I've been reading and contributing to a few threads on the forum and am starting to rethink my entire approach to modding my 02 WRX's handling and ride. I'd love some advice from modding veterans (and i-club veterans) on the best approach to upgrading the overall handling, responsiveness and safety of my car.

Here's my dilemma -- this is my daily driver, and it spends about 80% of its time on the highway, a lot of that at 70+ MPH. However, every few months I take it for a spirited drive in the mountains, occasionally on loose gravel/dirt (think desert fire road) or washboard surfaces. I also like to take turns A LOT (I learned to drive in a 80s Porsche 911 turbo and a 80s BMW 320i) and know how to drive well (I've attended several classes and learned from my father, who used to auto-x and rally that 911). Thus, I'd like a setup which is really well behaved on the highway at high speeds, yet won't slide sideways out of a corner.

I have 17" wheels (17x7) with 235/45/17 tires, the only mod I've made to my car. On the highway it feels like I have about a full inch of play in the steering wheel before the car starts to turn significantly. On the street, initial turn-in is slower than I would like; the grippy tires help tremendously at the turn apex and exit, but it seems like I have to set up very, very carefully. I run very high tire pressures (38f/36r) to compensate for soft sidewalls. The stock springs feel decent, but they seem to "plunge" and "bound" over large pavement irregularities or under heavy braking, and the steering seems to fight me on sharp turns (there is lots of "feedback" from the tires through the steering wheel).

My initial plan was to lower the car 1" to 1.5" on the stock struts, add a rear swaybar, subframe locking bolts and perhaps a front strut bar. There seem to be extremely divided opinions on what consitutes good springs; coilovers really aren't an option for me, as the price and maintenence are just too high. Struts are also out of my budget for now, but could be an option in the future. I'm wary of replacing the stock endlinks, since I don't want a squeak/clunkfest for a daily driver. The one area I am least sure about is camber -- bolts vs plates? How tough is it to get a good, lasting alignment? Do I have to sacrifice tire life for cornering ability?

What I'm really looking for is a recommendation for a balanced package of mods that makes my 02 WRX handle like an 05 STI (or a late-80s 911 ). So far I'm a big fan of Aussie aftermarket parts, and I was thinking of going with Whiteline Control springs (20-40mm drop, progressive) and a Whiteline rear sway bar, front strut bar (I can feel the front flex under hard braking) and perhaps front strut caps. Other suggestions or comments? Whiteline ALK? Steering rack bushings?

 

The Whiteline ALK and their steering rack bushings are worthwhile mods for any type of driving you may do. The stiffer bushings remove much of the slop that the factory designed into the soft rubber bushings in the name of reduced NVH. I have both the ALK and steering rack bushings on my sedan and but have not noticed any increase in NVH, so go figure. What the steering rack bushings will not is change the ratio of the steering rack, so the number of turns lock-to-lock shall remain the same. The stiffer bushings seem to give a slightly more immediate response to steering input.

Your choices for off-road stuff may be somewhat more limited due to compromises between tarmac and dirt/gravel/graded roads. I guess you can see the wheel and tire width differences when World Rally cars go from one venue to another. You already realize that you can't run the optimum tarmac setup and expect it to be just as good on loose gravel - the grip just won't be there. Stiffly sprung and damped suspensions and aggressive anti-sway bar settings won't allow the tires to remain in good contact with uneven road surfaces, even if they make for fast lap times on the road course.

Hopefully, our fellow members who do track days and rally will chime in with more specific recommendations.

--
0==WW==0
"…axles of evil…" - george w. bush

 

You pose an interesting question, as many changes that would improve your on-road performance will work against you offroad and in terms of comfort. You'll be hard pressed to make your car handle like an sti (due to the dccd) and it will never handle like that 911, the rear suspension and weight distribution are unlike anything else on the road.

So if i were in your situation, i would:

1 steering rack bushings. These things really make a huge difference when catching a slide or driving on the freeway next to the wall.

2 0 toe all around and ~.5 degrees extra negative camber in the front. won't affect tire wear very much (rotate your tires occasionally and you're gravy) and the effect to the cars tracking and over-understeer tendencies is far more profound than adding a swaybar.

3 take a little air out of the tires. it will feel better and grip better.

agx struts might be a good idea, and a front stb is cheap and pretty. Bolts, not plates, and stock camber bolts in front should be all you need, especially if you lower it.

Personally, i think that swaybars and springs are popular because they look cool and are easy to buy and stick on, but aren't necessary to make the car lively and fun.

I encourage you to buy parts, but trying those few things can't cost more than 100$ and will really reward a good driver.

my .02$

 

This is exactly what I need, keep it coming! Scottzg, you make some very interesting points; I like that approach, minimal changes that use the car's already-present strengths. How tough is it to install the ALK and steering bushings -- is this something a shadetree mechanic can do?

I was always told (apparently incorrectly) that the stock 02 WRX suspension wouldn't hold negative camber, it was too flexy; that's why I wanted the strut bar and sway bar. I tried running stock air pressure (32/30) in the tires (Goodyear F1-DS G3s) and got squealing on tight corners, which the tire shop diagnosed as a soft sidewall compressing in the corner, so that's why I cranked up the PSI.

Yes, I know it will never handle like the 911 -- how about handle like my dad's M3?

I don't care about making record times off-road; I'm not going to rally the car. I just don't want to tweak the suspension geometry to the point that I can no longer take the car off-road at all without having to be airlifted out of a ditch...

 

I disagree with the sway bar opinion. Personally, I feel that adding a rear sway bar and endlinks to my wagon greatly reduced the problem of stock understeer. A lot of guys will recommend doing a front sway bar and endlinks too to "balance" the car out, but in my opinion it just recreates the stock understeer problem that you eliminated (or greatly reduced) by adding the rear sway. In terms of the front strut tower bar, I believe that is a largely bling component and you wont experience much benefit from it; a rear strut tower bar (especially if you own a wagon like I do) will be a great add on to your set up and is well worth the money. As far as brands go I really like whiteline, as they comprise most of my suspension set up. (I have their rear sway, rear strut tower bar with quick release, diff lock bolts, and alk)

If you want maximum "streetability" with some more "spirited" driving I'd recommend getting a jdm sti spring/strut set up of some sort. jdmpartstx.com has a lot of different jdm sti set ups which will allow you to drive the car significantly harder, (probably about 80% of its potential) without having to rebuild the suspension yearly and save you money from buying a much more expensive set of coilovers.

On newer WRX models, as far as I'm told, steering rack bushings are not available. Maybe they solved the squishy steering of the previous models in this year? I'm not sure.

Long story short, work on the rear end suspension of your car, as you'll derive the most benefit from the least money and work. The only part I'd add to the front end is an alk . Just my 0.02

 

a few personal experiences, and with that in mind, i'll preface that i have a 90 awd 5mt legacy with some suspension work. That said, the car shockingly similar to a gd wrx.

Steering rack bushings took me 3 hours to do. . . because i stripped 2 bolts on the subframe. If i were to do them again, i could do it in ~30 minutes. I think you only need a 14mm socket and a screwdriver. There are 2 tricks, cut the square bushing in half and bend the ps lines away.

I've never driven a wrx with an alk, but i have driven an alk legacy just like mine and then mine back to back. In that case, being able to put down the extra power on exit didnt justify the difference in braking feel. Wish i could describe that better. It is almost certainly a better deal in a wrx, as they have an extra 100 horse to put down, so ill reserve judgement until i drive one. I DO know that the lower control arms are set to a very high torque spec.

Strut suspension gains negative camber on compression and positive on extension. IMHO you would have to be running some pretty crazy rubber before you lost all your negative camber due to chassis flex. The opposite is true on the inside tire... could it be that the inside tire is the squeeler? In any case, i wouldn't worry too much about noisy tires, i would look at how the tire is wearing and how the car feels. On some surfaces i can listen to the front outside tire squeel on entry, the inside front at apex, and the rear on exit.

I haven't messed with front swaybars, but iirc it will increase understeer on entry and oversteer on exit.

I've run 16 (stock) 18 and 20mm bars on my car. The 20 felt really good, but wasn't as fast and would give me a bit of a tank slapper if i was rough catching a slide. The 16mm was a little tame, and took a bit of work to get the tail out. It was the easiest to drive fast though. I'm running the 18 now. All 3 were with the same performance alignment. The bar sizes aren't useful to you since the wider front track of the sedan alters the 'stick'. Might be useful numbers for a wagon though... *shrug*

I think i heard somewhere that the very newest imprezas have the rack bolted directly to the chassis, so there is no need for bushings. Not the case for the 02 though.

I have no opinion on springs, just that hard-*** springs with stock shocks doesnt feel as stable at speed.

I'm sticking to my original suggestions, but there's some background.

 

Thanks everyone for your input, I'm getting closer to a decision. I've looked into the SPT/STI factory kits, and they seem a good option (although the equipment on the site scottzg mentioned seems to be used, not what I am looking for) but I really do want to lower the car, at least 1.2" in the front and 1.5" in the rear. I've driven a WRX lowered with Tein springs, and I HATED the ride quality (bouncy and teeth-rattling at the same time) but the 2" drop seemed to make a huge change in the car's overall balance and also cut out a lot of the highway whistling; it seemed to alter the overall aerodynamics of the car. The STI kits don't seem to lower the car at all, or less than 3/4 of an inch.

Scottzg, can you elaborate on how the ALK affected braking? I'm doing my brakes as well (StopTech stage 2) and I don't want to change too many variables on the car at the same time -- by the time I'm done it sounds like I'll have to re-learn how to drive the car all over again.

 

I don't recall reccomending a site for suspension parts. Used springs are usually pretty safe, but i would get new dampers if at all possible. I only got 2 autox fun runs with the alk car, and its possible the difference was due to my having a stiffer brake proportioning valve (raises the point where the brakes go very forward biased.) Really, this is one place where my opinion isn't worth much.

.......................................front rate.....................rear rate
impreza 2.5 RS S..........157.............................. 149........
2002 2.5RS (MT/AT)......149/158 ......................117/129
WRX Sedan (MT/AT)......163/163 ....................119/132......
WRX Wagon (MT/AT).....163/163.....................132/144......
Eibach..........................171 ............................91-188
Tein Soft......................67.2-179.18..................61.59-179.18 pg
Tein Medium.................67.2-235.18..................61.59-218.38 pg
Tein Hard.....................307.98 ........................279.98
H and R........................196.25-204.1 ...............186.25-193.7
Prodrive P1...................215.......................... ...195
GDA STi Sport Springs...200.............................185
2004 USDM STi.............200..............................1 30-200
2002-2003 STi "Pink".....215..............................19 0
2004 STi "Pink".............257 .............................217
SPT/STi.........................217..............0.... ..........190.............0
STi Version 4................196.............................. 174
STi Version 5................224.............................. 185
STi Version 6................237.............................. 195

I used to have a 78 320i

 

2 inches of drop is going to significantly cut in to your ground clearance, will compromise your suspension geometry, and may make you need rear camber bolts to get a non-suck alignment. The sti aftermarket springs have a very slight drop to keep your dynamic roll center in the same place despite stiffer springs.

 

Many have agreed that a good height to be at without rubbing and/or performance penalties should be around 14 inches from hub to the highest point in the fender arch and 13.5~ in the rear. I run 13.5-14 in the front and 13.25-13.5 in the back with 1.5 degrees of camber in the back and since i adjusted my front back up i'm not sure about the front, but definately no rubbing of any kind.

I lowered my car around 2 inches with my coilovers to start with, and i rubbed through the fender liner and polished a dime sized part of the chassis.

 

No, I have no intention of going down 2 inches -- I said 1.25, max. The springs I want to order have a very conservative drop; 40mm in the front, 2mm in the back; supposedly over a year or so they will sag down to 1" in the front and 1.2" in the back or so. I'm interested to hear opinions on progressive vs. linear and how those are comparable in spring rate terms.