Hi Guys,

hope all is well.

apologies in advance for the wall of text.

I am riding an an 08 ss TC with no suspension mods minus moog links and bumper stops deleted by GM (it was making noise so they cut them). i do not do any autocross or performance driving minus taking highway exits at 70-80MPH...stuff like that.

6 months ago my car started banging, very, very loud. it was horrible. my spouse hated riding in my car.

it wasnt every bump that caused the issue. only certain drops in height or elevated pieces of road that would make the bang. the bang came from the towers, sometimes one side, sometimes both. it was horrible.
i order two new FE5 struts from CED at my dealerships recommendation and we change them. Was ok for about 2 months. it started banging again, worse than ever. Frustrated, i wait and leave it be. i stopped washing the car, stopped fixing things, i fell out of love with it completely.....

i went to the dealership Monday. they took everything apart. i already had new CABs and new swaybar bushings so we pushed that aside. They ordered brand new fe5s under the warranty of the originals and to their surprise they compressed VERY easliy by hand.

Given i had spend over 1100$ CDN before going back to the dealer, he tried something new.

i just rode home on TC original springs and Monroe Sensatrac struts...its snowing horribly so i couldnt test body roll/performance and such, but i went to all the spots that caused the noise and nothing, its actually as quiet and smooth as ever.

now before we trash the dealership for doing that, it took them 9 hours to find it, try quick struts which didnt work, take it apart again and put in the sensatracs with my springs. they only charged me 45$.

My questions:

1. Why are the TC FE5s so easy to compress? i understand they are supposed to keep the springs at max spring rate?
2. Why did this happen again within 2 months? is it because they cut the stoppers?
3. Why did the dealership not trust their own product and use Monroe?
4. i Checked Monroes site, these struts are listed for all cobalts given they are interchangeable, but are they TC Fe5 replacements or FE3 or FE1s?

thank you for looking.

 

Bump and update,

day 2 of the sensa tracks. no noises, i am now noise free. i have not hit any large changes in pavement, high or low, so that remains to be seen.

i havent taken any hard turns or tried any pulls to observe traction change vs fe5.

if anyone has time to look at my above post and provide insight and expertise i would appreciate it.

thanks.

 

Just to confirm, no lowering springs?

SS TC shocks aren't easy to compress when they're new, yours were blown out by the sounds of it.

 

no lowering springs.

they are extremely easy to compress.

why did they blow if i did not hit any potholes?

do the fE5 absolutely need the bump stops?

 

Where are the bump stops in struts ?

 

ditch the sensacraps

get oem shocks and struts...