asianrage Posted September 19, 2015 Share Posted September 19, 2015 I'm debating between these two options as replacement for my 08 3.0R. I want to get a setup that'll give me a ride quality that's closest to stock Bilstein/SpecB. Can anyone who has experience with Koni and Bilstein and SpecB suspension chime in and enlighten me? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asianrage Posted September 19, 2015 Author Share Posted September 19, 2015 Mod: can I repost this in the 4G forum? Seems like I might get better traffic over there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitetiger Posted September 19, 2015 Share Posted September 19, 2015 since the 3.0r has bilsteins already IIRC, the best would be to keep the OE springs and just put in Bilstein HD's you didnt mention anything about wanting to lower the car, so why do aftermarket springs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asianrage Posted September 19, 2015 Author Share Posted September 19, 2015 since the 3.0r has bilsteins already IIRC, the best would be to keep the OE springs and just put in Bilstein HD's you didnt mention anything about wanting to lower the car, so why do aftermarket springs? I oh, I do want to lower it since I dislike the 2 finger gap in the front and one finger gap in the back. The car is also almost 105k miles old, so a refresh seems to be needed. I have to meet with John (Boxkita) next week to have him test the car, too. He might make some suggestions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LegacyGT44126 Posted September 19, 2015 Share Posted September 19, 2015 I swapped out my OEM springs/struts for Koni yellow sports and H&R springs. After 30,000 miles with the new combo, I am putting my original OEM springs back on the car so I will have a Koni/OEM combo. The LGT is not designed to be lowered as much as the H&R springs will lower the vehicle and as a result, the car rides very stiff and every bump is that much rougher on the car. As a result, I have gone through 3 genuine Subaru half shafts. If you have the money, check out the new HKS Hipermax coilovers. For $2K, you can have an awesome, customizable setup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asianrage Posted September 19, 2015 Author Share Posted September 19, 2015 I swapped out my OEM springs/struts for Koni yellow sports and H&R springs. After 30,000 miles with the new combo, I am putting my original OEM springs back on the car so I will have a Koni/OEM combo. The LGT is not designed to be lowered as much as the H&R springs will lower the vehicle and as a result, the car rides very stiff and every bump is that much rougher on the car. As a result, I have gone through 3 genuine Subaru half shafts. If you have the money, check out the new HKS Hipermax coilovers. For $2K, you can have an awesome, customizable setup. If I had lots of money, I would totally go for the RCE Tarmac 1. Lots of positive experience with that setup. But still not recommended as daily driver, from postings I was reading. Not really doubting you, but I'm so curious about why the half shaft would fail so quickly, 3 replacements within 30k miles. Usually, those aren't prone to failing. I would have bet on some faulty mounts and bad seals as a culprit. But then, I'm not a mechanic or Subaru expert. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LegacyGT44126 Posted September 20, 2015 Share Posted September 20, 2015 Some clarity on the failures: I added the Koni and H&R setup at 110K miles so the original shafts had some mileage already. I picked out the parts myself by shopping online at Tire Rack. That was my first mistake so my first recommendation is to find a tuner who's a Subaru expert so you can get some advice on the pros and cons with the options available. Within 10k miles of the mod, the passenger–side shaft failed. Unfortunately, I opted to replace with aftermarket OEM, which my mechanic told me later I should have went with genuine Subaru. Fast forward 20k miles and both the driver's-side shaft (OEM) and the 2 year old replacement on the passenger-side both failed. When I say failed, I mean they make a lot of noise but still work. I'm told they won't fail overnight in their current condition. I just don't feel it's healthy and I find it embarrassing when I have passengers in my car because the axles make noise and the car rides too rough with the H&R springs. I'm not a mechanic or Subaru expert, but I have an excellent mechanic/tuner who is both. I try to soak in as much of his knowledge and explanations as possible, but unfortunately I can only provide a layman's interpretation. As I understand it, the Legacy platform is not designed to be lowered as much as the H&R springs actually dropped my car. This put added stress on the car. During the time when the half shafts were failing, I only had 250 HP at the wheels so I don't think it was HP putting too much stress on the axles. The Koni and H&R combo performs well at high speeds, but based on my personal experience I can't recommend for a DD. My car has always handled great, especially with a nice set of high performance tires so dropping the car 1"+ (after full settling in) ended up not providing much of a handling improvement and only caused me issues. Going back to stock springs...the way the car was designed. I highly recommend finding an expert prior to ordering any parts for mods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asianrage Posted September 20, 2015 Author Share Posted September 20, 2015 Thanks for the explanation. If you didn't have the shaft failure, you still wouldn't have recommend the Koni/H&R setup, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asianrage Posted September 21, 2015 Author Share Posted September 21, 2015 Anyone else who went with Koni/H&R setup and ended up regretting it? Also, are there other who went with Bilstein/Swift setup and ended up regretting it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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