bigvern
11 July 2008, 20:52
Well after 6 hrs in total over two days I finally got my sti suspension on my bug - (rain and first attempt at it and a crappy air compressor). At one point I swore so loudly even the birds stopped singing:mad: but I'm there now:smug:
Observations in no order:
Well swapping the front suspension was a right old job, mainly trying to find the right position for the spring compressors so that the strut could be reassembled easily.
The centre jacking points on the car made getting it on stands very quick, but next time I'll drive the car on to some 2-3" planks first as the front is very low for my trolley jack.
Undoing the rear top mounts is a very awkward job as there is very little clearance - it took me longer to undo the three nuts off the back than take the complete strut out of the front.
I wasn't sure whether the car would be any lower but it isn't - which is what I wanted.
Having an electronic copy of the workshop manuals helped no end (free from the 'net)
Initial driving impression are that the pitch and roll the wrx suspension had has all but gone:luxhello: but the sti jiggle is showing itself - which doesn't bother me too much but I've got a couple of trips over the next week - one with the wife and one on my own to really see how it is.
Future? Depending how the car feels I might try the sti dampers with wrx springs to see how that works as a compromise - only when my knuckles have healed though...
Observations in no order:
Well swapping the front suspension was a right old job, mainly trying to find the right position for the spring compressors so that the strut could be reassembled easily.
The centre jacking points on the car made getting it on stands very quick, but next time I'll drive the car on to some 2-3" planks first as the front is very low for my trolley jack.
Undoing the rear top mounts is a very awkward job as there is very little clearance - it took me longer to undo the three nuts off the back than take the complete strut out of the front.
I wasn't sure whether the car would be any lower but it isn't - which is what I wanted.
Having an electronic copy of the workshop manuals helped no end (free from the 'net)
Initial driving impression are that the pitch and roll the wrx suspension had has all but gone:luxhello: but the sti jiggle is showing itself - which doesn't bother me too much but I've got a couple of trips over the next week - one with the wife and one on my own to really see how it is.
Future? Depending how the car feels I might try the sti dampers with wrx springs to see how that works as a compromise - only when my knuckles have healed though...