Treasury Stock	3 Months Ended
Jul. 01, 2012
Treasury Stock [Abstract]
Treasury Stock	NOTE K — Treasury Stock Common stock held in treasury totaled 21,296,593 shares with a cost of $306.2 million at July 1, 2012 and 20,724,106 shares with a cost of $300.6 million at December 31, 2011. Approximately 7.5 million shares are available for future issuances. In May 2008, CTS’ Board of Directors authorized a program to repurchase up to one million shares of its common stock in the open market at a maximum price of $13 per share. The authorization has no expiration. Reacquired shares will be used to support equity-based compensation programs and for other corporate purposes. During the first half of 2012, 572,487 shares were repurchased at a cost of approximately $5.6 million or $9.86 per share.

The entire disclosure for an entity's treasury stock, including the average cost per share, carrying basis for each class of treasury stock, description of share repurchase program authorized by an entity's board of directors, the number of shares repurchased, the cost of the shares repurchased, the remaining maximum dollar value of shares available for repurchase under the program, the treatment of the purchase price in excess of the current market value, number of shares held for each class of treasury stock, and other information necessary to a fair presentation.

No definition available.

Name:	us-gaap_TreasuryStockTextBlock
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	nonnum:textBlockItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration