gtonstilts Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 Ok so question for those in the know..... i have an 05 outback with LGT struts and springs 2.5'' drop. im about to do swift springs and want stiffer struts to match them. i know 04 and older outback struts fit on a 05+ outback and are much stiffer due to valving, most of the OB guys do 04 rears as an upgrade some have done the 04 fronts too but generally say the 04 fronts are to stiff.... My question is are the older legacy struts as Stiff / interchangable with the 05 struts ? my goal is to get bilstein stiffnes on a monroe budget i had napa order a LF 95 and an 05 RF which i will compare tomorrow via measurements, and i will try to compare the stiffness by hand to see if its similar or way stiffer if the fitment is same but not stiffer i may look into getting the 95 kyb agx (adjustable) since they don't make agx for 05+ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gtonstilts Posted February 25, 2016 Author Share Posted February 25, 2016 update ! i have found a guy on a legacy facebook group that has 04 struts on his 05, says it is a noticable difference in stiffness. as in more than just the 10-15% you get from kyb vs oem/monroe.... i also re read the outback thread which states that the 04 has less rebound but more compression dampening, also states that since kyb is more both type, that the rebound is same as 05 but with 30% more compression ! as i said earlier i plan to use thick spring isolators to minimize the drop from the swifts. when its all said and done i should have a 13mm front/9mm rear drop. + removing 1/4 saggy but spacers to get it even all over again i decided to go with swift because they were the stiffest rate i could find esp in the rear, the stock rear springs are 300ish already which is quite stiff compared to other cars. the tein h tech are a little stiffer in front but same rear rate, the s tech are even stiffer in front and a decent amount stiffer rear, but with a big drop ! the swift seemed to be the best of both worlds stiffer than the s tech but only a 1.2-1 drop. i happened to have the isolators for the front laying around from a previous build. ill be putting this together in the next week or 2 depending on when parts arrive, and i will post my findings/review Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SockMonkey Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 Sweet Baby Jesus, this is a ton of info that I have been looking for. I recently dropped my 06 OBXT on some LGT wagon springs and struts, but they have like ~70k on them, maybe more and I want to stiffen things up a bit more. Rear sway bar is probably in order. I wouldn't mind a little bit more drop but I've read that much farther and you have to deal with other suspension things. I already plan on getting the whiteline rear camber offset bolts. Where did you get the thicker spring isolators? Can't wait to see the results of this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gtonstilts Posted March 4, 2016 Author Share Posted March 4, 2016 ok so its all done and sits with 1 finger gap f & r the front 00-04 struts turned out to be very stiff and the front is perfect ! the rear 00-04 not so much, the kyb 04 rears i purchased were weaker than the used 05 monroe i took off. i used them anyway and its not bad the rear has a bit more bounce than id like. if i had it to do over again i would have gotten bilstein hd $115 each for the rear. ill post pics and the part numbers for the coil spring isolators soon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gtonstilts Posted March 31, 2016 Author Share Posted March 31, 2016 here is what i installed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gtonstilts Posted March 31, 2016 Author Share Posted March 31, 2016 05=black 01-04=grey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gtonstilts Posted March 31, 2016 Author Share Posted March 31, 2016 how it sits with empty hatch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gtonstilts Posted March 31, 2016 Author Share Posted March 31, 2016 how it sits with about 150 lbs in hatch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gtonstilts Posted March 31, 2016 Author Share Posted March 31, 2016 rear struts are identical visually 01-05 so i didnt post a pic the fronts have a longer stroke they extend further and go lower into the body of strut, so they should be ideal for raised or lowered cars the fronts are awesome very firm/sporty ride without being uncomfortable for a daily driver, i did end up removing the rears afew days later and making a change to how the rear spring isolater's sat on the spring, had to trim it on one side so they sat a bit flatter. while they were out i re checked the hand dyno of 04 vs 05 rears, i found the kyb 01-04 struts were actually quite a bit stiffer after a few days of driving, they were a tiny bit stiffer than the 05 monroe on compression, and significantly faster to come back up. my theory is they werent happy straight out of the box, as they had been compressed for so long. car handles like its on rails now, has almost no body roll anymore, fishtails on wot sharp turns, and it dosnt rub at all even on big bumps at high speed and a load of dj equip in hatch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SockMonkey Posted April 1, 2016 Share Posted April 1, 2016 All great info thanks!! but what are those isolator part numbers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
utc_pyro Posted April 1, 2016 Share Posted April 1, 2016 the fronts have a longer stroke they extend further and go lower into the body of strut, so they should be ideal for raised or lowered cars the fronts are awesome very firm/sporty ride without being uncomfortable for a daily driver, Wait, so the older struts have more travel? Interesting.... What size spring isolators did you use in the rear? My saggy butt spacers keep making my rear shocks bottom out (the decrease engagement of the bump stop) so I want to move the rear spacing to the spring side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gtonstilts Posted April 2, 2016 Author Share Posted April 2, 2016 yes the 01-04 kyb grs struts have more travel than oem 05 front isolator http://www.energysuspensionparts.com/9.6120 these fronts fit perfectly just remove the oem rubber piece and use this instead gives about a half inch spring lift for the rear i highly recomend using (MR. Gasket) PART# 1287 or something like it these will make one coil not compress gives about a half inch lift, and noticably stiffens things, every coil removed from the equasion will give a percentage of stiffness added, if spring has 10 coils then 10% stiffet if it has 5 coils will be 20%..... this is what i used before i did the swifts, the only reason i didnt re use them is because the swift are already so so so stiff in the rear (370lbs) i didnt want to add stiffness but for literally any other brand sprin i would use these vs the isolator for the rear rear isolator http://www.energysuspensionparts.com/2.6101 the rears fit like crap, if you find something in another brand that works better let me know lol, its an odd size spring in the rear, you will need to shave out a spot for the spring end to sit, the inner lip is a little small to keep the spring from moving lateraly, so i used a ton of rtv between the lip and the spring, and let it dry overnight. the one other thing needed to make these rears fit is cutting the lip off the oem rubber and stacking the oem and new one. this gives a half inch spring lift Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murphy_jake Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 I have an 02 outback and was just curious if these springs you got would fit my stock strut and if so where did you order them from Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gtonstilts Posted April 23, 2016 Author Share Posted April 23, 2016 yes they will fit, but no way to know what the ride height will end up being, because the 02 is heavier than 05. you can always tweak that w spacers though. i got mine from a forum member. should be easy enough to find on google though, the brand is swift Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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