legacycentral bbs

My sudowife has a 94 legacy, and drives it down Kansas dirt roads. She's a very good driver, and doesn't abuse her car on purpose. However, the stock suspension is not able to handle her commuting needs after a rain storm. The hydraulic arms are rumbling when the wheel turns, and the suspension is spongy. I asked around for upgrade advice, and was told that I could put Forrester Springs on a set of outback struts, tie it to the frame with a legacy tophat, and Mount some 16" softwall tires.
Is this possible?
What generation Forrester and outback parts should I look for?

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Welcome to the BBS.

I see you posted in the Suspension Information Compendium thread, and while it doesn't specifically cover the setup you're wanting I'd maybe suggest looking at some of the pairings mentioned in that thread and/or reading through that thread and searching.

Hopefully someone will comment on that specific suspension setup. You won't be able to use anything past the second gen Legacy/Outback and I don't know if those struts will give you anything more over say just using Forester struts & springs.

I think fresh struts and maybe seeing if there is a power steering leak would be the best place to start.

On a forester/outback, the drivetrain and suspension mounts are lowered to compensate for the added height. So just bolting on the taller struts and springs will cause issues with suspension/steering geometry and CV angles.

If you do really need a bit of extra height, you could go with short spacers between the top mounts and chassis. 3/8-1/2" spacers plus a slightly taller tire would probably give you plenty of clearance without getting too extreme.

I see that thread is for information, not questions. Tapatalk is not tracking these discussions like I would expect, and I just got news of these replies. If a mod would take down my mispost, I would be appreciative.

Thank you jamal for the level headed advice, a set of new tires, and some proper struts would be much easier for me to do. These Kansas dirt roads are awful, but there's only so much I can do with a car. I need to do something soon because fall rain, and winter snow is coming; and my Geo Prizm will not survive. If she wasn't attached to this car, I would have her get something more suited to these driving conditions.

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