I recently purchased the FE5 strut and shock package from CED and I was far from impressed. The struts and shocks were extremely soft and required almost no effort to compress off the car, and on the car it seems the springs were the only thing offering resisitance. Is this normal? I was expecting the struts and shocks to be stiffer then the FE1's I took off!!

 

Their job is not to add to suspension stiffness, the FE5 dampers were designed for keeping the FE5 springs at critical damping. That has more to do with rebound stiffness than bump stiffness, so your new FE5s should extend more slowly once youve compressed them, that's the trick.

 

How much did it cost you total for the set up? I need to get a new suspension, might just buy it from ced

 

This makes me sad to hear as I was looking at this package. Any less body roll with them?

 

you might want to read more, shocks and struts are dampeners. they stop the car from bouncing, the ride stiffness is more related to the spring than the shock and strut. yes a strut with more pressure will ride a little stiff, but that is because it will not jounce or rebound as slowly as a softer one.

as for roll, that is in the springs and the sway bar and chassis mods

 

bluenote and ktrain are right. If you want less body roll and a stiffer ride change springs, struts help keep the suspension in control and control rebound rates. Better springs, such as pedders, will help with body roll, as will a rear sway bar. FE5 springs are good for handling though, probably second best only to Pedders. No one said they had to be super stiff.

 

Not trying to be a dick but that is half right. Quick transition body roll is completely affected by strut/shock design as the speed of the compression is much greater than slow turn in roll. Struts give there normal force as a function of velocity of compression, while springs give there normal force as a function of compression distance. Therefore in a quick transition the body will roll much more controlled with a stiffer strut, because it can give much more force at that high compression velocity. I would have expected from him to feel a difference in the speed of the body roll, not the amount I guess, so I should have been more specific but if he did notice any difference in body roll characteristics he would have said something.

 

Well they compress very easilly but do take a long time to retract so I see what you mean about the rebound. I was just expecting more. To be honest my FE1's handled better on sportlines then these FE5's. The body rolls more then it used to and im getting more tire rub then before. Granted these are marginaly shorter then my FE1's so that could have something to do with the rubbing.

 

you seemed to miss the first post, i understand what you are say, and i dont take it as a dick comment or anything. i did say that yes a a shock with higher rates, "stiffer" will help, but the only shock on the market that will help in that instance would be konis. and by the sounds of it you autoX or do road course racing, and then i would suggest atleast koni rears and fe5 fronts on pedders as a good setup without getting into retardedly expensive setups.

 

added details: The FE1's that I had, were KYB Excell 2's which were stated to be valved differently then ACDELCO FE1 struts and shocks. Perhaps that was the difference?

 

Yeah I doubt they would spend the money to make OE like copies of all three cobalt dampers. They're probably right in the middle like an FE3

 

FE5 struts and shocks aren't magical. They are underdamped in the rear, IMO. Konis and a Powell bar are a much better investment. Pedders aren't worth the money, at all. I noticed almost no improvement on track when I went to them, over the stock springs.

The stock FE5 setup is good to learn on though. It lets the suspension move since it's a little under damped, and will allow the car to rotate quickly on transitions. This forces the driver to have to get used to catching the car. Not good on public roads. Great for race tracks or autox.