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RalliTEK Lowering Springs - In Depth Review


sirsimon

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So the rumor is on almost all springs (Cobb, Rallitek, STI Pinks, Eibach) etc. and specifically with the Legacy GT's +2005 - that the rear tires will bottom out under hard cornering and braking as well as w/4 passengers. For those of you who are running 17's, 40 series, and Rallitek, has this been your experience? Please let me know cause there is a smoking deal on them now and would hate to pay for labor twice...thanks amigos-
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  • 2 weeks later...

Frankly after 75k of spirited driving when the opportinity presents itself, I wouldn't mess around with Spec.B suspension unless it was for a specific track with sponsor support for screwing around plus tires.

 

OEM is a great solution.

 

Kudos to Subie engineers. Nice job, boys!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Picked these up while they were on sale at rallitek, and just put them on this past weekend using some rented spring compressors from Autozone. Install was straightforward, but those manual spring compressors are a pain!

 

+1 to all the previous comments - Great improvement over stock springs. Body roll decreased by 60-70%ish over stock, ride is very firm but not harsh. Highly recommend.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Just ordered a set today. I have been using bilstein HD struts with new 2.5i wagon springs and all the other bits on my lgt wagon for about 1500 miles. Although the ride and handling improved over stock (30k miles on stock struts and springs), I am still getting some oscillation on the freeway over expansion joints that is bugging me. I hope these will eliminate that behavior and make it a bit more planted at highway speeds. I am going entirely off the sirsimon's reviews here so we shall see...hope it's not too stiff !!
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Just ordered a set today. I have been using bilstein HD struts with new 2.5i wagon springs and all the other bits on my lgt wagon for about 1500 miles. Although the ride and handling improved over stock (30k miles on stock struts and springs), I am still getting some oscillation on the freeway over expansion joints that is bugging me. I hope these will eliminate that behavior and make it a bit more planted at highway speeds. I am going entirely off the sirsimon's reviews here so we shall see...hope it's not too stiff !!

 

Just ordered a set too for my Spec.B, I probably won't get around for the install for some time. But I will report my findings after I get familiar with them. I can't wait to get rid of some of the slop in the stock suspension.

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Just ordered a set too for my Spec.B, I probably won't get around for the install for some time. But I will report my findings after I get familiar with them. I can't wait to get rid of some of the slop in the stock suspension.

 

 

Performance wise they rock! I will caution you though, if you like an even look then these are not for you...myself and other members have found that with the specb tophats on the shocks you get a 4 finger gap up front and a 2 finger gap in the back. Not too bad, but not perfect by any means.

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Well, it can't look any worse than the 2.5i stock springs I crammed on to the bilsteins. I thought the 2.5i springs were going to be softer than the gt springs on my stock setup. Turns out, they are exactly the same from what I can tell. I don't care too much about looks anyway, I just want this car to drive right !! It appears that the rallitek springs don't need to compress as much as the stock springs since in the pictures they are shorter. I had to compress the stock springs quite a bit to get them on to the bilsteins, and it just didn't seem right.
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I just installed my set too on stock shocks. Major improvement. Now I need to go get it aligned. Anyone have any recommendations for that? I know that the shops will have the 'stock' setup available, but something to help with the stock highway wander would be great.

 

Great product though, even without an alignment they are fantastic. Still nice and smooth, and no bottoming out on serious dip like the stockers. I'm going to need to up my rear bar a bit to get my tail a little looser with all this newfound grip :).

 

Seriously though, what are the stock settings and whats the best anyone has that I can shoot for?

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Just installed the Rallitek springs two days ago with bilstein hd struts on my lgt wagon. I don't know who designed these springs, but I want to extend my deepest gratitude to this person. This is nothing short of a miracle cure for the lgt. These springs with the bilsteins have improved the ride quality of my car dramatically. Yes, I said the ride quality!. Handling and control have also improved considerably over stock. The car is so smooth on the freeway now I am in complete shock. I keep driving it over sections of freeway and roads that should produce the familiar harshness and out of control nervousness, but it is absent. I havent found anything to upset this setup yet. I was very close to trading in my car because I was so discouraged by the ride quality after 30k. After spending a year or so reading countless reviews I did not have very high hopes of curing the problem, because all the after market setups appeared to be stiffer with higher spring rates etc. and you can really get lost comparing everyone's opionions on this forum. The primary goal of everyone seemed to be better handling with little concern for ride quality. (Or at least that is what it seemed like to me).

 

By coincidence, I just got back today from LA where I was taken to lunch in the back of a brand new 7 series BMW over your typical crappy roads, and I can honestly say my LGT wagon has a better ride quality than this car. My car has a solid feel to it, and for some reason that is beyond all logic is tracking straight on the freeway at 75mph with stability that I never thought would be possible with this car. The nervous feeling of having to make infinite micro adjustments to the steering wheel is gone !!! There were gusty onshore side winds yesterday blowing 30mph+ and the car was not blowing all over the place on the highway like it has done in the past. I could hear the gusts and feel the wind pressure, but it was not moving the car off track.

I have done a couple of other tweaks to improve the ride quality and straight line tracking which is part of the recipe, but I could not feel the benefits as much until I installed these springs:

Tires: General exclaim UHP 225/50 r17 on stock rims with 32 psi front and 30 psi rear.

Precision Alignment:

Front camber = -.06 degrees on both sides

Front caster = 4.6 degrees left and 4.8 degrees right (not very adjustable)

Front Toe = 0.12 degrees left and 0.13 degrees right (yes this is toe in)

 

Rear camber = -0.3 degrees left and -0.6 degrees right

Rear toe = .02 degrees left and .03 degrees right (yes this is toe in)

 

The tires combined with the alignment add to the straight line stablity and a feeling of a heavily weighted steering wheel. I never thought this was going to happen either... The tires have single ply sidewalls so they are softer than most performance tires, and the rubber is a very soft silicone compound. The result is that broken pavement, ruts, potholes etc get absorbed much better and so the jolts are not transmitted through the chasis and steering column as much as the other tires I have tried (stock, michelin pilot, etc.) 50mm sidewall height helps also. I can only describe this as a very buttery feeling in your hands.

When you push the car to the limits, like in autocross mode, it will become instantly apparent that the tires are the limitation and not the suspension. In this mode I can see why people upgrade their swaybars a bit as well. Although the car does not slide out, you can feel the tires rolling under which creates a wider arc in your turn. Of course if a cop sees you driving the way I did to test this suspension, you will probably be living with some new roomates for a while.

 

It took 3 1/2 hours to do the job by myself and about $800.00 in shocks and springs. For anyone still on the fence, this is a very cheap experiment with dramatic results. Throw away the stock suspension and never look back !!!!

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