just got an opportunity to drive jake's 02, and felt a noticeable difference in handling. My three suspicions are: 1. whiteline steering rack bushings 2. different power steering fluid 3. the grippy 02 seats (ok, not as much as 1 and 2) i wanted the whiteline bushings because i hear good things about them, but could it be really THAT much of a difference? my car felt so loose on the drive back home... also, are power steering fliuds rated by viscosity or what? i'm guessing thicker fliud will make the steering more stable? i could be totally wrong cuz i am the biggest noob..
I didnt know the seats were different. Steering rack bushings help tighten up a good bit esp. if your's are dead.
yea, the seats look the same, but the 02s are A LOT tighter. i like how subaru's seats get wider and less supportive every year..
the 02 and 03 interior is identical including seats. steering rack bushings make a bit of difference but not as much as you are describing. I have never heard of steering fluid improving handling :dunno
weird.. his had 105k and mine is at 88k mileage? i dunno, but it DEFINITELY felt tighter. maybe his previous owner did some mods to the seats then (tightening it on the bottom, then bolt something up so that the seats are squeezed on the side bolsters)
02 and 03 have the same front seats, yours just might be more beat up than his. Sometime late in 03 they started putting 17mm swaybars on the WRXs instead of the 20mm ones. Yours might have the smaller swaybars so it feels looser.
could this really contribute to how the 'steering wheel' feels like? my car barely moves at all when i wiggle the wheel left and right in a small radius. o yea, and this is AFTER i got the bushings installed... it's marginally better, just not as much as i expected. maybe i should get a whole new rack.
Haha I just think that you just have an car form of hypochondria. I dunno, have you checked out your suspension? Maybe something is wrong with it. As everyone else said, the seats are identical. It's possible that the previous owner of your friends car did something to increase the bolstering, but more likely I'd say that you car's previous owner just beat them up a little more.
Larger swaybars, or stiffer suspension in general contribute to sharper steering response. They are right though, the 02 had a 20mm bar while the 03 had the 17mm bar.
It would be good to know if your friend has a better alignment or has had an alignment recently. Wear should be negligible. The seats would most likely go at the same time as the struts (over 100k miles), unless you are a beast and flatten them out really fast.
The brakes are different.... or at least the pads and calipers are different... my early '03 Sonic has '03 fronts and '02 rears! Makes buying pads a PITA! Sorry, not relevant to this thread, but I'm bored at work.
Stock handles well?!! Your crazy man. My car was awful stock (03 WRX). It just pitched, rolled, and understeered at anything over 10mph.
I think stock is relatively good. I mean I know that there is a multitude of room for improvement, but i still think it feel better than the majority of cars on the road. Maybe not all cars in the same niche, but still far better than your average vehicle. I mean I know that the Evo (or STi) is leaps and bounds better, but they are also a good 5+ grand more expensive. For the price of a wrx, I feel that it's handling is quite good. This is coming from someone who has never driven a car with lots of suspension work, so my only comparisons are other stock vehicles. And the only two stock cars I've ever driven that I feel are more capable are the STi and the 350z. I think too many of you are suspension snobs that have been corrupted by your sways, springs, sturts and/or coilovers. Appreciate the wrx from the factory, it's still a good car. And I think thebigph is trying to say that his modded suspenions feels great.
my bad let me clarify that i have seriously upgraded my suspension. however i took the car to dragon's tail when it was stock and all she had were some really good tires and she handled quite well. the vehicle dynamics that i have in my car said that we pulled 1.3 g's on one turn and we didn't even go off the road. i was maintaining about 35-40 mph most of the way through which for stock suspension is pretty decent i think
^^sti though...i'd like that setup too but i've got it pretty good now that i upgraded so i'm not complaining
Riigghhtt, the flex's are about the same as the STi strut, uh huh. I completely agree that its better than most stock street cars, especially those fat rolly mustangs.
i dont know about a mustang cuz i never drove one before, but wrx is definitely a good car as far as handling goes for stock. i think it's one of the cars that will show drastic change from suspension tuning, and i am modifying my car anyways, so it's good that my car has a huge potential.
tein flex, whiteline front and rear sways, performance tires...that's about all...oh wait we pulled those g's with a stock setup only the wheels and tires had been upgraded. all that stuff is what i have now i'm looking at getting more g's now that i have a better setup. i think we can get qutie a bit at a track