CTS Suspension upgrade components

Initially for upgrading the suspension in my 2005 Cadillac CTS I wanted to go with the suspension from the CTS-V.  This stikes me as a setup that is already tested and validated by Cadillac on the chassis, and is an all-Cadillac solution.  After studying the various solutions available from Hotchkis and Eibach, I was leaning toward one of those, and looking at prices and shipping cost (suspension parts tend to be heavy).

Luckily I was able to win an Ebay auction for a few useful items — basically the complete FE4 suspension off of a 2005 Cadillac CTS-V:

Cadillac CTS-V Front and Rear Swaybars

Cadillac CTS-V Front and Rear Swaybars

Cadillac CTS-V springs

Cadillac CTS-V springs

The auction also appears to include CTS-V shocks, although these likely will need fresh examples:

Cadillac CTS-V FE4 Shocks

Cadillac CTS-V FE4 Shocks

Hopefully everything is as described.  At a total of $61 with free shipping it makes a nice purchase.

Next I need to nail down the testing methodology to be used to test at each step, then test my current FE1 base soft ride CTS suspension a couple of times to show consistency of results.

I think our first suspension mod step will be to swap to the CTS-V sway bars alone, then test.  Based on my reading, sway bars can have the greatest single impact on handling.  Swapping the sway bars should only take a couple of hours in the driveway, but we’ll see.

UPDATE — Hmm; not so fast.  Apparently the seller is claiming that the auction was only for ‘free shipping’, not for the components themselves!!?  So, this may turn out to be a ‘dry hole’ after all.   If this does not work out, I’m back to deciding whether to go with a new Eibach or Hotchkis kit designed for the base CTS or to look for another CTS-V take-off set.  The Eibach kit from AutoAnything with Free Shipping looks like a nice choice.

UPDATE 2 — Okay, I think we may be settling on a price for the CTS-V sway bars and bushings from a 2005 CTS-V, which were the parts that I wanted to try first.  So, back to figuring out the best test setup to use.

4 thoughts on “CTS Suspension upgrade components

  1. Pingback: CTS upgrade to CTS-V suspension

  2. Actually I got occupied with other issues and haven’t got the FE4 sway bars on yet, as easy as that appears to be. I want to do some ‘before’ measurements but have not found the right venue.
    Please let me know how your project turns out.

  3. I upgraded by 05 CTS sway bars to the V’s and it made such a big improvement on the handling.

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