Let's Talk Springs

[LetItRev]

Because I don't think I am going to be doing any offroading soon, I feel my next mod should be springs. That and I don't need to be able to stick my whole fist and then some between the front wheels and the top of the wheel well.

May I draw on your collective vast knowledge of WRX suspension mods. Springs cost how much? I hear about $200-$300.00 should do it.

Tyson, I know you are happy with your current springs although you are going to upgrade soon. Which are they again?

Springs vs. Coil overs: Aside from the obvious advantages, I am not sure I want to go to the golden "Honey, I'm going to spend another $1,200.00 on the WRX" route again. ($1,200.00 seems to be the magic number for most WRX mods).

Enlighten me please.

Franz

[MattR]

Hack saw?





just kidding...I'm going with the STi Pink Springs for my car,,,But for a WRX, I'd say that the Eibachs are a great idea. Tyson's car rides and performs well, and they're $200 or so.

[sperry]

The thing about springs over stock struts.... anything that's a different spring rate and/or a different length is going to wear out your stock dampers faster by requiring them to operate differently than they were designed.

Also, as the spring rate goes up, if your dampers aren't stiff enough you will become "over-sprung" and will hop all over the road like a ricer on cut springs (or me w/ my JICs ) Sometime, stiffer springs will also show you how soft the stock strut tops are, and the car may bounce on them.

All that said, lower and slightly stiffer springs can work well with stock struts. Lowering a car just .5" to 1" can really improve the handling by lowering the CG of the car. You may also see some aero benefit because less air will go under the car. Plus stiffer springs reduce body roll.

Don't forget, one option for suspension are STi takeoffs from Japan. For about twice the cost of springs alone, you can get low mileage struts off a JDM Spec C or Type RA! They will come with stiffer springs, matched dampers and the harder Group N top-mounts! (But they are "stock" setups, so they're not significantly lower than the stock US setups.) Check www.gruppe-s.com. Max tends to get a few sets in from time to time. I was actually leaning heavily towards one of these setups, but eventually decided that I wanted the adjustability of aftermarket coilovers.

As for specific springs, I have no experience with them, since I knew I wanted to leave my stock struts intact (I wanted to just swap complete struts, and not need a spring compressor, plus I want to be able to put the stockers back on if I sell the car). Eibach, Prodrive, and STi pinks are all popular, IIRC. Try to find a set that don't lower the car extremely and are designed for the stock struts.

[khail19]

I'll second the choice of Prodrives. They lower the car around an inch, and they don't jar you all over the place over bumps. They are designed to work with the stock struts as well. I had some Apex springs before which lowered the car almost 2 inches. The drop looked great, but the ride was terrible over even mildly bumpy roads.

[AtomicLabMonkey]

Originally Posted by sperry

Try to find a set that don't lower the car extremely and are designed for the stock struts.

Because typically if you lower a car more than ~1/2"-1", the factory designed suspension geometry will be pretty well screwed up.

[JC]

Consider Prodrives third'd.

[Kevin M]

Originally Posted by AtomicLabMonkey

Because typically if you lower a car more than ~1/2"-1", the factory designed suspension geometry will be pretty well screwed up.

Anywhere between 1/2" and 1-1/4" seems to work well. I have what many consider the best matched strut/spring combo ever for the Impreza, the Prodrive World Rally Sport. Why they didn't bother with developing a version for the new chassis, I dunno. But the next best thing is a set of STi v7 or v8 takeoffs. Low and stiff enough to tremendously improve handling feel, tall enough and soft enough to be practical in the real world. You can get a complete set with strut tops for $600-800 depending on where you find them. Try the classifieds on i-club and nasioc.