It's the a/c. When on it decreases the power from the engine because of the extra accessory that is now engaged on the drive belt.


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Has anyone figured a way to remedy this? The difference in power is substantial! Would it be possible to run the a/c off of a different power source? As I'm typing this it sounds like a large amount of work and I doubt there is room to run a second battery or power source to handle it.


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Switch to 89, 91, or 93 octane in the summer. There's a world of difference. Try one octane level boost at a time so you don't spend more money than needed.

 

It's a mechanical draw more than an electrical draw. When disengaged the a/c compressor pulley spins freely; then once the a/c is turned on the clutch on the compressor engages and the engine belt now turns the compressor which means more rotational mass to turn.

Edited*^

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It's a mechanical draw more than an electrical draw. When disengaged the compressor spins freely then once engaged the engine belt has more rotational mass to turn.


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I assume you meant the pulley spins freely, lol. The AC compressor clutch engages and starts turning the compressor when AC is needed.

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True. I was thinking there may be a mechanical draw creating the electrical current but that makes more sense. I only run 91 octane as well. It is the a/c I did a test drive of it.


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Some cars seem to be affected more from the A/C than others. My Cobalt surprisingly doesn't get affected much and the A/C works great. If only the front end was built as good as the A/C.

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You also have a 2.2 in the Cobalt. Bigger engine more hp = less draw on power

 

Hot weather = lower performance in any internal combustion engine.

 

I wish GM had just taken my engine, made it DI, plopped it into the Cruze and called it a day. I'd rather have my 2.2L than that tiny turbo

 

So go buy another Cobalt.

The 1.4 is more fuel efficient, and that's a key selling point for these cars.

The load on the engine slows acceleration a bit, but in hot weather, turbocharged engines do experience heat soak and pull timing advance to keep from knocking as much. NA engines don't have this problem as much in the summer.

Higher octane fuel helps.

Turbos are a trade off for having instant power when you need it, but there are also a great many advantages to them.


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I'm not noticing a huge performance drop when I use the air conditioner, but then I bought an economy car. If I wanted a high performance car instead then I would have bought that. There was an idea floated many years ago about switching the 12 volt systems in cars to a 24 volt or higher voltage system. The advantage there is that more electrical power would be available to run things on the car, especially the air conditioner compressor. With that being electric and no longer being tied to the engine we would get better performance and mileage. The increased drag from a higher output alternator would not be that much.