Yea tell me about it. In michigan every 15 feet is either a huge bump or a pot hole. Our road funding sucks ass

 

Ill take a double wishbone suspension over the cobalt's sterotypical cheap ass mcphearson strut setup any day of the week.

 

But why? Does the double wishbone handle better? Easier to work on?

Or are you just forgetting how bad the 90s really were?

 

Double wishbone setups are terrible compared to McPherson strut.

 

"MACPHERSON STRUT


The MacPherson Strut is the simpler of the two suspension designs, and as such, there are fewer things that can go wrong with a strut type suspension. Also, the MacPherson Strut takes up a little less room horizontally, which allows for more room for the front drive axle to pass through the front , and it allows for more passenger compartment space. MacPherson Struts are also relatively inexpensive compared to any of the other independent suspension types. Another big advantage to a MacPherson Strut design is reduced unsprung weight, which not only reduces the total weight of the car, but unsprung weight has a bigger effect on acceleration than weight inside the car. For example, if you reduced unsprung weight by 20 lbs, you would have to remove nearly 10 times as much weight from the passenger compartment (I'm not sure about the "10 times" part, I haven't heard any exact number, but it is fairly correct, and I put it in here only to impress upon you how important unsprung weight can be). Also, this reduction of unsprung weight increases the ride comfort exhibited by the car. With no upper arm (and sometimes no lower arm) engineers are able to directly control the vibration of the car with no need for the vibration to travel through initial members. This results in better ride comfort than most other
systems have.


There are some disadvantages to this system as well. First, it's a very tall assembly, making this system impractical on race cars, and means that you won't be able to lower a car with MacPherson Struts as much as other systems. MacPherson Struts also have a problem with the amount of room available for wider wheels, without increasing the scrub radius. The scrub radius is the distance from the ball joint line to the centerline of that wheel. Basically you want to minimize the scrub radius because any bump or cornering force that is applied to the tire can exert a twisting force on the steering that is proportional to the length of the scrub radius. So if you were able to get the scrub radius to be zero, the car wouldn't really need power steering (the twisting forces due to the length of the scrub radius would be gone, so the tire would easily rotate about the steering axis). This means that getting wider wheels will increase the scrub radius, and you will need to use more effort to steer the car. Another disadvantage of MacPherson Strut suspensions is that there is very little camber change with vertical suspension movement. This means that the tires on the outside of the turn are going to have positive camber as the body rolls. This means that the contact patch of the outside tires is reduced as the body rolls during a turn. Since the outside tires are the ones that are providing the most cornering force, you want them to have as large a contact patch as possible.

Despite the disadvantages of the MacPherson Strut suspension design, many cars use this suspension (probably mainly due to the ride quality, and because it is so inexpensive).

Now, there aren't very many disadvantages to a Double Wishbone
suspension. One of the biggest is the cost, because these systems are
so complicated and difficult to design and because of all the different parts involved. However, many companies believe that the handling gains are worth the extra expense. Another disadvantage would be that with so many different parts, there is more that can go wrong or break, and again because of the complexity of the system, repairs are usually more expensive. Also, again due to the complexity, modifying the suspension of the car properly is a little more difficult because it is extremely difficult to predict all of the effects changing one variable would have.


DOUBLE WISHBONE


There are quite a few advantages to the Double Wishbone suspension design. First of all, because of the length of the upper and lower arms, vertical suspension movement results in an increase in negative camber. This means that the tires on the outside of a turn stay in better contact with the road, because the negative camber gain that occurs as the body roll helps make sure that the contact patch of the tire is as large as possible. Also, this allows the car to keep a larger contact patch (the exact length of the upper and lower arms determine how much camber gain there is) during all conditions (except for the tires on the inside of a turn, but since they don't provide as much cornering force as the outside tires, this trade-off still ends up with an overall gain in handling performance). Because the camber changes when there is vertical suspension movement, it is possible to have the proper negative camber during a turn without having that same amount of camber when the car is going in a straight line, whereas, with other systems you would have to dial in a certain amount of negative camber that would always be there even when the car is going straight which would lead to increased tire wear. Also, the rigidity of the system prevents deflections during hard cornering, which keeps the steering and wheel alignment constant, even under a lot of stress.


Also, because the length of the arms can be specifically designed for the car, and because those arms can be mounted at various angles to the ground, the engineers can use computers to design the suspension for certain amounts of camber gain, a certain amount dive resistance during braking, and can design the suspension for just about any roll center height and swing-arm length. With so many options open to the engineer, and with the computer programs available today, chassis engineers can tune the suspension to perform as well as possible in all conditions (though for production cars they end up leaning towards safety and ride comfort instead of the best handling possible)."

 

I asked why you prefer it. Not a copy and pasted post that's not your opinion. Because that paste job just says that neither is really better. Just different.

 

Right. :rofl: Keep telling yourself that your cheap suspension designed for a car that originally retailed for 14,995 base MSRP is superior to a real suspension setup. SS might have a decent amount of improvements over the base model designed for performance, but still doesnt change the fact that its still, once again, a glorified cavalier. Despite your illusion that it can handle like a ferrari.

 

Ah, the ol "its a glorified cavalier" argument.

 

Oh lord. Again, answer the question. Why do you think the suspension on your shitbox $10k 95 Vtec Civic is far superior than an equal car today.

Or just beat around the bush and don't answer the question. Because you can't.

 

I answered the question, im not gonna give you some witty one line summary to satisfy your lack of understanding. The article I quoted explains why the double wishbone suspension performs better then the mcphearson strut setup in a brief summary. If you cant understand that then I dont know what to tell you. I'm not saying a **** box 95 civic is a superior car, im saying the double wishbone suspension is superior for handling.

 

So basically they both have strengths and weaknesses and neither is better in an overall sense. Got it. That's a summary from what you posted so I'll take that as your opinion.

 

Take it however you want.

 

Okay, so apparently this is how cobalts are, sadly. haha. I'm also having like a bazillion different things raddling in the car, I'm assuming thats normal due the really cheap interior. haha

 

Lol someone has to start a bash our ride thread,so we can pick them apart.but as proud owners.

 

Only thing i can tell you about the rattles is check the door panels for missing clips, and where the pieces of the panel are riveted together (they can break also). Check the rear deck for movement or vibrations around the speakers as there is nothing really that holds that in very securely.

 

I've tried to track the rattles down and what I can tell there is one coming from about my review mirror and one on the right side back passenger side, which I have no idea how to get to. lol.

 

The base Cobalt was built cheap for fast sales to those who could not afford a real fancy new car, The SS was built to be a fast car but again to keep cost down corners were cut. So a Cobalt rides the way they do feeling a little rough and bumpy and it is what it is

 

You don't say

 

But I do

 

I have to agree ...

I've had a few Ions in the same year as your car. My kid had a 2006 level 2 (FE1 Soft Ride suspension). The ride was soft, handling was awful. Now my kid has a 2007 with the 2.4 (FE2 "Sport Ride+Handling" Suspension). Not too stiff, handling is not so bad. It's a good little car for what they sell for. Just have to keep an eye on the end links and such since they do go bad.

I had a 2006 Redline. The car was lowered 1" - the ride was horrible but it handled OK. When you hit a small bump in the road and it made that bone jarring sound ....KAWHAM!!!! - and you're checking for loose fillings or missing teeth. I'm sure it was a little better when it was stock, i.e., not lowered with 100K miles.

I now have a 2009 SS/TC. FE5 suspension is a huge improvement. Rides just fine, goes over bumps without literally exploding, handles nicely. It's just a nice setup right from the factory.

 

Ive had my car for 5 years, my suspension feels just like the day I bought it. I dont understand what you guys are complaining about?

 

The stock springs should have been fine and shouldnt have needed replacing. I get a pretty harsh ride on fe1 with 18s. When im on my 16" winters its a lot better.