Value of stock OEM suspension..

So Kevin you're saying use stock springs from a forester or lifted springs? As well as the lift?

Yeah, I figured that the struts with the little side bit attached were SLS. It's my understanding that SLS doesn't like king springs?
 
I will Ratbag! Thankyou!
 
No worries, mate.

BTW, IIRC fitting SG struts and springs to an SF automatically gives about a one inch lift, BUT you need to check this for yourself as I could well be wrong ...

If all this horse trading works out, you might end up with a small lift at a very reasonable change over price, and so might I (but the c/o will cost me about $1,400 nett) ... A win/win situation.
 
I'll look into that. So you mean the standard height of stock struts, plus 1"?

Alright, let me know how you go. Cheers
 
essfoz said:
So Kevin you're saying use stock springs from a forester or lifted springs? As well as the lift??
Click to expand...

No, I'm wondering if just adding lift blocks, say 2", to your STi struts will do the job?
 
Probably not worth it, Kevin. + the suspension works beautiful in my forester, it's pretty much the perfect setup for it when lowered. If I don't manage to get a new set, I could just use your idea and get a 2" lift in the mean time. :)
 
That's what I'm thinking - have nice suspension but higher
 
Does it work that way? ;) or would the lift compromise the handling..

My forester sits significantly lower than stock, so I'm not sure 2" would be enough.
 
The handling would be just fine, but you're right 2" may not be enough. But - what if you also added a 2" body lift = 4" in total? Cost may be an issue though. You can see that I'm doing my best to get you to hang onto the STi suspension! :iconwink:
 
Yes, I can see that ;)

If I had the money I'd most certainly hold onto it, but taking into considering the cost of a body lift and strut lift, I may as well go for a proper setup that doesn't require that extent of 'non-suspensiony' lift. :iconwink:
 
That's exactly what I've done with my Liberty
I've put in the very low TunedBy STi bilsteins and pink springs,
than added 1" lift blocks
it handles, tows but no longer scrapes it's guts everywhere

here's it's current height
2014-07-23%2012.46.12.jpg


And before spacers
2014-01-25%2014.26.32.jpg
 
Gidday SF

Ratbag said:
If all this horse trading works out, you might end up with a small lift at a very reasonable change over price, and so might I (but the c/o will cost me about $1,400 nett) ... A win/win situation.
Click to expand...

Not today, Josephine ... :(.

The good news is my last remaining commercial client paid me for the last couple of years' work - I am pretty slack about billing ...

The bad news is that I have a very sick HDD.
A "The drive in drive j: is unformatted. Would you like to format it now?" sick ... :puke:.
 
Aw, :( oh well. I'll keep my eye out for similar setups. :)

Ohh, that sucks really bad. Good luck with that, hopefully you can retrieve your files!!
 
Hey mate

All is OK, except for my splitting headache!

Will have a yarn to Pedders later if I feel up to it.
 
G'day again SF

I just spoke to Pedders and the bloke there asked me what I used the car for. His bald statement to me was "Don't do it".

He said the coilovers could be used to gain a bit of lift, but I would hate the ride comfort (non-existent) and just be wasting my money. He reckoned that the rear springs I currently have are terrific for my purposes (towing, touring, off-road) and the coilovers would not be. As he said they are more for the screaming wheelie, milk bar hoon boy set who want to lower their cars onto the tarmac.

So, sorry, but that seems to kill our little plan off ... :(.
 
Yeah, you can tell you're very familiar with this. I know who to go to for advice if I ever face the same issue as you have today. Although I would probably mess it up even more. ;)

No, that's okay. A little disappointing, but there is no point compromising a good setup! I know what to look out for,and you have given me alot of advice!
Thanks Ratbag!
 
I am very happy with my current setup.

Handling is good. Rear end sag is almost imperceptible even with about 70 Kgs sitting on the tow ball. Comfort is better than it was with my shagged SLS struts, so is the handling.

About the only thing I would consider changing is perhaps fitting a 1" PE strut top lift block in the rear. Even with these, my rear would be just at the upper limit of the OEM range for my car.

Glad I have been able to help in some way. Kevin had already said that he didn't think that the coilovers would be suitable. Oh well, if we don't investigate these things, we never find out the best direction for what we each want to achieve.
 
Exactly.

One last thing, should I choose stock SG SLS or standard struts? Probably paired with 2" strut lift and nothing else.
 
I wouldn't recommend using SLS. Taking any weight on the shocks is never a good idea. The fact that the SLS in my SG lasted for 110K kms is a tribute to them, but the conventional MacPherson struts in my '93 Impreza were still as good as new at 234K kms and nearly 18 years old ...

I can certainly recommend the Pedders rears that I replaced my SLS with. Only real downside is that they were fairly expensive. $337 each. $70 for fitting and $70 for an alignment. Neither done by Pedders, who charge roughly double these prices ...

Maybe better to have a 1" lift. Puts less strain on the CVs. I reckon the latter ought to last almost forever, barring damage to the boots.
 
Thankyou! I'm currently searching for some SG suspension now, I'll see what I can find. Once I get some more money, I'll upgrade to something like pedders.
 
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