wow. helpful thread.
so what i'm concluding is that a sway will give oversteer. Endlinks will give MORE oversteer.
I think Imprezer said that the OEM endlinks WON'T break and that they are the best because they flex. Had some debate going on about that topic about a month ago. Yeh, i guess you should try to the OEM endlinks and just get something adjustable. CUSCO is awsome!

 

The metal/metal contact is the bearing itself; metal ball bearing in contact with the metal sleeve. Even with a grease fitting, it will eventually increase clearance and start to attle and potentially bind.

I remember a while back Imprezer posted that he thought the OEM engine/transmission mounts might be better for the car by putting less stress on the transmission, by passing the stress through the bushings. Nothing concrete. While the OE bushings won't likely wear out, the cushioning of the soft rubber causes your sway bars to "react" to body roll slower.

 

COBB = Hotchkis - no better nor no worse than any other sway bar out there

Best rear endlinks we have used to date are the GT Spec. I agree that the ones with bearings dont have much justification on a street car. They are noisier. Stock links are honestly crap pure and simple - f you do any sort of high performance driving (autox, track days), ditch them. If it's a street car, they are fine however. We use the GT Spec ones now because of their price and quality..there are other good ones too (though I would not rank Perrin among them - we had so many issues with them falling apart we stopped selling them)

No matter what people tell you, even with a 24mm rear sway, the WRX, RS will not oversteer, period. The car will still exhibit understeer, it will just be far less pronounced than stock and the car will have a more neutral bias. People tend to have a misconception that it will oversteer because they are not used to driving an AWD car. It requires a different technique than a FWD or RWD car - do some searches, people have talked about it to death by now

Adam

 

great thread lets keeps this going. my question is about the tein flex coilovers. Would you consider these pretty good for street use? not to harsh? I want the ability to keep moding my car and I don't want to drop the money on a set of springs and shocks when I can spend alittle more money and not have to worry about having to upgrade later. other question is that I know that the teins can be rebuild how often is this required?

 

Vicore - the Flex are the most popular ones we offer. These arer much imporved over previous versions now that they revised the rear pilowball mount. PM or email me (or check our site) for pricing.

As for rebuilding, it really depends on the roads you use them on. Truth be told, in all the years we have sold tein, I think I have had to send 2 customer sets for a rebuild..one was for revalving on a set where the people madea big spring rate change, the other is a guy who does lots of rally cross events.

Adam

 

So Z1, how is the ride? Compare it to USDM STI. I did not find that too much stiffer than my WRX. I would love to ride on those coils to find out, but there are none around here. I track on weekends a 6 times a year, but drive dailly to work threw some twisties.

 

Its a bit hard to compare because tires play a huge role as well, but its more controlled feeling, to me, than the STi - the Sti feels much "choppier" to me over the rougher roads, though it is still quieter than the Flex are.

If you are doing that many track days, maybe look into stepping up to something a bit higher end than the Flex...preferably something single piston ala the RA (we can order with some softer rates to make it palatable for daily use), or Zero2

 

would i need to worry about larger rear swaybar getting in the way of larger exhaust (3 inch)?

thanks

 

I only go to the track 6 times a year besides drag. I think daily compliance is more important to me. I use the car for road trips in the state as well. I've narrowed it down to either the flex or STI. I know that I could live with the STI easily, but would like the look and performance of the flex if I knew what they felt like. Yaggi, the larger bar shouldn't have any problems with an aftermarket exhaust, at least not my 3 inch. It is slightly bigger, but not enough to rub. The problems I usually hear about with aftermarket swaybar setups are the endlinks. They can make a lot of noise when turning or going over speedbumps.

 

Oh by the way I use a 17x8 rota torque rim with kumaho 712's right now but the tires are almost gone and then I was thinking of toyo proxies 4

 

yaggi - nope

TrunkMonkey - the Flex are a very capable setup - not ideal for all out track use as its a twin piston design, but with the revised rear pillowballs, they are quite good