OK, so a rundown of my suspension...

I have Pedders with FE5...bought the combo a couple years back from CED. I have FE5 control arms, Moog end links, factory front sway, OTTP Street bar in the rear.

Problem is that I have a lot of suspension issues at the moment. I am pretty certain my struts and shocks are at the end of their life. I also know I have a bad wheel bearing on the driver's front. I will be making an appointment to have a shop check everything out and tell me what's up. I'm a little worried I may have issues with my axles or something else as things don't feel right to me. And the sounds aren't too great either.

Anyway, question is this:

If I wind up having to replace struts and shocks, are the Koni's really worth it? Can I do FE5 SS/TC struts and Koni shocks? Should I just stick with a new set of FE5 struts and shocks?

Or should I scrap the setup completely and go with coilovers?

If you answer coilovers, tell me which ones you recommend.


I daily drive my Cobalt in the Twin Cities. Most of the roads suck, but some are OK. I do push my car a bit.

Also this past Saturday I went out with a local Mazda club to cruise through Wisconsin. I think my car handled pretty well, but I loved watching how well some of the little Miata's handled and the C5 Z06 that was in front of me. I know they're totally different platforms so don't start on that...I'm just stating it.

So yeah, opinions on a coilover for mainly DD, but also moderate use (no auto-x or actual track use, just winding roads and fun daily driving). I was looking at KSport and BC, but I've always been interested in the KW V1's.

Thanks for any help you can give me. I know one of my buddies did some video on Saturday and I was behind the Corvette so I'm hoping I can watch that and maybe post it up to show how my car with Pedders handled.

 

I should also mention that I think the reason my struts and shocks are done for is because I have cut bump stops from when I had Sportlines. I didn't buy new bump stops.

This time around, if I buy new shocks and struts, I will get new top mounts, new bump stops, and make sure everything is done exactly as it should be. This is the main reason I'm comparing whether I should go with new struts and shocks vs coilovers...cost isn't too much different when I am all said and done because I will make some money back by selling my Pedders.