dougsmiley

I hit a giant pothole on the interstate at about 80. Pulled over, inspected things, everything seemed cool. But now im starting to notice a popping noise from the right front, whenever im driving on uneven ground. Do I need a new shock, new strut, ball joint? I know somethings effed but trying to narrow down the possibilities.

ronn

iTrader: (3)

Hard to tell. Maybe the strut mount on top is loose/broken. That would be my first guess. Check all components (struts and Control arm)...maybe have a suspension guy take a look if you're not real familiar with it.

dougsmiley

My dad is more familar than me. Planning on taking it there and taking it apart, cant really do much at my apartment just trying to get an idea

RKRamos

iTrader: (11)

Go get an alignment done, they will let you know what's wrong.

AngelTiger82

iTrader: (8)

I hit a giant pothole a couple months back took it to firestone because I have lifetime alignment even paid the 12.99$ inspectiong fee to tell me what was wrong and told me nothing was wrong except camber was off because I need aftermarket camber bolts I have taken it there before and I was still lowered, so that wasn't what was wrong. Well it was still messed up after the alignment. So a buddy who knows suspension looked at my car and found one of the ball joints needs replacing. Firestone said nothing was wrong, yeah right.

dougsmiley

Yea thats my concern with going to the alignment place. Tire barn has amazing service but they still arent that well trained and some problems wouldn't even effect the alignment. It doesnt seem to pull or anything.

AngelTiger82

iTrader: (8)

Well mine pulls on uneven roads hard to left and right because of the ball joint, so more than likely your ball joint is not out. It might be what another member said strut mount or strut.

dougsmiley

Yeah i had the ball joint go out on my 06 malibu and it pulled like a ****. Probably not that although i guess it could be broken differently

dougsmiley

Just FYI, the problem was the sway bar link. One new swaybar link later and clunk is gone.

tunameltman

i know most of you guys think this is a stupid question, but is that the bar right behind the wheel? its hard for me to get under my car but I did today and the bar behind the wheel on both sides moves a little when shaken and makes a noise like I've been hearing (same noise as above) cant afford to replace them now, but it'll be nice to know what I'm looking forward to in the future

dougsmiley

Yeah the round bar that goes from the shock to the swaybar. I bought a chevy one cause i only broke one but aftermarkets are usually recommended if you're doing both. They look like this



See this thread for chevy pns:
https://www.cobaltss.net/forums/susp...m4-jl9-137064/

To get it off you're gonna need some vice grips and a size 18 socket. Lift up the car take the wheel off, break both bolts loose. Leaving the car up on a jackstand take your jack and jack up where the ball joint connects to take the weight off. Take some pliers and rip the rubber cover off behind the bolt, toss your vise grips back there and take the nut off. Youll have to use the jack to "line up" the new one, itll make sense when youre doing it. I went and bought some new nylon lock nuts and washers at ace since the old ones were all stripped. You can grab the other side with a size 17 open end on the new GM ones, donno bout AM ones. You could also just buy regular nuts and use some loctite.

ryman416

iTrader: (1)

okay this exact thing happened to me about a month ago. I originally thought it was a broken CV-joint but it ended up being the entire control arm. My best recommendation is to take it to a shop cuz potholes can cause a mess of troubles and it is hard to figure it out on your own sometimes.

as for tunameltman, it is prob your CV-joint, (the part in the rubber covering). it might need replacing if thats the problem. Those arent hard to replace tho. however i can be wrong so the best course of action would to get it professionally done. ****** potholes.

D_Rob

I have the same, exact, problem. Looks like I'll be going to the dealer soon. Hit a pot hole @ 80 too. Whats with pot holes in places where you can do 80???? It stinks.

tunameltman

That's what I'm talking about. Chattanooga has some of the worst roads as far as potholes go. Wish I had a warranty on mine. Looks like I'll be getting myself under the cobalt soon

DoubleTheGame

It seems like there are crazy potholes everywhere this year!!
There are some pretty nasty ones here they said something on the news like there are over 400,000 Potholes in Edmonton, AB this year!

I don't know whats more sad. The fact that there are so many potholes, or that someone actually counted over 400,000 of them

tunameltman

I'm pretty sure in Chattanooga the potholes outnumber the people, lmao

CanadianCobalt

iTrader: (5)

For what it's worth,

The sway bar end links are a common problem (mine went too) and an easy way to check if it's them is to unhook them and go for a drive before you spend money.

Also I'd recommend Moog ones, I have them. They are greasable and a whole lot more beefy.

Joel