Help with donor choice

Rttoys

Goblin Guru
Cracked tb (actually the part that’s cracked is the throttle position sensor) shouldn’t keep it from turning over, but will keep it from starting, especially if the intake tube is off.

Auto trans? if it’s not turning over at all, wiggle the gear shifter or even shift it into neutral to see if it spins. In a wreck, it’s easy to get some thing out of place.
If it’s a manual, maybe a safety switch out of place. Not sure.
 

Ross

Goblin Guru
Congrats on getting a donor! Try to read the codes from the OBDII port. Probably all those broken wires and throttle body.
 

Joebob

Goblin Guru
I pulled this off topic and will move this conversation to the electrical section. To close out the original intent:

I used IAAI and Copart Auction sites as well as Craigslist and Facebook marketplace to look for my dream Cobalt. Used and very high mileage Cobalts go for about $1800-$3000 here in Houston and at auction they would go for 250-1000 for the NA depending on condition.

Copart allows you in Texas to bid on Salvage cars without a license but it seems that for minor damage they would leave the title clean and force you to get a broker and pay the fees. IAAI makes you get a broker for any car there so I went with Salvagebid to be able to pre-bid. You have to secure a $400 deposit to bid and I tried once before to win a car (and Lost) and after 30 days they emailed me that they refunded the deposit. I found it easy to get set up and good communication on their end. When the current Cobalt came to bid, again on IAAI, I added a new deposit to bid on it. painless again as they had all my other information such as a scan of my ID and credit card info. On their website you can see with fees (minus transport) so that there are no surprises. I placed a bid to be the top pre-bid at Salvagebid brokerage heading into the auction. Pre-bid ends usually 2 hours before the auction begins and you have to pay extra to bid live.
One thing to note is while I was the high bidder at Salvagebid, a look at IAAI's website showed I was NOT the high bidder as there are other brokerages and pre-bid entries. Make sure you are happy with your standing by checking IAAI's site as well. In the last few available pre-bid minutes, I stretched my pre-bid price to be the highest pre-bid entry going into the live auction. As it turns out, there were no live auction bids on the car...maybe for good reason...and I won.

Salvage Bid called me as well as emailed me the results and started the electronic paper signing. All very easy on the website. One thing to note is that in my invoice it was to the penny for their estimate EXCEPT they added a premium membership fee (+$175) to the bill. As I was writing an email to address this, they called me to see how it was going and once alerted them to the "error", they happily removed. So watch out for the upcharge. The only difficult part was getting my bank to wire the money to the Salvagebid. Once cleared, Salvage bid released the car for transport and sent a link (EasyHaul.com) for towing from Fort Worth, Texas to Houston (about 230 miles for non Texans).

Again the price for shipping was exact to the penny so no surprises. Clicking the link loaded all my information to EasyHaul and all I had to do was use the credit card to pay them. The car ID number, pickup and delivery addresses were already in their system. Makes for easy dealing. EasyHaul website is a lot like UPS tracking where you can see each stage of the shipping process as it happens. They get the delivery person assigned and send you name and phone numbers to help coordinate. I was surprised when I got notification that the day of delivery was about 3 days earlier than initial estimate...not that I minded. Had a few text and phone calls with the driver to coordinate on the delivery locations as he originally stated that he does not like to enter neighborhoods as with a large trailer he can get stuck with tight turns. He called to say he was 1 hour away, then 15 minutes away, then called to say he was going to explore the neighborhood (probably via google maps)...and then 5 minutes later he was at the end of my cul-de-sac street. Once offloaded, sighed for it on his phone, we both got confirmation that the deal was done and we parted ways.

In the end I feel like I paid a lot for a car but I got pretty much exactly what I wanted and didn't want to be driving around Houston finding worn out cars and Houston auction shipping (don't own truck or trailer) was only $30 less than from Fort Worth.

In the end I spent:
$875 Cobalt
$299 SalvageBid brokerage fee
$320 IAAI auction fee
$85 Salvagebid doc fee to transfer the title and Fedex it to me (3 weeks)
$273 EsyHail.com transport from Fort Worth to Houston

My adventure continues..
Joe
 

Desert Sasqwatch

Goblin Guru
Yes, the ECU needs to have a TB to command for the engine to run. When you turn on the key, the TB will normally cycle before starting the engine. I'm certain if the ECM doesn't see this happen it won't try to start.
 

ctuinstra

Goblin Guru
Yes, the ECU needs to have a TB to command for the engine to run. When you turn on the key, the TB will normally cycle before starting the engine. I'm certain if the ECM doesn't see this happen it won't try to start.
I'm going to guess on this one, but I'm agreeing here. First fix known issues that may cause you problems, don't ignore them or talk yourself out of it being a possiblity.
 

Joebob

Goblin Guru
New TB arrived today and was replaced. Checked the startup and it does Blip with the key moved to the ON position. As being discussed in the electrical section, my ABS module was damaged and does have 2 sets of CANBUS twisted pair in the plug and was told I might have to "loop" them. how do I do that?

Joe
 

Lonny

Administrator
Staff member
Cut the the two sets of tan and tan/black twisted data wires free from the EBCM (electronic brake control module).

Strip the ends of all four wires.

Twist the tan wire to the tan wire and the tan/black wire to the tan/black wire.

Tape or heat shrink the exposed ends so they are not able to touch each other or anything else.
 

Ross

Goblin Guru
On my 2006 donor, I would connect the Tan/Black (pin 21) to pin 36.
Then the Tan wire, pin 22 to pin 37.

19224
 
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Joebob

Goblin Guru
IT RUNS!!! I jumpered the striped and the non striped of the CANBUS twisted pair and she fired right up. Had to shut back down as I don't have the tranny lines connected to a cooler but we did it. Thanks all for your help. Now to drive it around to see if anything else needs repair before the disassembly. @Lonny Looks like you will get another order soon.

Joe
 
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