1. I live in Duluth 2. My name is Robbie 3. 03' WRX Silver 4. Stock 5. Nowhere yet 6. no 7. Stock for now, but I took her to Blood Mountian last weekend, so now i will be working on some handling mods. If anyone has some suggestions for aftermarket suspension kits i'm all ears! 8. yea c'mon 9. someone put a business card on my car while i was in the DMV in Roswell...thanks
hey robbie... welcome to the club... swaybars will give the best improvement in handling in my opinion for a stock wrx... better tires wouldnt be a bad either... then u can decide between springs or full coilovers dpending on how much u wanna spend.... i have tein flex coilovers and whiteline front and rear swaybars... and i love the way it feels
Whats up Robbie! How are the roads around Blood Mountain? I've backpacked on and around it but was too young to really remember the roads.
I believe I put that card on your car. It was quite a while ago though correct? At any rate, there are many members who have recently done suspension modifcations who can tell you in depth about their experiences, both good and bad. Welcome to the club, let me know if you have any queations. Cheers, Alex
Welcome!! As far as suspension mods, I depends on how much loot you have. In order of most to least important...here's my 2 cents 1)17' inch rims / tires(I know, not really part of suspension, but huge difference in handling) 2)Sway bars!! huge difference, eliminates body roll and makes it a whole different car. 3)Coil-overs..Or for the slightly cheaper route, A nice set of lowering springs and replacement struts(I have KYB struts and Whiteline springs and am very happy). Hope this helps!
wow thanks for all of the feedback. I have been looking at rims and tires, but they are a little too much $ for the weekend driving im looking for, i want a set of rims for performance only, i don't care what they look like as long as i get better handling and traction. I've been looking online, but i don't know much about the different manufacturers as far as performance goes. Thakns for the fyi on the sway bars, they will deffinitely be my next purchase. Yesterday i got a 325is 87' for my autocrossing car, i'm really excited about that . I thought about racing my baby (my dub) but right now she is my everyday driver and i'm very hesitant about any enginemods. I still want to take her to the mountains as often as possible, that is why i'm so hung on suspension and handling.
i haven't figured this posting thing thanks for the feed back, where did you have your swaybars installed? oh yeah, do you have a turbo timer?
I put the swaybars on myself, very easy mod. Just standard tools and a set of ramps. If you get some, either myself or a bunch of other guys would be willing to help install I'm sure. I forgot to mention, if you get a rear swaybar, you need to upgrade the rear endlinks. The stockers are plastic and will snap with a bigger bar(so I've heard). Like a said I have a Whiteline 24' front, and 20-22-24 adjustable rear with upgraded endlinks. It cost me $475, by far the most effective suspension mod for the $$ I've done.
oh yeah, no turbo timer yet, I don't know that many of us on here have one. I've read that the wrx turbo doesn't need one that bad. If your concerned about turbo life, I've heard that you can just let your car idle for a little bit before shutdown to get the same effect as the timer....could be wrong...
thanks, i looked at cobb tuning they ahve a suspension pakage, but is 25mm front and rear. I think i will do some more looking around. What about rims? do they imrove handling? I've been looking at some cheap 17's just to use for the mountain drives. i'm kinda stuck between cheap wheels or suspension, i've got the funds for one or the other, but cannot make up my mind.
Wheels will give you more grip thus improving handling a bit, Rims also change the look of the car entirely. I would do rims first then suspension so you can take full advantage of the suspension upgrade.
Chris is correct, at least in my experience, a TT is not necessary, so long as you let your car warm up for 1-2 mins and then let it cool off before you turn it off. This same process can be done by just cold starting and drving around gently, as well as driving around gently right before you are about to park your car. Those with TT's may correct me, but this has been my experience with it, as well as many others whom I have talked to about it.
a TT will just give u the convenience of letting ur car run for a predetermined amount of time before turning it off... so u dont have to wait by ur car after u park... letting the car idle is all the TT will do
I got an Apexi TT as a gift. Because the turbo on the WRX/STI is very efficient at cooling itself, this is not a necessary mod. However, my TT, as well as most others, includes other functions. Mine splices into the 02 sensor wire to give 02 readings as well as AFR (narrow band only). Where a TT comes into play, in my opinion, is when you significantly mod your car, replace the turbo, or do lots of track events. With the track events, your going from full bore to stop and I can't imagine the tt idiling the car for a few extra minutes wouldn't help. If you ask about tt's on NASIOC, you will be thumped about the head and neck. There is a very vocal group on there who see it as an absolutlely useless mod, right up there with Blow-off valves. I plan to install my tt tomorrow, i'll try to take some pics of the install and post them.
i would recommend against splicing... if u do it, make sure the wires are the same gauge and multistrand
Hey sleep, In my opinion, a sway bar is a sway bar with all companies being about the same. The only different one I've seen is the one you looked at by Cobb that is a hollow design instead of solid. The only advantage I see to that is weight which would only become a factor if your racing your car and need to be as light as possible. Solid bars like Hotchkis(spell), Whiteline, Cusco, Perrin etc... to me are just diffent colors and prices with the absolutely same effect. As far as sizes go, It depends on how serious you want to get. I think from what you describe a 24' front and an 20-24 adjustable rear would suit your needs. Any larger than that and the mod becomes more extensive(beefier mounts etc.). Like I said, don't forget to upgrade rear endlinks as well. I agree with Milo that wheels and tires should be first but with your budget I'd go sways first. First of all, even cheap wheels/tires will be over $500. And to be honest, If your gonna get them, I'd wait till you save more money and get quality wheels that you like. Just my .02...
I forgot I converse with a bunch of EE's/other engineers. Splicing, in my lay vernacular, means vampire tap...and yes I will make sure I have the correct guage tap. Still think this would be a problem?
Well I installed the hard wire kit for my 8500 X50 and the Apexi TT yesterday. It took my about 6 hours, mainly because I couldn't decide where to mount the Remote switch for the passport. I used vampire taps and some directions from Scoobymods for the TT and all went well. I still have to cut a wire going into the adapter point for the wireless remote. This wire prevents the doors being unlocked with the remote while the engine is on. I don't really understand the reasoning behind this in the first place...Anyways, I will post a link to the Scooby Mods thread I used as well as some of the pics I took in the how to section.