illt3ck

I just finished swapping in 04 wrx sedan springs paired with 04 wrx wagon springs and 04 Forester XT top hats so I thought I'd share some the tricks I discovered while going through the process.

When removing the top 3 nuts per side in the rear be careful when you take them off not to drop them between the strut tower and rear carpet as I'd imagine it'd be quite the pain to remove that entire piece! I bobbled a couple of them myself. Same goes for the fronts - it's an abyss if you do.

The front struts should look like this when put together properly.



If you're swapping in the same setup I did the rear wrx wagon springs don't even need the spring compressors as you can line everything up and apply pressure to slightly compress the spring enough to get the top nut off.

I'm assuming you're using manual spring compressors like I did. That being the case I would highly recommend you orientate them (rear) similar to this picture:



This compressor setup offers the quickest and most efficient way to get the springs compressed enough to safely remove the top locking nut. It also keeps the bolt end of the compressor away from the strut housing to allow you to crank on them without it getting in the way.

For the fronts I recommend this compressor orientation (on the right):



If you don't fell like cranking a million times to get the highly compressed and very long front spring on the forester off just crank both sides down evenly enough that you can get a little bit of movement of the spring on the shock body. Then take your pass thru ratchet and allen wrench to it (carefully) and once the bolt comes off the spring will expand rapidly but controlled since you have the compressors on their snug. I compressed my first side all the way and wasted time imho - so on the other side I did it this way and was able to perform the swap much faster. Please do this at your own risk, make sure to brace the strut itself and have the top pointed away from anything you value. It's not going to shoot across the room but it will rapidly expand a good 6 inches or so.

On the front struts the abs sensor mount faces the front of the car, the brake line mount faces the rear of the car. The struts are specifically made for the driver's side and the passenger side and are not interchangeable due to these mounts.

The large 19mm bolts go in from the brake line side (front struts). It's easiest to slip the bottom bolt through first and push the brake assembly towards the car to align the top hole properly

Make sure to put the rear silver dust covers on before wasting time spinning on all 3 12mm bolts. (remember they are only 14.5lbs of torque).

I highly recommend loosening all 4 of the middle locking nuts while the struts are still on the car. With past cars I didn't do this and it was a PITA.

When jacking the car from the specified jack point in the front you may have an issue with one side of the car being slightly higher than the other due to the jack point's offset location. To remedy this jack the car up to the height you desire and set both jackstands. The driver side will be slightly lower so once you've set the car down on both jackstands I'd recommend taking your jack over to that side and jacking it up so you can even out the stand on that side.

Most Subaru shops will quote you $710 for this job. I prefer doing it for free :)

One thing to note is that when swapping from the oem 04 xt suspenion to the 04 wrx sedan struts I have almost triple the room between the strut housing and my 245/45/17's on 17x8 Rota Torques running Kumho SPT's with a 9.6 section width. (for those people that claim you cannot fit a 9.6" SW tire on oem suspension with 17x8 wheels, you can with no rubbing.)

I'll add more once I think of more.

 

donski

this should be added to a sticky

Forester 2.5 XTi

I see you wrote about the thru ratchet... If you didn't want to pay out for a set of those. What brand/model offset wrenches will work?

I can say Sears and Harbor Freight 17mm offset wrenches would not go deep enough.

Someone has to have experience with one that will work.

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GIT-R-DONE

I could of used this a month ago......

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illt3ck

I wish I knew which ones would work but honestly I bought the thru ratchets and returned them after I was done with them.

:) Making effective use of their return policy, same thing with the allen head wrenches.

Roo

You don't think that's being dishonest in any way?? Hmm, I bought a decent pass-through socket/ratchet set, and still have them...because I never know if/when I'll need them again.

Mind you, it fits in with another thread around the forum about you.

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filibence

oooooo there's the low blow by roo.
but its true though. i did read that thread about someone being fishy. the thread kinda looked like this:

you could have gone to pepboys. They actually RENT a lot of their tools. Im going over there tomorrow morning to rent a spring compressor. Since it costs $60 to buy it new, they charge you $60 to rent it, and if you return it within 5 days, they give you the full $60 back. If you don't give it back then its already paid for so its yours. Its a nice policy.

I'm thinking of renting a new set of tires and making them change them up every five days

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Forester 2.5 XTi

Has anybody else tried different sets of offset wrenches besides me and failed also? If anybody has a snap-on, mac, etc... maybe just pop the rubber cap and see if it'll fit on there nice. Sometimes the time's just not right about buying more expensive tools. I'm in a real bine right know. I've gotta move again. But the STi sedan springs gotta go. Tired of driving around real careful.

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filibence

tell me about it....
its impossible to drive like that here in PR, you avoid one hole but you hit another.....constantly....i wish the government would just stop stealing the feds' money and they would just make good fu**in roads.

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illt3ck

You can think what you want - they have a return policy for a reason.

Forester 2.5 XTi

I just swapped out the STI Sedan springs I mistakenly got for the FSTI springs I was supposed to have. I am not in shape to pay for thru sockets, tho mind you I do want a set in the future, but money is dwindling! I couldn't find a better offset wrench like I asked before. So to prevent the shaft from spinning while taking off the top nut (17mm) I used a thick bath towel. This used to be a high dollar one but it's too dirty now. Anyways I took vise grips and pulled the dust cover up and clamped on the shaft. I also put a touch of white out on the top of the strut where the hex goes on the top of the strut and after using a impact wrench I noticed the shaft did not spin nor did it get marred at all by the vise grips. FWIW, when you have to overcome, adapt, and improvise...this worked quite okay.

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USMC - One Shot, One Kill. You can run, but you'll die tired.

Northwest Tan

Handy post. Thanks.

Maybe a traveling wrench is in the near future? (remember the torx socket?)

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Wrathchild

I have never used a passthrough ratchet. But I have always had access to an air compressor and 1/2 gun. If you are careful not to spin the crap out of the shaft, you wont kill the seals. I usually put on my mechanix gloves and shove my hand in to hold the shaft as much as I can, which really you would be suprised at how well you can hold it still.

91sleeper

idk if this is expencive nd i know it's not the "best" brand but it looks good to me. anyone tried these yet?

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?actio...399&lpage=none

illt3ck

any pass-thru wrench set will work just fine.