID and tag now, chop out what you don’t need (there’s evap and emissions stuff near the fuel tank if I remember correctly.) and get on down the road
 

jirwin

Goblin Guru
I’m fairly certain those wires are for the side marker lights which are not use in the Goblin unless you are doing something custom.
The sedan does not have side marker lights.

Your best bet would be to identify the lights function based on the color of the wiring. There are several posts on the wiring diagrams if you don’t have them.

You’re going to need to do this anyway to correctly wire your goblin, so ID and tag now, chop out what you don’t need (there’s evap and emissions stuff near the fuel tank if I remember correctly.) and get on down the road
I'll see if I can find a wiring diagram, thanks.
 

jirwin

Goblin Guru
Looked over the wiring diagrams and haven't been able to decide what to cut or not cut. I'm just going to take the rear bumper off and take the lights with it.

In the meantime, thanks to @BaltimoreHokie for the help with the radiator. I think it turned out pretty good!

8688
 

jirwin

Goblin Guru
Removed the rear bumper to get to the wiring harness. It was easy, but tedious. Those 7mm bolts holding the rear bumper on are such a PITA. Getting that off allowed me to remove the wiring harness wholesale without cutting anything though, so I'm happy. I was able to put the whole interior back (in a pile) in the car too. Saved me sooooooo much floor space.

8732


8733


8734
 

jirwin

Goblin Guru
Sooooo I accidentally cut the parking brake wire during my "thinning" of the wiring harness. I'm at the part where you extend it by 48". From the video, it looks like it goes to the BCM. I found a light blue wire there, and I'm 99% sure its what I need. I tried looking thru the wiring diagrams and couldn't really find what I was looking for (a pinout of the plug). Does this look right?

9641


This is the light blue BCM connector:

9642


Thoughts?
 

Lonny

Administrator
Staff member
I think the blue wire is one of several logic inputs that control the instrument cluster brake light.

I don't think the blue wire directly turns the brake light on and off.

I have never hooked it up on a Goblin but maybe someone on the forum has and can chime in.
 

Karter2026

Goblin Guru
I don't think the blue wire directly turns the brake light on and off.

I have never hooked it up on a Goblin but maybe someone on the forum has and can chime in.
On my car (nonABS) the blue wire when grounded turns on the brake light in the cluster. It was required for PA state inspection. If I recall some of the ABS cars will illuminate the light after all the stuff is cut out of the harness.
 

jirwin

Goblin Guru
On my car (nonABS) the blue wire when grounded turns on the brake light in the cluster. It was required for PA state inspection. If I recall some of the ABS cars will illuminate the light after all the stuff is cut out of the harness.
I've found this in my documentation:

9655


That's the wire in question. I'm just trying to figure out how I go from #14 to which pin on the connector it is.
 
Top