just lowered mine tonight, and everything is smooth... don't know exactly why your having a vibration... hope you figure it out let us know.

 

I got to reading last night in the driveline section and then got to thinking. When we did the springs we didnt support the lower control arm, but just let it hang while the struts were out. Now maybe that screwed up the cv joints? Hmm dont know. I also know that when we replaced the right side hub/bearing you need to do some pulling on the axle to get the spline separated. And again when we pulled the struts to then re index the tab on the spring plate we didnt suport the control arms.
Im wondering if the joints or a joint got F'd up. I hope while we have it up in the air are start the car up to get the wheels up to 20mph we can see the vibration. If its an axle or joint I guess I will replace as needed.

 

Be careful when visually diagnosing a vibration, its almost assured that the wheel shaft is going to look like its bent or wobbling or vibrating as you "drive" the car with the wheels unloaded.

Is this vibration strictly road speed related(meaning if your going at a speed where the vibration is very apparent and you put the trans in neutral and turn off engine does the vibration remain the same?)

Or can you get it to drastically change by changine gears up or down, or revving the engine?

 

I know feel that it is an alignment issue. We loaded the front suspention by jacking up the car from under the lower control arms to compress the front struts and load the front end. and then started up the car and brought the wheel speed up to 20mph. There was no vibration. Visual or felt. Did this in first and second gear and nothing.
As I said in the other post, I had gotten an alignment after the spring install, but the tech used the wrong car spec's (06 balt NON SS/SC). The SS/SC sits 25mm lower stock than other models. So any alignment spec's used other ss/sc wont work. The geometry is different.
Now that I have the sportlines on the car the geometry is realy different, and when we had the car apart last week we noticed that the ouside edges of both front tires are becoming feathered. Meaning the toe is out. How badly out I will find out this sat when I get another alignment. I know that if there is excessive toe in or toe out it will cause a vibration.
The vibration comes on at 20mph each and every time and then as the car speeds up so does the vibration. As far as pushing in on the clutch and not feeling it, I have to now say I might have been wrong about that statment. I can leave for work in the morning and coast thru my parking lot and reach 20mph and feel the vibration coming on. Now when under power it is more obvious and when making left hand turns it is as well. I feel it mostly on the right front wheel. the steering wheel dosnt shake back and forth but you feel the front end of the car shake.
Guess I will see what happends the Sat with the new alignment.

 

What kind of shop did you have do your alingment?

 

It was a place called NTB (National Tire and Battery) is basically Tire Kingdom. If you ever heard of them. Price wasnt bad and they seemed knowledgeable. But as it turns out, NOT. I have had my ASE cert in suspensions and alignments and this fool that did mine was just that a FOOL.
Anyhow Im hoping the alignment Im getting on Sat helps eliminate the vibration. If not then Im gonna have to presume that its being caused by the cv axle binding. I think one other member in another thread I have stated he had or has the same issue.
I really don't want to raise the balt back up, but I dont want to destroy any part of the suspension or drive line. I even thought of buying some new CV axles (stock equivalent), but not sure that would help. I guess Im fresh out of ideas. I was so excited when I read the thread about the index tab. And when I made sure mine were facing inwards I thought great now no more vibration. But it was not to be.

 

man, i hope its an alignment for your sake... i'd go to NTB tell them that your experiencing a vibration they did your alignment tell them you don't want them to touch your car again and that your taking it to a different alignment shop and they are going to pay for it... then i'd take your reciept from the new place back to ntb and get your money back or at least the original alignment money back from ntb... be sure you get the paperwork from the new alignment place showing how much it was off by so you have some backing when going back to ntb.

 

I already got my money back the day after the did the screwed up alignment. But the vibration wasnt from there alignment. It started after the spring install. That is why I brought it to them was to get it aligned, cause I knew the geometry was gonna be off. But they didnt get it right.
Im going Sat to another place that a friend of mine swears by. SO I guess we will see. Im running out of things to replace. If I still have the vibration, then on Sunday Im gonna take things apart one more time and inspect one more time that the tab on the spring plate and bearing is all sitting correctly.

 

make sure they use the calibrations for the ss/sc and not the ss/na, as they are differen't as well. and i hope a new alignment cures your vibration problem.

 

Will do. I know the first alignment I got the spec sheet said 05-07 Cobalt Other Than SS/SC. SO I know the spec my car is set to now are wrong. but I will make sure they use SS/SC specs. Guess thats one bad thing about being debaged. Even tho I told them what the car was, they still got it wrong. With badging it would have been idiot prof.

 

not really. at the dealership i used to work at. i had our alignment guy check my alignment, all he does is alignments and somehow tried putting it to the ss/sc spec when i noticed that he was using the wrong specs i pointed it out to him and sure enough there are 3 differen't cobalt specs in the computer one for the 2.2's, one for the 2.4's and one for the ss/sc. by the way i have the ss/na. mind you, i'm now lowered with a pretty good alignment done by my brother a little negative camber never hurt nobody.

 

I knew there was other spec's for the other models, but didnt notice till after the fact that the moron used the wrong spec. So again Im hoping that the alignment Im getting tomorrow cures my vibration. If it dosnt then Im gonna take the struts and springs apart again and make sure from A-Z everything is ok. And put back in its correct place.
And Im not worried about the neg camber. I like it too helps with carving the curves. but Im sure my toe is out and starting to eat the edges of the tires.

 

ya hope everything goes well too. nobody likes a sick cobalt especially me.

 

Thanks man

 

How much did NTB cahrge you? idk alot about alingments but my dealer wants $69.95 for a 4 wheel alignment. I think thats a pretty good price myself.

 

Well NTB charged me 80+. For just a two wheel toe setting. if the dealer is charging you 70 that seems a little high. You dont need a 4 wheel. No adjustments on the rear. Unless they shim the rear hubs for the toe being out. But for the most part you just need a 2 wheel alignment. The place im going to tomorrow only charges 30 for a 2 wheel.

 

Toe&Go is what thats called. LOL . Camber=looks good, caster=f*ck it

 

I know that.

 

If all else fails buy some Koni struts & put those babys on. Then see if the car still vibrates. I've had sportlines on for about a year now & no problems.

 

did this get corrected man? i know when i did my coilovers, i didn't support the knuckle either, and my driver's side CV came apart. the shaft is held into the spindle/joint by a C-clip, and it broke off from the stress. i cut the coot and placed the shaft back in. drove slowly to my shop and had the outer end of the axle re-built.

i didn't have vibration, but then again my car wouldn't move at all. maybe you're having a lesser of the same problem?

grab your axles and pull and push on them, inward and outward, they should not move at all. if one slides in and out, no matter how much, get it replaced.

 

Ok well I got the alignment done this morning. Got the car on the lift and checked the current settings. Once we loaded the FE5 spec's
Once the tech got the heads on the settings were- Left Toe, -.30* and Right Toe, +.50* (there is my push to the left). This was all from the last alignment shop, NTB (National Tire and Batt).
I told him that the car has been lowered and to try to get each wheel as close to 0 toe as possible.
We ended up with- Left Toe, .10* and Right Toe, .05*. I then headed out and began to drive home. The vibration is about 90% gone. So that tells me that since the car is lowered it wants more toe out or should I say 0 toe. I know the spec on the SS/SC FE5 susp. is 0.00>0.20 of toe per wheel. But that is at factory ride height.
But atleast the vibration is all but gone. So I called the shop a bit ago and told him how the car was doing, and told him that in the next few weeks when I get my new tires (225/45/18's) that I was gonna drive back up to the shop and have him reset the toe as close to 0 each wheel if not a tad into the neg. and then forget it. So it looks like I am on the right track. Need as little + toe as possible.

As far as the CV joints, my buddy and I checked them and they were fine from what we felt, not to mention that last weekend when we had the car up in the air last weekend lifted by the lower control arms to load the suspention we saw no movement out of them.

 

Well after further review, the vibration problem is still there and not a problem with the alignment. Its something in the drive line. As I was stuck in traffic going down a hill today, I put the car into first gear and got up to the vibration speed 20mph, then I took the car out of gear and there was no vibration as I continued to coast down the hill. reached a coasting speed of 35mph and still nothing. So I defiantly feel its some where in the drive line. But not the axles. cause if it were they would be vibration even during the coast down hill.
I AM installing the stock springs on Sunday and I hope the vibration will go away. If its still there then Im still under warranty (33k on the clock now) Ill bring it to the dealer.
I wish I had a clue what it could be. Im getting to old for this ****.

 

Well I have to say I AM REINSTALLING MY STOCK SPRINGS THIS WEEKEND! I feel that the vibration issue is due to the extreme drop of the sportlines and the change in geometry in the cv axles. I have spoken to a few others on here that have experienced the same issue.
I feel the nickle and dime'n of parts to try and solve this issue just to keep the sportlines installed isnt worth the cost. So once I remove the sportlines Ill be either wanting to trade them for a complete set of Pro Springs or just sell them.
Thanks for all the input.

 

what are you going to do if the stock springs are on and still have same issue?

 

Well then I will buy a set of new axles. Found a link on another thread to a company that sells new cv axles at a good price. If that cures the problem Ill still get the the Pro Springs. I have also found that the roads here arent meant for the sportlines, but the pros not being as much as a drop but a tad more in spring rate will give me the ride and handling Im looking for. Oh combined with a set of 235/40/18's.