Once the ST coilovers and Whiteline Sway bars were in place, we went for a test run to get a quick impression and to adjust the damping if needed. We were pretty impressed with the overall ride quality. Even though the springs from ST Suspensions are close to double the rate of the stock springs, the ride is still pretty nice and well controlled. It is way better than what it was on lowering springs and worn out old shocks!
We felt that for the current tires the factory default shock damping adjustment was fine. There was no rubbing in the wheel wells or bottoming at the set ride height so we did not adjust it further. Now that the shocks and swaybars were taken care of, it was time to go back into the shop to refresh the suspension bushings and add a few more trick parts from Whiteline to help the handling at our new lower ride height.
Stay tuned, our WRX project will be developing into something outstanding as we give it the MotoIQ treatment!
11 comments
“the largest anti-swaybar option from Whiteline – their 24mm diameter ”
Did they discontinue the BSF36XXZ and BSR36XXZ?
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
SuperPro adds one degree of positive caster.
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.
Project STI Second gen has 6 degrees of positive caster and that seems to work pretty well.
Will this setup also work on a 2007 Subaru Impreza 2.5i wagon?