Suspension Totally Upgraded
After enjoying the Subaru for over 6 months I knew it was time to do a few things to it. The car has 125k miles on the clock and needed some mechanical attention. The car pulled badly due to the non-matching tires plus I recently got a slow leak in one of them. I decided it is starting to get nice out so I need to get this car into shape for some fun summer driving. Perhaps even a trip to Deal’s Gap if I get the time. If I was going to do any spirited driving I needed to get a few fundamentals out of the way first. The stock struts were not giving much dampening any more and the stock springs were creaking and cracking every time I went over a bump. The rear end liked to roll pretty badly as well. After some research I found out this was due to having a tiny factory sway bar. Also during my research I found some quick ways to get this car back to where it needs to be plus some. Here is what I needed:
- Upgraded Struts
- Higher rate and lowering springs
- Stiffer rear sway bar
- Solid endlinks for sway bar
- New tires
After talking to a couple Subaru gurus they said I could get all this done for about 1,500-2,000 dollars. Well… that is a little high for a college kid, so I set my sights on trying to maximize performance without breaking the bank. I scoured the classifieds on a number of Subaru messageboards looking for good deals. Good deals I found! Brand new SPT (Subaru Performance Tuning) struts for 50% off! Tanabe springs for 30% off! Used Kartboy endlinks for 40% off new price! Sway bar for only 50 dollars! Last order of business was to get some tires. I knew I couldn’t skimp here, so went ahead and found a great deal on Pirelli Pzero Neros. Very sticky tire. I got all of this for roughly half of what they had told me I needed to spend. The best part… it all came in the day before spring break.
So, I got out of class and drove straight home to the sight of a pile of packages waiting for me. I didn’t have instructions, didn’t have the internet, the only thing I had was fun figuring it out all night. It wasn’t that bad. I had a bolt missing so I had to wait for the morning to finish it up. Anyway, here are some pictures from that night:
After getting everything installed I took it out for a ride. Wow, what a difference. Now this is how a car should handle. It was a night and day difference. The ride wasn’t too harsh, but it felt planted. The back no longer wants to ride up and the body roll is significantly reduced. All around I am very happy with my modifications and will definitely be enjoying it this summer!
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