I am not sure which to go with. Heres the deal: my subaru is my daily driver but it is modded enough for some street fun. I want to either slap on some springs to give it a good lowered look, but maintain drivablility. My dillema is that my car has 46,000 miles on it and I do not know when it is time to change out the struts. So should I wait it out and go with the coil overs? Will I be happy with them? or am I going to have to wear a kidney belt as I drive down a california Highway?

Thanks for any Input

 

You have a long way to go before the struts go out... If I have the money, I would go with coilovers... My suggestion would be to show up at the local meets or local autox. You can try out all kinds of suspension setup and pick the one to your like.

however, here is one thing I learned. though stiff spring and struts are great. They do 'hurt' in a long run. Mines are not bad, just P1 spings with GR2 struts... A bit stiffer, but with the Sparco Evo, it's a killer! Since I don't 'go out' as much as I used to. I decided to remove the seat in favor of my *** and back!

Good luck!

 

Ya thanks man. When you say I can try out set ups at these meets; Do venders have cars with suspension set ups? or are you saying people will let me drive there cars?

 

Usually people will let you just sit in the passenger seat and they'll drive you a few blocks.

For coilovers, it's very very opinionated. Many people like different things. So, it's best for you to get a feel of what you want first and start from there.

 

if you are only looking to get the lowered look, just get some nice springs and call it a day. you can always change out the struts when they are finally worn out, or if you have the cash now, you could replace them at the same time, so you could save the money from doing alignment for the second time.

 

if you get springs remember not to get anything lower then 1.5".

 

STi Pinks and JDM STi adjustable-struts FTW...

 

your struts are fine.

If you get a spring that is insanely stiff or lowers the car a great deal you'll blow your struts in less than 10,000 miles.

If you get something like the pink springs, crucial or prodrive. Even swift. You should be fine on those for a while. Then get some new struts or koni inserts.

I wouldn't recommend coil overs unless you plan on tracking the car.

you can get KILLER handling out of a nice struts spring set up and still be very streetable.

Get a Spec C set up. JDM inverted. KYB. or koni. Any of those struts with a decent spring will rip.


I have the spec c's and LOVE them. I had to pull them off for clearance issues in the back (wagon). otherwise they'd still be on.

 

get the springs unless you're planning on corner balancing the car.

 

my friend's struts went out 6 months after doing springs. not like totally shot but the ride got worse and worse as the days went on. and he never drove it hard.

 

Meh.. I wan't coilovers.. I'm tired of "the STi clunk"

 

If you expect passengers (other than guy friends into cars), then I would advise against coilovers.

Otherwise you will constantly have that apologetic look as you know it's going to be rough on your passengers.

I'm finally giving up my tein flex set-up because I got tired of hearing it from my SO and always feeling apologetic to my passengers.

When it's just me...it's awesome...but the car has multi duties.

 

did you try the washer trick????

I was told I would have clunk with my V7 Spec C stuff but never had clunk except when my bolts backed off a bit.