Please can anyone help !! I am looking to purchase a Impreza estate (turbo) however the wife hated the ride during our test drive! ('98 wrx ltd endition ?) I appreciate it will effect the road handling, however is it possible to use the standard springs or soften the suspension using adjustable shocks !! any assistance would be as great help.

Matthew

 

Have you considered the Forester S Turbo? Essentially a detuned Impreza with the off road running gear.

And, Prodrive do a performance package for it now.

Kind regards

Ben

 

Keeping the standard springs and fitting adjustable dampers is probably a recipe for disaster. Most adjustable dampers tend to be aimed at the sporting market, and you may well find that the softest setting is just as firm as the standard suspension.

You could fit adjustable suspension kit with lower rated springs. It would affect the handling, moving it away from the harder/better handling balance, but still give you the option of increasing the damping rates for better response when you are on your own, or wish to use the car on ther track.

It may well be worthwhile test driving a standard UK spec car, as this is generally more softly sprung. If your wife prefers the ride comfort of a UK car, then you could easily swap the suspension for this set-up (lots of people have upgraded their suspension, and will have the standard untis lying around which they could sell to you for a reasonable price).

 

If you start pressing on with soft suspension, (even with adjustable dampers) you will be heading for trouble.

See if you can find anybody that supplies rising rate springs, which start off soft but the more they compress, the harder they become to compress, along with your standard dampers or uprated ones if you are thinking of giving it some serious stick regularly.

Mike.

 

Thanks for your reply. Can you suggest a supplier of replacement springs and dampers bearing in mind I would want to make the car as soft as possible (with wife in car) and then bolt it down when I'm on my own.

many thanks in advance

 

You could do a lot worse than fit the ScoobySport-LEDA kit with soft springs. 175lb/in front and 150lb/in rear should do it, but if you really want to have a "rolling sofa" drop both those figures by 25lb each (the springs come in multiples of 25lb).

The important proviso is to ask LEDA to set your dampers up for road use. This means they move the whole adjustment range towards the softer end of the scale and use a softer spring on the "relief valve" (not sure of the correct term) that lets the damper soak up potholes and the like. After a year of finding my suspension way to hard for city living, I've just had this done on mine and the result is a huge transformation.

The ride is reminiscent of the standard 98MY setup with the adjusters backed right off, and I'm running 200lb/in springs all round so that should give you some idea. Obviously, you can always crank them up for track days and country blasts, so you have the best of all worlds.

-= mike =-

PS. Letting your spouse drive the car a few times is the traditional way of persuading him/her that it's not such a bad idea to have a firm ride (Mr. Gimlet)

 

The Prodrive suspension kit is slightly more compliant, particularly over small sharp edged bumps.

 

Just put some 1.8 on.Needs to come off a 5 door though.

We have some for about £300

andy@central-subaru.co.uk