JIC web site: www.jic-magic.com

wrxwagon2b: PM me if you need more info on JICs. You can also see my car with JICs at www.LNRonline.com

Don

 

Tein Flex coilovers, Whiteline rear adjustable sway bar (tried 24mm. That's too much. 22 is sufficient), Whiteline ALK, BFG KDW 225/50/16 on stock rims.

My wagon handles so much better than stock. I installed each part independantly so that I could get a feel for what benefit it gave me and so I could experiment with any adjustability. Conclusion was that I like it pretty low (just enough to ensure that there's no rub). I like the ride to be stiff (although that's only during autoX). I honestly didn't feel any real difference after installing the ALK. The tires, which were the first improvement I made, provided the most positive result over all the other parts I installed. After they were put on, I now stuck to the track (you're probably already pretty familiar with teh suck of the 92's). The rear sway bar (pre coilovers) set to 2mm pretty much nullified any improvements I made. I couldn't control the rear end. 22mm has completely fixed that.

 

No problems with the JICs in our wagon. It handles great! The TEIN wagon coilovers are really designed to give the car the lowered look but really conservative as far as the spring rates and damping compared to the JIC FLT A2, TEIN RA or TEIN HA for that matter.

Don

 

I haven't been in a car with the SPT/STi suspension, but I can say that the JIC is more of a track/competition suspension than the TEIN wagon & SPT/STi suspension.

If you are more of a serious driver JIC is the way to go.

Don

 

wrxwagon2b:

There's a very excellent write by 'gtguy' on the other forum. Do a search in the suspension forum. I basically have the same suspension setup on my wagon.

Okay.. When you purchse the comple STi/SPT wagon suspension from Subaru you get in addition to the four struts and springs a whole bunch of replacement bushings and a thicker rear sway bar. So the bushing you get are:

Two Front lateral link bushings
Eight lateral link bushings
Two or Four trailing link bushings
Four aluminum rear diff bushings.

Basically the stiffer rubber bushings allow the suspension to work a bit better or more efficient. The thicker rear sway bar will reduce the amount of understeer the car has.

So for you other questions.....

The strut mounts also refered to STi strut mounts or Group N strut mounts or top mounts are again made of a stiffer rubber compounds. These allow your struts and springs to provide more of the damping.

You probably read many here are replacing the end links with solid links. These are the connections from the sway bar to the suspension arms. The stock WRX endlinks are made of stiff rubber, so replacing with aluminum endlinks also help to tighten up suspension action

Finally about the pink stuff. The trailing and lateral arms with the pillow ***** goes one step further. Instead of using stiff rubber for the bushing, these pieces use a metal pillow ball as the bushing. These joint now have very little compliance, so even more suspension movement is transfered to the struts/springs.

I've heard that the labor to install the rubber bushing is equal or near equal to buying the pink arms and installing them.

Hope this answers most of your questions.

Anthony

 

Although many sedan suspension components may be installed onto a wagon, some modifications will be needed to achieve proper alignment specs. Case in point, I installed UK take-off STi struts/spings/top mounts from a sedon onto my wagon. In order to get the alignment into factory specs I would have needed to elongate the mounting holed and install additional camber bolts. Suspensions designed for the WRX wagon will not require these types of modifications. But, the choices for wagon suspension are very limited.

I've heard that the TEIN wagon coilovers should give a nice suspension upgrade. Supposedly somewhere between the STi upgrade and the TEIN SS coilovers.

Personally I sometimes find even the STi upgrade suspension to be a bit harsh. There are some freeway pavement that really gives my kidneys a pounding!

For the wagons a rear strut tower bar may be helpful, but you will lose the utility of the wagon space. You could unbolt the bar of course. A front strut tower bar is probably more cosmetic since the towers are quite close to the firewall in our cars.

So again, you need to answer for yourself what kind of suspension upgrade you are looking for. If you really want to lower your car and willing to have a stiffer/harsh ride then most of the better coilovers are your bet. If you don't want a lot of drop then consider the STi/SPT or STi Genome suspension kits for the wagon.

Anthony

 

The best suspension depends on what you are using your car for. Many people calim to "need" damening adjsutment, but we find that few of our customers actually adjust dampening, even if they have the EDFC controller.

The wagon setup uses midl spring rates, and is a great setup for a daily driven car. Think of it as a really goog set of springs and struts that are perfectly matched to one another, plus give you the benefit of ride height. These are now special order only from Japan, so expect about a 4 week lead time.

The JIC SF1 and Cusco Comp S are similar units, thought the JIC and Cusco offer dual height adjustment, which, while a better overall system, is a bit unnecessary given the mild spring rates the Tein uses. Wesimply havent found the Tein Wagon "lacking" at all becuase it lacked the ability adjust height at the lower perch.

The SPT suspension is a nice pakage - very comfortable, and comes complete with matched struts and springs. Only "issue" many people have is the fact that it barely lowers the car - some peole are fine with that, some people are not.

From there, you step into the Tein SS, which replaced the HA in Tein's lineup. These are 1 way heigh adjustable, and 16 ay dampening adjustable. On a GC chassis, they use the stock upper mounts, or you can replace that with the STi Group N units or Tein's own pillowball mount. For a WRX, pillowball mounts are included.

In that same category is the Cusco Zero 1, which is 5 way adjustable comapred to the Tein 16 way. Both are excellent units, and tdon't let the Cusco's lsmaller adjsutment range fool you..both perform very well. The Cusco is available with and without pillowball mounts too..so again, the Group N units can be subsituted.

From there, we goto the Tein Flex: it is really in a class by itself, as it combines modest spring rates and s relatively small strut tube with 16 way dampening adjsutment and adjustable lower perch, as well as pillowballs. On paper it seems like the perfect match, just be aware that there is a strong chance you will get rear noise from the pillowball mounts, regardless how carefully you install them. We tend to get the clunk about 50% of the time. Some customers claim they don't mind it, other do. Ic could personally not stand it

Next is the most competive range: the JIC FLTA2, the Tein RA and the Cusco Zero 2's. I have to say in this range, the Teiin RA is my favorite, although only when used with the optional 5 kg/mm rear springs. What we generally do is order the cilovers and the 5 kg/mm springs at once, move the rear spring up fromt (rear is 6 kg/mm from the factory), and use the 5 kg/mm spring on the rear (the springs are swappable front to back as they are the same height). This combo is truly killer, and performs the best out of all of these 3. owever, it also is the most expensive of these 3 units.

The JIC FLTA2 performs nearly as well as the Tein RA's, is tuned for US roads, and is a very usable system that is at home on street or track. Definately gets the bang for the buck nod in the ~$2000.00 category (they list for $1850, we usually sell 'em at $1799 shipped with rear camber bolts).

The Cusco's are an excellent choice as well, definately the stiffest of the 3 above, but not punishingly so..all deoends what you are used to! Again, a nice feature of the Cusco is they are offered with and without pillowball mounts, are 5 way dampeing adjustable, and handle great. Only downside to the Cusco is when they need rebuildingm they must be sent back to Japan. Both Tein and JIC are rebuildable in the USA, provided they were purchased through an authorized dealer...so make sure you ask before you buy!

There are other options out there, such as H&R, KW, Bilstein and DMS, but they tend to be less popular here in the states than the above units.

Hope that helps!

Adam
Z-1 Performance