legacycentral bbs

Ok well i've seen alot of you guys talking about suspension. I am ordering the gr2s tomorow. But from what you all have said it would be better to fix the suspension rather then cover problems up. What would i do to it to make it better. I have 15 inch rims with H rated tires getting put on this week. And i mentioned the strusts already.

What else should i look into, 18mm sway bar?
Front and rear strut tower bars.
Other things. I trust you guys more then i do my mechanic, thats kinda sad for him...

I have a rear strut bar and found no performance difference with the same set up as you're planning on my wagon (did eliminate a few squeaks). The front strut tower bar killed a squeak or two and did help the car corner flatter, but with a little more understeer - it was just like fitting a bigger A/R bar. If you don't have an A/R bar on the back, I'd recommend one and if you do, make sure the end links are good.

Steve

Suspension is a quirky situation.

What are your goals?

The tires you are mounting aren't going to handle great. A 15" tire (stock sized anyway) has a lot of sidewall fled, and can create some unpredictable handling. Not horrible, but it'll feel "floaty."

Lowering the car is counter productive, and the stiffness of your average lowering spring bandaids a serious suspension geometry snafu. It becomes flat in the turns because of super stiff springs. What happens though, is that the stiff springs reduce tracking over bumps, making that uber stiff, .96g on the skidpad, turn into WORSE handling than stock.

Sway bars are an aide to help balance the car. An ideal suspension setup won't need ANY sway bars, however, a bar is somewhat required to help be a constant balancer through the suspensions movement. A car riding 50% of the way into the suspension will handle VERY differently than a car riding only 25% of the way into the suspension. A swaybar adds a buffer to this handling zone. As loads change on the suspension, the car handles differently. That's the key to slalom speeds.

My dream suspension:

KYB AGX's
STi Pink Springs
STi Group N top mounts
Whiteline Endlinks
Whiteline Anti Lift Kit
Steering Rack bushings
Roll-Center adjusters (KEY to good handling)
Strut tower braces
lower tie bars

MAYBE some whiteline sway bars, depending on how well the roll center can be adjusted. The stock swaybars should be effective enough, and the whiteline endlinks will add a bit of rigidity that will help a lot.

I didnt want to loose the advantage of my car on mountain roads. Thats why i chose the 15, still an inch bigger then my 14s, and i have a decent amount of sidewall left. If it doesnt handle quite as well in the turns i think it will more then make up for it in my camping excursions. Which is another reason i want to keep my stock height. Is there an upgraded set of springs that are stock height?

I don't know of any stiffer springs that are stock height.

Not much you can do with stock ride height though, save custom wound springs by Eibach, and that'll run you around 400 bones.

whiteline controls are the same ride height right?

Laurel said they dropped her about 1.5 or so.

did she get the flatout's?

I have no idea?

Thats the whole glory of these cars. AWD with almost as much ground clearance as a ford exploder! I realy dont want to loose that. Maybe 1/2 inch in the front and nothing in the back...

And by strut tower braces you do mean strut tower bars right?

whiteline doesnt make flat outs for the b1 legacys.

my control springs dropped me about 1.5" It was really nothing, except my handling improved a bit, and if i go over speed bumps at 15+mph, i scrape exhaust