Which springs fit 05+ GT wagons with stock struts?

[Gire]

JohnSoPA?

 

Whoa whoa whoa. Change that screenname buddy.

 

Joe

 

 

 

Learn to use a custom avatar and nobody will confuse you two!

 

You've been here long enough to know this!

[MauiJim]

I'll have to go remeasure the drop, I'm pretty sure I took 'before' measurements... it's noticeable, but not dragging-low. The Swifts were the other spring I was considering, but those really drop the car. Bear in mind that I've got the 'HD rears', which add a bit of height to the rear when it's unweighted. When I've got a hundred pounds of gear in the back, it rides level without rubbing (with 245/40R17s).

 

Note that I'm running 'thin' USDM tophats in the front, which gives the ride a bit of a rake. The bumper height just clears most parking blocks, but be careful if the curb is higher than standard. I'd probably have broken a front lip if I had one.

 

I like the setup overall-- at lower speeds on rough roads, with the damping around 1 turn from full soft, you do feel the high spring rates, but the damping is superb so it's not harsh, and no 'bobble-head'. The wife definitely doesn't complain. With the damping turned up, the car will track with the bumps more, so you'll have a lot more up-and-down action. On big, nasty edges I'll get a bit of a crash, but no bad bump-steer.

 

On the freeway, though, it really shines-- such a smooth ride at speed. Even over expansion joints and bumpy stuff, it feels really great and has made the car a great long-distance cruiser. Again, this is at 1 turn from full soft.

 

Another note- after we bought the LGT wagon, when my wife would ride with me and I'd brake moderately, she'd grab for the chicken handle and freak out like we were making a panic stop- I couldn't figure out why she was so worried in this car compared to the Impreza that we had previously owned. After a while I realized that the high spring rates (STi RA on a GC chassis) in the Impreza made the car corner and brake very flat, and it was the pitching when braking in the LGT with the stock suspension that made her think we were stopping very fast. This was all gone after the iONs/Konis were installed.

 

MauiJim

 

Your set spring/strut combo is one that I'm considering for my wagon. Do you know what the drop is over the stock configuration? Also how does this set-up work over really bumpy roads and patchwork roads. We have a lot of both here.

[TPLGT]

No, bought them locally-- way too expensive for me to have bought them new!

 

I am incredibly jealous!!! Nice set up.

[ifbiker]

I'll have to go remeasure the drop, I'm pretty sure I took 'before' measurements... it's noticeable, but not dragging-low. The Swifts were the other spring I was considering, but those really drop the car. Bear in mind that I've got the 'HD rears', which add a bit of height to the rear when it's unweighted. When I've got a hundred pounds of gear in the back, it rides level without rubbing (with 245/40R17s).

 

Note that I'm running 'thin' USDM tophats in the front, which gives the ride a bit of a rake. The bumper height just clears most parking blocks, but be careful if the curb is higher than standard. I'd probably have broken a front lip if I had one.

 

I like the setup overall-- at lower speeds on rough roads, with the damping around 1 turn from full soft, you do feel the high spring rates, but the damping is superb so it's not harsh, and no 'bobble-head'. The wife definitely doesn't complain. With the damping turned up, the car will track with the bumps more, so you'll have a lot more up-and-down action. On big, nasty edges I'll get a bit of a crash, but no bad bump-steer.

 

On the freeway, though, it really shines-- such a smooth ride at speed. Even over expansion joints and bumpy stuff, it feels really great and has made the car a great long-distance cruiser. Again, this is at 1 turn from full soft.

 

Another note- after we bought the LGT wagon, when my wife would ride with me and I'd brake moderately, she'd grab for the chicken handle and freak out like we were making a panic stop- I couldn't figure out why she was so worried in this car compared to the Impreza that we had previously owned. After a while I realized that the high spring rates (STi RA on a GC chassis) in the Impreza made the car corner and brake very flat, and it was the pitching when braking in the LGT with the stock suspension that made her think we were stopping very fast. This was all gone after the iONs/Konis were installed.

 

Thanks for the report MauiJim. Are you running any other suspension mods like larger sway bars? If you are on the stock bars, how is body roll?

[ifbiker]

Thanks for info MauiJim. Are you running stock sway bars with this combination? If so, was there a significant reduction in body roll?

[MauiJim]

Thanks for info MauiJim. Are you running stock sway bars with this combination? If so, was there a significant reduction in body roll?

 

Before the suspension install, I was running a 19mm IPD (Rallitek) rear sway and a 22mm Perrin front bar-- like all Subarus, the increased stiffness helped even out the understeer present from stock. But, there was still significant body roll, as well as front-back pitching on braking and take-off (to be expected, of course, as sways wouldn't affect this).

 

After the Konis/iONs went in, I had the 22mm/19mm combo on for a few days, and the car was solid but still had a bit of looseness from the relatively small sways and high spring rates. It wasn't unstable at all, just not cornering as tight as I liked it.

 

I switched to Cusco 23mm front/21mm rear, and it tightened things up further. It's very stable now, and feel it's a very evenly-matched setup with the springs; there's no danger of snap-oversteer on hard cornering (though I could dial in more oversteer by increasing the damping in the rear).

 

I learned about snap-oversteer the hard way in my Impreza wagon running a 25mm front bar/26mm rear bar with STi springs and adjustable dampers running stiff in the rear-- the tail came around on a wet day on an innocuous offramp at slow speeds, induced by braking mid-corner (no damage, though). I dial it back now .

 

The LGT is a heavier chassis and feel that it really benefits from the larger sways. As an aside, if you're upgrading your endlinks, I recommend against Perrin; I had some WRX-style on the Impreza and they were fine, but the rear endlinks for the LGT that I have on mine have been clunking very very badly. A search here revealed another member with the exact problem (no other reason for clunking but the endlinks), and Perrin was slow to replace (denied failure at first). Stockers should be just fine.