I have a ton of Suspension questions. If you want/can answer any of these then great! 1) Koni inserts: I have an 04 WRX sedan and have seen conflicting info on whether I can use these or not. Do they make 04 Koni innserts and if so, where can I buy them? I know your supposed to use the stock bodies, but how does this work??? 2) Adjustables: KYB's only work (adjust) with the rear seat out correct? Also, whats up with the "tophats?" What are these??? I didn't have anything called a "tophat" on my SVT Focus or any of my Miata's... 3) AFK: Anti-Lift Kit: What does this do?? Okay, my non-suspension questions: 1) Short Shifters: KartBoy?? It seems to be the most common, especially with the bushings. Will this reduce some of the notchiness of the shifter???Will it clean up the shift throws? 2) Mounts: Engine, Transmission? Do any of the mounts make a big difference on the WRX? On the SVTF, upgrading a few of the mounts made a HUGE difference. Thats it, thanks for any help and hope to see/meet a few of you at the Dyno Day!!
I dont know exactly what suspension pieces will work with your car. I believe the top-hat is that mounting part on the top of the strut and they just changed the shape of it or something during the 04 model year. Anti-lift kit is essentially just an offset A- arm bushing. It increases the castor on the front wheels resulting in less nose dive when braking and more front grip when drag racing. No clue on the short shifters since I'm an automatic but you can buy Group N STI engine, tranny, and engine pitch mounts. I believe they also have differential mounts, check one of Alex's recent posts.
1. Koni is working on an 04 rear insert but the 02-03 will work with spacers for the nut. I have koni's and I'm putting 04 sti springs and 04 rear top hats O I will be dealing with this issue soon. Plus I can get koni's really cheep. I have a friend at Koni. e-mail me if you are interested. I've autocrossed with the Koni's now for a season and they are far superior to the KYB's. KYB is both compression and rebound adjustment together and only to 4 clicks. The koni's are rebound only and are adjustable to about 16 positions. Now it may sound bad to only have rebound adjustable but my friend at Koni explained it to me that it is better. You can have too much compression dampening and not enough rebound to keep up, then you get a bouncy ride. 2. Top hat is what sits atop the McPherson strut spring assembly. They keep the strut together and mount it to the car. 3. Anti lift kits give your car more caster. There is a lot of information about this at the whiteline website but basically it keeps your car more planted in corners. Think of a shopping cart's front wheels. www.turnfaster.com 1. Kartboy and bushings make it more notchy. There isn't much that can make a Subaru shift like a Honda. 2. Stiffer mounts will make you shifting a little easy and get power to the ground a little better as the torque is not fitting with moving the engine vs twisting the flywheel.