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At some point I'm planning on doing a full FWD to AWD swap, but for the moment I don't have the time or the money to do it. However, I would really like to improve the handling of my car a bit, and since there is nothing available for the FWD Legacy I can't touch the rear until I'm ready to swap.

What would happen to my handling if I installed lowering springs in the front, but not in the rear? I know this is sort of the ghetto way of doing things, but if it improves handling some it would probably be worth it to me, and right now it looks like crap riding high in the front but not the rear.

my guess is it would understeer horribly.

some generic ebay coilovers are cheap and could probably be made to work on both fwd and awd struts. they arent that bad except for how stiff the springs are.

I really would like to keep the ride quality nicer than those would give me... it's still my daily driver for work and I want it to be reasonably comfortable.

So is horrible understeer the final verdict for this question?

Weight is traction. Depending on how you drive and set it up, you could get oversteer, but your car's excellent balance will suffer degrading adjustability, making dialed-in oversteer less controllable.

evolutionmovement wrote:Weight is traction. Depending on how you drive and set it up, you could get oversteer, but your car's excellent balance will suffer degrading adjustability, making dialed-in oversteer less controllable.

blarg?

My '84 wagon was raised in the back. Brake hard then smooth transition to gas into a corner and holding traction was better, but if the rear stepped out as it was more willing to do, it was harder (mmore fun) to catch. I know what suspension theory says on paper, but like most things, reality depends on many variables. Driving is like dancing and is dependent on balance. I've seen fat people who can dance like mad, but I digress. But, yes, driving like a fast fool by just turning the wheel and taking a corner (like the ones always rolling over on the highways every day) WILL result in more understeer with the set up he's considering and less ability to counter it once it starts to plow while the stock balance will allow for mid-turn balance changes to counter understeer effects.

The other problem I didn't mention above is that this set up will reduce high speed stability, especially under heavy braking, but I drive very fast so this may not be a consideration for him.

I don't drive very fast ALL the time but I put between 50-80 miles a day on this in all kinds of conditions, crawling city and high speed freeway, and I want it to handle perfectly at all times rather than just some. If it's going to compromise the stability of the car I'll wait. Keep in mind this is also an automatic... I've already lost enough cornering control as it is, I don't need to lose any more.

OK, so here's part 2 for this question... since the rear is already reasonably low, and I would worry about the ride quality and/or scraping if I went lower, could I put stiffer springs in the front and counter them with stiffer struts in the rear, and achieve the same effect as if I'd lowered it all around?

Or use soft springs but a stiff sway bar like everyone is talking about in another thread?

That question is so ghetto it makes my teeth itch.

Why not just replace all your springs and shocks? You could get some wrx stuff cheap.

Don't put on springs w/o replacing shocks.

scottzg wrote:That question is so ghetto it makes my teeth itch.

Why not just replace all your springs and shocks? You could get some wrx stuff cheap.

Don't put on springs w/o replacing shocks.

See my first post. I have a FWD car. I am planning to do a full AWD swap, including performance struts and springs, but at the moment I don't have the money or a garage to do that much work, and the rear AWD suspension is not compatible without the swap. I would like to upgrade my car slowly in the meantime if possible, and so the question was about how a setup like that would actually affect the car.

I'm not asking how ghetto a setup I can get away with. I have a limited knowledge of how cars work and I'm trying to learn more. The questions were based on my curiosity. I plan on keeping this car for a long time and keeping it reliable, and so if I can't do it right I'm going to wait until I have the money... I just don't know for certain what the "right" way is all the time.

Just wait until you can afford to do the whole AWD swap. Seriously, save yourself the headaches.

subyluvr2212 wrote:Just wait until you can afford to do the whole AWD swap. Seriously, save yourself the headaches.

+1

I'd choose mediocre style over mismatched suspension parts any day. The only think i can think might be worth looking into is if you can put awd struts and springs on your fwd hubs. You could buy them and try it... if it doesnt work you'll just have to wait until you change to awd anyway.

scottzg wrote: You could buy them and try it... if it doesnt work you'll just have to wait until you change to awd anyway.

I think that's probably what I'll end up doing. Thanks for the input on it though. I was hoping that by some chance it would work for me to do it one bit at a time.

If you do end up doing that, please post your results. I am curious to see what you find as this summer I'm looking to do some supsension work and I'm also planning on keeping mine FWD so as you're finding out, options are limited .

The AWD rears won't fit. I tried it.

Break out the die grinder and make them fit. It's only like 10mm that needs to be cut.

THAWA wrote:Break out the die grinder and make them fit. It's only like 10mm that needs to be cut.

Just to clarify, you're talking about fitting AWD springs onto the FWD struts, right? I was under the impression that there was close to two inches difference.

Nope, I was talking about struts.

I talked with Kelly at Rallitek and he seemed to be saying that the entire assembly was different... not something that could be cut down to fit. I think I need to take my car down there and park it next to his and stare at both for a while.

Ha, that's all? And after grinding that little bit off I can fit the rear AWD struts (and therefore the AWD springs) in place of mine?

With the Legacy the tire hits the spring perch and there's no way around it. I deflated the tires, only mounted one knuckle bolt and still could only get one lower lug nut to hold the wheel on. When they towed the car the drag from the tires on the perches ripped the whole stut assemblies from the car (no control arms attached).

This was... using AWD struts on the FWD? Or something else?

Trying to fit fwd rear knuckles to 1993 AWD turbo struts to mount wheels.