legacycentral bbs

Just got finished the other day doing surgery on my Legacy and all went pretty well. Got the GR2's on, new brake pads, rotors, and removed all of the calipers, cleaned them up and painted them a cool blue.. also painted the vented edge and around the hub section of the rotors with bright aluminum color in the high heat engine paint. The silver and blue look great. Also added a set of new WRX wheels with the Potenza's and its all looking pretty sharp and driving like new.. Nice ride on the GR2's. Great handling and firmer but not harsh ride.. Great improvement!! As far as the springs.. a different story.. Last time I posted I was exploring spring options. I was having a difficult time tracking down the conical shaped springs (stock) and came up with springs for the L as an alternative for my LS. I got them from the dealer and installed them on the car with the new struts. Now the fun part..After all was done and put the car back on the ground, the front of the car was poised way higher than the rear. There was a 5 inch space between the tire and the edge of the fender in the front. Wheel arch measured at 17 inches! ARGHH! The rear arch measured at 13 inches.. According to the service manual, the front wheel arch is to measure at 15 inches and the rear is to measure at 14 inches.. This is with the orginal front stock springs and the new rear springs.. When I compared the new rear springs with the old, the height was the same and the wire guage and number of coils were too. So back to the drawing board and took the rear struts/springs off, put the old springs back on and ended up using spacers to raise the rear. Over time the fronts seemed to compress down to a 16 inch wheel arch measurement so I raised the rears about a 1 1/2 inchs to level the car out abit. It looks much better now and the ride is actually still pretty solid and not harsh with the spacers and still handles well.
What I am thinking of doing now is getting a pair of front lowering springs to bring the front down an inch. Is it possible to get the lowering springs in pairs only? Also was wondering if the Legacy Wagon springs might help to raise the rear so I can do away with the spacers. Still trying to figure out how to level this car.. If anyone has any suggestions or input on my ideas, I'd appreciate it much! Thanks!

Glen,

I think you mentioned this before......but do you have the part numbers for the GR2 struts you put on?

Josh

Yea, I am really stumped on this I just can't figure this out.

Here are the part numbers... I would think yours are the same.

235064 Front left
235063 Front Right
235071 Rear Right
235072 Left Right

You know what's wierd too, I didn't even have to use the spring compressor to mount the rear springs on the struts.. I just pushed firmly down on the mount with my palms and that was enough pressure to expose the end of the damper through the mount. I just had a friend thread the damper nut while I held it down. This was the same with the new and old springs. Go figure.

BTW- did you check out my post on the A/C vent problem? I had the same problem too and came up with a temporary fix.

Typo correction:

235072 Rear Left Fitment

Well,

The numbers you have verify with the numbers I got from KYB. I'll check the actual numbers on my struts though, just to double check.

Assuming the struts are right, I would say you have the wrong springs. There should be some pre-load on the springs. There may not be tons on the rear, but there should be some.


Re the A/C vent issue. I'll go take a look....not sure if I saw the post or not.

Hey guy, you have helped me tremendously. I just came back from a frame and alignment shop today for what I thought was a major repair job realigning the front suspension. I took the car to PepBoys for an alignment last weekend after the strut changeover and they couldn't line the front end up.. They told me I had damage somewhere underneath. Well brought it to some experts and they looked at it and said there was nothing wrong with it and the alignment was dead on. It just had a toe adjustment off. Their theory was that PepBoys alignment system was out of calibration. Passed state inspection too with flying colors.. They really liked the car and commented on how clean it was.. Subaru does great on their paint finishes and I use Zaino on both my cars and that stuff rocks! Anyway, I think I am just going to leave things the way they are for now with the spring spacers.. The car is level and rides really tight so I am a happy camper. I appreciate you offering to look further on the part numbers but don't go through the trouble. Like I said, you helped alot. Thanks!