heeros1

I spent half the day looking through the forum but I can't find anyone talking about tuning the suspension on a cobalt sedan. It's hard to believe no one in this forum has a sedan and doesn't feel the need for a stiffer suspension.
I know the sedan isn't really meant to be a sports car, but I would like to get a little better handling out of it anyway. I kinda ran against a wall with the rear suspension, since I have no idea what I can do with a torsion bar suspension. I found sites that talked about bolts that can be adjusted to lower torsion bar suspensions, but I also found sites that said it wasn't possible.
So here I am hoping someone here knows what options I have, and is kind enough to tell me.

It would probably be helpful to know that I drive a 2006 Cobalt LS Sedan.

I also found this --> http://www.magnumforce.com/store4/co...conversion.asp
but I don't know if it would be feasible. and if it were, I probably wouldn't be able to do it myself.

Thank you in advance for your responses!

lil_kano

You don't need to go that far unless your planning on doing some SERIOUS track laps...and i mean with heavy boosting and power...a simple set of koni struts with eibach (or your choice of springs) along with ss/sc front sway bar and a nice rear sway bar you shoudl have a pretty nice ride. you can get a strut tower brace but i've heard it doesn't do too much.

there other things you can get too.....look around at the forum vendors. also you can use the search button to see all the other post about questions like this.

heeros1

as far as I know sway bars only work on strut type suspensions, and I'm not trying to do any forced induction. for now I only want to turn at moderate speeds without feeling like I'm on a boat.
I did see that I have coil springs in the back, but the distance isn't long enough to put some struts in (at least that's what it looks like).

I did do some searches, but I couldn't find anything sedan related about rear suspensions

Edit: Oh, I just realized that you probably meant putting struts in the front, and about putting a brace in the back, I found some, but they ether specified that they were for the coupe, or didn't specify. and about getting a strut tower brace, in pictures that google shows me they look like sway bars.

BigTizzle903

you basically have two choices, a nice set of struts (ex: koni) with a nice set of springs (ex: eibach sportlines) OR coilovers (ex: ksport)


those are the choices you have (for shocks at least) on any cobalt, not just the sedan

heeros1

yea, that's for the front, but I'm concerned about the rear, since it's not just struts, it's a torsion bar suspension which I have no Idea what to do with.
my goal would be to lower the entire car a little, and get a stiffer suspension, all around, not just in the front.

BigTizzle903

koni makes a set of front and rear struts. and when you order springs they come in a set of four

http://www.koni-na.com/cat_search.cf...&submit=Search

heeros1

Thank you for the prompt responses, I will research koni's products some more and if I have any questions I'll post them here again.

thank you again for pointing me in the right direction

heeros1

I might have had an epiphany while not being able to go to sleep last night.

could it be that the rear suspension on the sedans, and coups is hardly any different?

I thought there were major differences since the sedan was merely described as a torsion bar suspension on most sites, and on 1 site as a torsion bar suspension with coil springs,

the ss was described as a "monotube sock" suspension, and the ss supercharged was, on some pages described as a "twist axle suspension".

http://www.carbibles.com/suspension_bible.html <-- according to this page, the torsion bar in a torsion bar suspension is supposed to replace the coil springs, and work with shocks, but i guess the cobalt has a variation of that with the torsion bar replacing the shocks instead.

qcpursuit

I have a 2005 sedan and ive put H&R race springs on it 2 years ago and it run great,good handling.I know a lot of cobalt sedan owners that have a modified suspension and I dont know why you cant find them on the site.

lil_kano

They are pretty much interchangeable (Sp). look at crateenginedepot.com website and go to thier suspension section adn it will tell you the diff. between the base, ss and the ss/sc. i have a sedan and im going to be doing the setup i told you about.

BigTizzle903

yea everything suspension wise is interchangeable between all model cobalts.

heeros1

it's reassuring to know that they all use the same suspension system, because it really frustrated me the last few days trying to find out what the differences between all of them were, and if I could even lower/tighten the suspension. now it's just a matter of how much I want to spend, and when.

btw. the crateenginedepo.com domain name is expired (site doesn't exist anymore/doesn't exist under this name anymore)

BigTizzle903

you spelt it wrong lol


its crateenginedepot.com (forgot the t) lol

heeros1

hey... don't blame me I just copy and pasted the address

I've been looking at the eibach and Koni combination, and the more I read about it the more it makes me want to buy it too. I might just start saving up for these.

Thank for all your information

BigTizzle903

thats what im saving up for (after i buy my radar detector, but i might hold off on that and get a short shifter, followed by suspension, then the radar detector seeing as im halfway there to getting my suspension and dont want to start over lol)

heeros1

I just realized something though. the Koni tech pdf says that its safe to lower the car by up to 1 1/2 inches, but going much further risks bottoming out.

"Different vehicle suspension designs have different stroke travels but a
good rule of thumb is that most vehicles can be lowered
acceptably about 1 1/2 inches, beyond that the possibility
of bottoming increases rapidly although some longer
stroke cars can go lower."

are you sure this spring/shock combination doesn't bottom out the shocks? cuz the springs would lower it at least 1.6"F and 1.8"R

BigTizzle903

i take it you have a 2.2?

with sportlines on a 2.2 it lowers it 2" front and 2.5" rear, but on an ss its only like 1.6" and 1.8"


someone else might be able to know for sure, but i think that even the 2.2 is a crazy drop, its still around 1.5" on the ss, and since your upping the shocks as well i think it should be fine, theres a few people on the site who have done this mod before, if your really worried about bottoming out the shocks you can look into coilovers, but theyre kinda expensive

heeros1

yea I have a 2.2l sedan

hmm, interesting, now I'll have to read up on coilovers.

Edit: coilovers do seem like the thing I want, since you can adjust both ride height and stiffness. but it does come with a higher price. I think I'll have to hold off on this project for a while