2005 Cobalt LS

[95naSTA]

Couldn't agree more.

My whole thing with this car was to put as little money into it as possible since I wasn't sure how much I would drive is and much longer it's going to last. I've only put 5k miles on it in the past 3 years and it's been good so far. It feels less risky know even though it's just as risky to put any money into it. But when I think about this much improvement being the cost of one of my BMW control arms, it's a non-issue.

[95naSTA]

A couple more might as wells here.. a headlight bulb went out and it spiraled into might was well replace the headlights and broken grills since it's so cheap and easy.

I got some cheap aftermarket headlights where the reviews say they can get condensation but don't seem to immediately turn yellow. I packed the lens seam with butyl tape and applied some ceramic coating. The replacement bottom grill arrived good to go but the top one arrived damaged. I'll have to get another.

[Sirius]

Them cheap-o headlights really clean up the look of the car. And as a bonus they probably light up the night a little better.

[95naSTA]

The lights do seem to have noticeably better output. Anddd the grill is in.

[95naSTA]

On Thanksgiving I accidentally drifted this thing on an off ramp turn in the rain with my whole family in it. Luckily instinct kicked in, I took my foot off the brake, let the front wheels take over and recovered without issue. I was not speeding, there was not pooling/puddle and there's no way that should have happened given the tread and condition of the rear tires. The fronts I replaced when I got the car with Dunlop Signature HP SLs. The rears on the car when I got it were in good shape, decent tread, not dry rotted but a brand I've never heard of, Blacklion. The tires still looked fine, pressures were all good but decided to replace them since it's not worth another scare like that. They were 6 years old which is getting into aged territory even though they showed no signs.

I didn't want to buy 2 new tires that would end up dry rotting before I even get half their mileage out of them but I still needed them to be safe. I drive the car about 1500 miles a year but usually in inclement weather. Then I started thinking about my wife's Jag with the same size tires. She'll need tires in maybe a season or two but drives more like 6k a year. So I started looking for a set of 4 for that car where I would take 2 of her old ones. The Dunlops I got previously are NLA so I went with Cooper ProControl All Seasons do to their relatively high rating. Through a black Friday deal, it ended up being $370 for 4. I was looking at over $200 for 2 at the time. So that car got new tires, I stole the best two used ones from the Jag for the rear of this car, put one on the full size spare in the Jag and junked the last one.

It snowed a couple inches here this past Monday and I got test out the new (used) rears. It went good! The car did really well in comparison to sliding out around a turn with just rain. I pushed it by myself to see where it would break traction and it took much more effort than I expected. I'm happy because the primary reason for buying it was to drive it when there's snow and salt on the roads. (I'll take a lyft before I drive my M5 in the salt) With this newfound confidence I later took the fam to my childhood sledding spot. It was just a couple inches but just enough to have fun.



In other news, I replaced the blower motor since it was on it's way out. GM made it so you actually have to cut it out with a razor blade then has provisions to mount a new one back up with screws. Kind of strange but still a 20-30 min job.

[Sirius]

It's surprising how tires affect handling even if they look "ok". Which leads me to a corollary comment on people who ride their street bike in below freezing weather. Sure, you can do it, but those tires are designed for warmer temps and don't hold the road like they should in freezing temps. Most people don't get this.

[95naSTA]

Oh, I agree. I'll ride if it's 40+ but at those lower temps its definitely less throttle and no lean.

[95naSTA]

I picked up some a salt neutralizer called SaltsGone to try since Philadelphia is like a salt pan right now. I initially tested it out on the Jag but my wife had to take the car immediately after. I decided to test it out on the Cobalt to get a better idea of how it works. It calls for a 1:100 ratio. I went 1.5:100 in a 1 gallon pump sprayer. A 1 gallon sprayer is definitely enough to fully cover the car but maybe not the volume to really move the deposits. I want to say after the solution dried, maybe 50-75% of the visible salt deposits were gone. They say rinsing the car off after is optional, which is difficult for my city living situation. But, I feel like if I went back out with another gallon of water, I would be up over the 75% mark. It was about 28*F out though. So I didn't want to get too crazy with the water.

[95naSTA]

Since the temperatures got up above freezing, I tried the hose hook up method and it worked awesome. It took maybe 15 mins to spray the solution, top down, then rinse it off. After a drip dry, it looked like I hand wash and dried the car.

[95naSTA]

The front brake squealers starting going off on this car a week or so ago. Apparently I didn't hear them over my noisy blower motor that's been working hard lately in the heat. I picked up a Powerslot Z32 kit for the job even though I had issues with the pad backing plates on the last Z32 kit I put on my wife's car. The biggest reason I started using this kit since Powerslot uses Brembo blanks and continued to use them since I could tell the difference in performance. I had good results 3 out of the 4 times I've used this kit on 3 cars so I'll give it another shot.

My inner pads probably had less than 1mm left.. I definitely got my moneys worth out of those..

[Sirius]

Nothing like squeezing every last stop outta the pads!

[95naSTA]

This thing has been doing absolutely awesome as a winter beater. I picked up some tire cables in case we got a decent storm this year and I'm glad I did. We got 9-10" last weekend and most of my neighborhood didn't get plowed. I've been installing the cables to get into and out of my neighborhood every day this week and they work great. The street in the pic below did get plowed but there was no way I was getting in and out of this spot without the cables.



The right rear brake was letting me know it needed some attention this week so I picked up new drums, pads and hardware. It turns out one of the shoes had some rust jacking at the pad and the material was breaking loose. Fortunately I was able to do this at my buddies shop. Their lifts were tied up but there was a heater by me in the floor and it's exponentially better than me doing this outside, in the snow, in 15* weather.

[Sirius]

Yep, working out of the weather beats trying to do something like that in the snow. Have you looked into "snow socks" for your car? I got some for my wife's Civic and they rock. They slip on easy and grip is excellent. Can't go more than about 25mph with them and you have to put them on BEFORE you get stuck, but they work. Check out some of the youtubes where they compare snow socks to chains/cables. Pretty impressive.

https://www.amazon.com/snow-socks-tires ... +for+tires

I think I got the K&K ones, I'd have to look. I don't even know where they are right now because it's been in the 40/50*s all winter with no snow. Boo.

[95naSTA]

I was pretty close to getting those too. I can't remember exactly why I didn't but the cables did a great job, even in the packed down ice. It stayed below freezing for basically three weeks after it snowed. All the street parking needed something to crush and dig into the ice ridge separating it from the street. Fun times.

Last weekend I did about 175 miles round trip in this thing to take my son tubing and got 32+ mpg (speed limit is 70). This week it hit 240k, farther than the distance to the moon. No way I thought I was getting 5 winters out of this thing when I bought it.