Hey Guys,

Here is whats been happening. so far at 65K miles on the car I have had to replace both front lower control arms and one front passenger wheel bearing. I drive in Chicago, apparently these cars really can't handle any sort of pot hole at all, as I believed thats what caused some of this. Either way I still get this where rattling noise going over rough road and 25 to 45 miles and hour and get rattle sound and feel in my floor panel and gas petal. They say my strut mounting points are bad/warn out and need to be wheeled with new mounts that only a body shop can do. Also I've been told that i should replace my upper control arms on the front of the car. Lastly, when i went to take my car to get new tires last time and have my front end aligned they said they could not get it perfect as there appears to be frame damage (dealer did alignment so i'd lean to believe them) and that it would always pull to the right without getting the frame fixed! I also do get minor vibrations in the steering wheel which I never used to get also about 30K miles ago or so.

BTW, none of the pot holes I hit caused me to blow a tire or damage a rim, which would mean to me that my tire and rim is stronger than my front end of my car, thats kind of scary. I've Lived in Chicago for 18 years almost drove a 79 trans am for 4 or 5 years and a 98 Contour SVT for 2 years and a malibu 05' for a year and none of these cars ever ran into problems like this. I've prone to thinking the front end on the cobalts are junk. This all happened after my 36 warranty was up the dealers will do nothing to help me its all been out of pocket.

So, what do you guys think I need to do, take it to a body shop or a dealer or what? I'm stuck with this car and I really want it to be "perfect" and It drives me nuts to have these issues or do I ditch the car. I'm upside down in payments right now by almost a year or so, so ditching it might not be the best plan unless there is no way to make it perfect.

 

Well, you don't have upper control arms, so i would punch whoever told you that.

The strut mounting points are pretty tough, but that's something you should be able to replace yourself if they are indeed worn.

 

Did you replace the swaybar links yet .They are knowen to cause rattles on sharp bumps when worn.
Quite common for these to be replaced on cobalts.

 

Could also be a steering column issue, which is common as well. Best meet up with a local guy and have hi listen, see if you can't narrow it down between you. It's hard to diagnose rattles over the internet.

 

What do I need to get to replace the strut mounting points, they told me this needs to be welded. You can hear it knock when you physical push the car back and forth from the side. It is the noise I'm hearing most of the time but different because of the road vs me pushing it to make make the noise once.

The swaybar links that might make sense, where can I get those and are there better after market choices? Any guides to do it yourself replacement?

Thanks guys for the info and help. Any thoughts on the "frame" damage and not being able to align it correctly? It pulls a lot more to the right when accelerating which makes the torque steering way worse.

 

So what parts should I grab to replace the stock ones that are obviously garbage? Links would be hepfully.

 

O'reillys has the sway bar end links. They are aftermarket, and greasable. I've heard they are much better than the OEM ones.

 

if you live in area that has really rough roads (I do, Adirondack Mountains of northern NY), the swaybar links from the factory are weak and make a shitload of noise when they get loose. My brother works at a Chevy dealership and we got the new links to go in the front (under warranty no less) and the new part is beefier, superseding the old links. At first, I thought the control arm bushings had failed (although this seems to be most an 05/base car problem) and had it looked at. The whole time it was the sway bar links. '

One issue I have noticed now that the odometer is over 73,000 is that the steering shaft is a bit clunky. Apparently these need to be lubed every now and then to keep them quiet.

you wouldn't believe the noise those links made... when they rattled, i thought the front end was about to fall out of my car!