ST Suspensions Coilover Upgrade for WRX
Howard removes Ian’s 22mm Progress bar. Although this is a good bar in itself, it works the best with a stock or moderately sized front bar. Since we are going to a 24mm front bar, we wanted a larger rear bar to match it.
Since the Progress bar had destroyed the stock mounts, Ian had upgraded to some Progress reinforced swaybar mounts. We were going to change that to even beefier mounts from Whiteline.
Once removed, you can see that the 22mm Progress bar is significantly thinner than the 24 mm Whiteline bar.
The Whiteline bar is 3-way adjustable with once piece forged ends. The Progress bar is two way adjustable with welded on ends.
Howard bolts Whiteline heavy duty  anti-sway bar mount in place, You can see how it is an order of magnitude stronger than stock.
Teflon tape is wrapped around the bar where the center bushings sit. The tape is lubricated with the supplied Whiteline grease before installing. The Teflon tape ensures that the bars will not squeak as the suspension moves.  The Teflon also reduces static friction and improves the ride.

10 comments

  1. “the largest anti-swaybar option from Whiteline – their 24mm diameter ”

    Did they discontinue the BSF36XXZ and BSR36XXZ?

    1. It looks like they discontinued the 27mm adjustable bars for this chassis which is a shame because they work pretty well on big tired and R compound cars. They currently offer 22mm and 24mm adjustable and non-adjustable varients.

      1. I did some checking and the 27mm bar is still offered for the STI. I can’t think why this would not fit on the base WRX. The part numbers are BSF36XXZ and BSR37XXZ.

  2. Super excited to see where this goes! I understand that ST suspension is designed and manufactured by KW, but was there any reason other than cost to go with this over KW? Also, I remember there being mentions of some power adders in the future. Are you guys cooking up something to deal with the not so torque friendly 5-speed or swapping out to the 6-speed?

    1. We decided to try the ST coilovers because we wanted to see how well they worked for a value-priced coilover set and we are pretty impressed. We are going to try to work with the 5 speed at first but are also mulling over the 6-speed swap at a later time.

  3. Any thoughts on upgrading to STi front control arms for improved castor? I’ve done this upgrade on my car (2005 saab 92x) when I refreshed the bushings and it made a great deal of difference. Went from 3.5 degrees of castor to 5.25.

    1. I believe the Spec C front lower control arms provide 5 degrees of caster, as well as JDM 2004-2006 or 2007 STi’s provide that same degree. I’m not sure how much caster increase the USDM STi’s would give me. Also, I believe SuperPro makes a control arm/Anti-lift kit combo that adds caster as well, but I’m not sure by how much.

  4. USDM 04/05 LCAs provide 5 degrees of castor (What I have on my car). Anything newer is 3.5. I don’t know much about the JDM arms.

    I’m not sure if the 06 WRX & STi LCAs are the same or just provide the same castor, but when the WRX switched over from steel to aluminum (in sedan form at least), that’s when the STi lost castor as well.

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