brandon.mol

Interesting...

Sounds enticing... I'd much rather spend the cash on a road trip then shipping costs. It took exactly 2 seconds to convince the wife that's a good idea What's the best time of year for a coastal tour anyway? Probably spring time right? April...May?

My OEM struts were junk in 20k miles with OEM springs and the dealer wouldn't acknowledge it because they weren't pissing oil. But it was terrifying on the highway... I'm going to go ahead with the 200lb springs with the Bilsteins...see how that goes. Someone on here is running 10-12 springs and Bilsteins and was happy... Norm?. So 14 springs being stiffer should be better match I'd think... If that turns out to be junk, then it'll be a road trip for a koni install. The wife says yes much easier when their is an epic road trip attached. She wants to do a tour of the US west coast then up through New Mexico, Arizona, etc back to Alberta. 1500 on mods?! Hahaha... I'm at about 5k I think. I know that's nothing compared to some of you enablees. I am still debating whether I should install the Megan toe arms plus eccentric lockout kit I got, or just sell it at a loss. Worried about salt corrosion of the pillowbal. I meant to get a bushing type and made a bad decision along the way. I am leaning on just installing it and if it goes bad, so what.... Replace it then or back to stock. Since I'll get squat for it resale, likely. Either that or press out the pillow ball and order a custom bushing to fit. FML.

Heh. I've already paid for the springs. Cost about $250Cad. Konis plus donors would run me 1500 or so with shipping, exchange rate, and junk yard donor struts. Plus installation. New donors would be a few hundred more. All of this shit is getting expensive. The expert option 'round here now seems to be that Konis are much much better than Bilsteins. I wish there were such strong opinions about then when I started this whole ordeal. Back then, my analysis of the consensus was that they were equally good, the konis were adjustable and the bilsteins were plug n play, and the Bilsteins were a couple hundred cheaper for me in Canada, all things considered. I went with Bilsteins instead of Konis mainly because the logistics of building them myself didnt work along with the realities of my installation options and shipping costs from GTeaser to me were insane for built ones. In hindsight, I regret it, I will admit. Just to put things in perspective, my intention was never to lower the car, or to improve cornering. It was to get rid of the bounciness from semi blown struts and stabilize it on the highway. My expectations for the switch to 5.5 gen springs with Bilsteins is improved bump absorbtion, less rebound kick on undulating surfaces and humps in the road, as well as .8 inches of increased ground clearance, while still having a much more controlled ride than stock, especially with my rear sway bar dialed up to stiff. Am I out to lunch?

Got a lifer huh?

Perhaps. I think the bilsteins have insufficient rebound dampening for these springs, so that makes sense, particularly in the back. We'll see how the '14 springs and Bilsteins work. If after all this it still rides like a chuck wagon...we'll see. Maybe then I'll put my tail between my legs and buy a set of Konis. Or I'll get pissed and buy a WRX.

400...ha...I would be a heading straight to physiotherapy if my springs were that stiff. Guess you guys must have flat roads. My coffee is flying all over the place as it is with 240lb RCE springs. I may as well just ask the drive through person to throw it in my face from the window and save me the hassle!

Was it on the roadside, dead? J/K ...or not

I respectfully disagree. Fact: stiffer springs equals more energy transmitted into your spine. The opposite is never true. Its common sense.

You mean less...right? +1 on increase dampening. If that doesn't do what you want then softer springs. Especially in the rear. If the rear springs are to stiff relative to the damping, the car will feel like it kicks the rear up violently when hitting bumps/whoops in the road.

An FA30 and FA30DIT ... That's what they need. Replacement for the 3.6 and 400 HP h6 turbo for STI..and Legacy GT, of course, just tune it down to 320 in the Legacy and let Cobb fix that for us. Your welcome Subaru. Now hurry along and get that done

Do we know what the EJ257 will be replaced with? Considering the likes of the Focus RS, Golf R, they are going to have to step it up a notch. 305 HP isn't enough to compete going forward.

Yeah... Like as if a couple of mm on the sway bar is going to make that mushy sedan in to a fire breathing untamable monster. To be fair though, its probably true that the type of person buying a 6th gen vs 5th vs 4th has move more and more conservative when it comes to modding. They just need more enabling. Double your efforts!

Get the WL bar. Anything else is pulling out early. You got in there, got messy and you might as well do it right. Sway bar install...I mean.

I second (third?) The recommendation to go with the Whiteline adjustable bar. Its not much more than the subie ones, and you really won't regret that extra couple mm... I have mine on the middle 22mm setting and I'll be moving up to the 23mm setting soon. The winter driving oversteer is perfect. Its neutral until you jerk the wheel and poke the throttle and the rear comes out exactly the amount you want...never more and seems to go right back on command. I find under steer in snow terrifying. You feel helpless as you plow straight towards a curb... I'd take a bit of oversteer over that any day. As far as I am concerned... Its still on the under side of neutral... But close. Now this has got me contemplating a limited slip diff in the rear....

Ahh.. Yes. My mistake.

Hmmm.. Apparently its up to the manufacturer to use digits 10-17 however they wish... So it could in fact be random or there could be blocks used for options packages, or even numbered cars get 10 more HP, multiples of 3 get a clicking sound in the right rear, multiples of 7 get under tightened hose clamps on the intercooler coupler.

But would that affect the build date stamped on the same metal plate as the Vin?. I understand shipment delays... But that build date on the chassis, wouldn't that correspond to the chassis build date, not the date it rolls off the line into the yard?... Well I guess it depends when that gets printed and put on. :confused:

Oh I know... Clearly not your fault. Agreed on reporting errors. Most likely the VINs that are wrong I suppose, rather than the build dates. Easier to transpose some digits there.

There seems to be some serious discrepancies between the build dates and the production sequence numbers from the vins. I find it hard to believe that Subaru randomly picked sequence numbers

Build date is on the black placard on the bottom right of the drivers door opening, near the bottom of the B pillar. You should be able to get the in-service date from any service record from the dealer, or just ask them and they can look it up for you. In-service could be prior to purchase though, if it was demoed at all.

1027520 --- brandon.mol ---- DIP ---- 2/12 --- 8/24/12 ----- Alberta, Canada ---- Stage 1+

Yeah. I've considered those, but I am more concerned about pillow ball corrosion and failure than surface rust. The white lines are the best of both worlds. Reality: I don't need to adjust camber at all and it can wait. My primary goal was to lock in my toe which has a habit of slipping.

Apparently, the Whiteline lower control arms are "still in development and have no set production date" says someone at Whiteline. So I dropped that from my order and may just order the Hardrace ones with rubber bushings. Apparently the Hardrace and Megan parts are identical. One difference though is you can order them from hardrace with hardened rubber bushings instead of pillowbal bearings if you want. The Megan toe arm is really hefty. Much better than I expected. However they don't come with eccentric lock out washers and bolts like the Whiteline ones, so I regret not just buying the more expensive Whiteline ones now. I bought a separate lockout kit to make sure these toe arms don't slip the eccentric bolts.

http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15/01/15/0d1f9fa1e2610edf8507283a7181b36a.jpg Thats the one for camber. I abandoned building one for toe because I feel the laser meathod is better and easier. I have a carpenter's level strapped to the back to make sure the jig is vertical when measuring camber.