sooblover

Thread Starter

a picture of my lady's car from this morning. Still playing with the new camera...

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my build journal: the silver bear

EffenBee

^^^^^love those year aspen white is my favorite!!! thats my next car after this forester is payed off!!

sooblover

Thread Starter

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my build journal: the silver bear

sooblover

Thread Starter

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my build journal: the silver bear

fourortwowheels

Foz parking only! Nice meeting you today Steve, I hope you had a ton of fun, it is addicting!

Your car was setup well, thanks for letting me show you what it was capable of, and especially the fact you shaved off time afterwards! I know you enjoyed the run in the EVOX I was driving today, that thing was a beast!

sooblover

Thread Starter

Polar Silver Bear

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my build journal: the silver bear

bumassjp

oh man I can't wait for snow in Chicago.

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04FXT

sooblover

Thread Starter

An old topic but a friend put something together for me:

https://vimeo.com/54020469

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my build journal: the silver bear

sooblover

Thread Starter

rota svn 17x8 +48 with 5mm spacers (+43 effective) 215/55-17 snow rubber

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my build journal: the silver bear

sooblover

Thread Starter

finale:

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my build journal: the silver bear

themitchster359

damn, those snows look nasty mean. any rubbing?

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Mitchell | 04 FXT | 98 SF Auto aka "shitbox"

sooblover

Thread Starter

Lol yea they do look mean right!? Almost makes me wanna lift the foz lol.

Um yes i do get rubbing on the front of the inner fender liners but not because the tires are too big or im too low... But because i have so much caster in the front control arms pushing the front wheels forward...


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my build journal: the silver bear

sooblover

Thread Starter

Rubbing only on tight turns


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my build journal: the silver bear

Toycoma

I was reading your build thread and was wondering what did you spend to lower your forester on the springs and struts? What is absolutely needed to lower it with the springs and struts? And how much of a drop is it. I have spent 2700 on coil overs for my old drift car (90 toyota cressida) so I have no fear of going that route but was wondering if i could save a decent amount of money if i went with springs and struts. I also plan on running the same wheels as yours (size and offset) but with a 235/45/17 instead of the 245/45/17 you are running.

sooblover

Thread Starter

Well I don't recall exactly what I spent but here ya go:

Suspension Products for 2003 Subaru Impreza WRX Sedan

I would estimate the parts I have on there to come out to $860 after shipping.

I bought my 2002-03 fitment KYB AGX struts and H&R Sport springs ~4.5 years ago and installed them on my 02 bugeye RS. When I decided to sell that, I took those off and put them directly on the Forester with 1/4" (~5mm) strut top spacers all around. They dropped the car perfectly and honestly ride really well. I like that there is a range of adjustment with the struts that actually make a difference. I detailed some of my tinkering in this thread. The suspension is firm but very controlled. Of course rough roads/city roads are unpleasant but thats the sacrifice we make for awesome road holding, right?

I have not actually measured my fender to hub distance yet but estimate that stock WRX suspension lowers Foresters ~2 inches. Then the springs I'm using lower ~1.5 on that. So my Forester is lowered roughly ~3.5-4 inches from stock height (keep in mind I attempted to correct the resulting terrible susp. geo. from going that low by installing extended ball joints and tie rods and then doing the subframe spacer delete project).

Given the cost on this, I guess I could have bought decent coilovers for ~$1100-$1700, but this was suspension I already had and like I said, it performs really pretty well. I've done a track day and an auto-cross where two different experienced drivers drove my car and thought it performed very well.

The other thing I considered was the need for maintenance with coilovers. The threads on the body can get gummed/crusted up from road debris. This gets a lot worse if you use them through winters with salt and sand on the road. The other thing I considered was the possibility for a harsh ride and noises coming from them.
All of these possibilities caused me to choose the strut/spring route.
I WILL ADMIT though, that I have no first hand experience with coilovers but I know enough people with them that can confirm one or more of these things.

Having said that, I will eventually get coilovers lol. Good ones, for the ride height and corner balancing ability and a bit more resolution/range with damping control (compared to what I already have). I would go with ones where the body is threaded into the mounts, not just thread spring mounts (travel reduction is bad IMHO)

If you have experience with them and/or don't live in wintery/dirty area and get nice enough ones where the ride is good, then I say go with them!

Otherwise I don't think they are completely necessary, I think you can get 80% of the looks/performance with a GOOD strut/spring setup.

Oh and I wouldn't go with a 235/45-17 tire. You'd have a overall diameter that is too small for your gearing and you would end up artificially putting more miles on your car and reving slightly higher for any given speed. Even the 245/45-17 tire I have is slightly small, but its a decent compromise for clearance and fit.

Hope that helps and thanks for the question!

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my build journal: the silver bear