Hey,

I currently have a 09 2LT with ~17,000 miles. I got it new in late Sept. 2009 (~500 miles then). So I'm pushing the 2.2L here, and yes, I drive a lot (mostly highway).

I have two issues I am planning to take this car in for service for but I am wondering if anyone here has had these issues or could suggest possible causes from your experiences and/or knowledge.

1) When I turn on the A/C the engine whines at low speeds, acceleration suffers, and basically the engine looses noticeable power. I feel like the A/C compressor has becoming abnormally harder to spin, since I do not remember this being the case before this summer hit. The sluggish behavior with the A/C on is something I associated with me old 1992 CIVIC, not my 2009 Cobalt. It just started within the past 2 months.

2) When the wheels are straight, my steering wheel is not, and this bothers me. The car may be perfectly functional but it's still a bad look. I am thinking this is an alignment issue that I would be liable for, but could it be anything else? Obviously since I am just now noticing this, it's plausible it only got this way over recent time, but still I'd like to be sure this is the result of normal wear and tear.



Thanks for any insight or ideas you can offer before I skip off to my local dealer. I guess I'll have them do my power steering recall too huh?

 

your alignment is off, and the wheel needs to br straight when set right, and the ac will make some noise, if it's not a terrible sounding noise I's say it's normal, and since it's hot out performance will suffer, and whenever the ac is on it will cause drag on the motor, no matter what.

 

Going from a 92 to a 09' I thought they had gotten past blood sucking/leeching A/C compressors by now?? I mean dang lol; The hotter it is outside, the harder it is to turn over the AC compressor? Didn't realize that. Thank you for that information.

 

no no, with hotter air comes less cylinder filling and less dense air, so your performance will suffer. It's probably just a combo of both. shut the ac off and see if it feels stronger, also a wot pull will disengage the compressor clutch.....fyi

 

Good to know. My compressor seems to have a terrible whining sound when it first starts up. Almost like its low on oil (wouldn't know, never done anything with ac/also first car that i've owned that had working ac) but it stops making such a racket after a few moments.

 

Am I correct in believing that a 2009 Cobalt (any trim) can not accept a 4-wheel alignment?
That is it can have a 2 wheel alignment done on the front only?