Here's a pic of a 'black' damper next to a 'red' (spot the deliberate) but the silver one is the same design as the red which has its thicker body outside the damper's plunger inside out of sight. So your blacks are probably WRX ones, but not STi's

I would be definitely looking at a geo done - swapping out your arb's won't need the settings changing again

Be sure to look into which settings will suit you before going to the garage, as you don't necessarily want 'OE' settings

 

And a red one just for clarity

 

And a not as shiny pic for comparison.

 

Awesome, thanks guys. That should help me out when they turn up. If by any chance I have the older type STI shocks that are black, are they in any way better than the standard UK turbo shocks?

 

What would be the opinion of drilling a extra hole either side on the standard front arb and making it adjustable? Or Is that just stupid and will snap

 

I don't see what harm it could do myself as long as theres enough of a flat area left to drill.

 

I got a back one infront of me it would need a little bit grinding off to flatten it enough to drill and fix, dono if I can be bothered to try experimenting..... I'm rather bored today to say the least

 

I did that to a sti rear bar and fitted it to my previous wagon, it made a nice difference without being to mad.

 

What about doing front and rear with the holes drilled same distance center to center?

 

I wouldn't do the front as I don't think there's enough room to drill an extra hole and it may snap

 

Grinding/shaving a Lil bit of where the bar starts to go round

 

Just bloody buy a proper one!

 

Pie, I run a v3 type r and have the following fitted.

22mm white line adj rear bar on middle
Solid rear droplinks
P1 struts and springs at original ride height
White line anti lift kit
Poly bushes on rack and front 19mm arb

Its due for a proper geo setup but to be fair it handles really well to the point that I cant see what more money being thrown at it will achieve for a b road blaster. Running around 320hp fyi.

 

Thanks for the reply. Since I started the thread I've bought the Cusco 21mm front and 23mm rear ARB's along with FloFlex front drop links and Whiteline rear drop links both with poly bushes already fitted. Stupidly also bought struts from a 99 Type R thinking I was getting STI struts. Not the case.

I'm gonna stay at standard ride height but I'm thinking my 17 year old original shocks will be very tired along with the majority of the bushes.

Any recommendations on shocks? I don't want to go down the route of coilovers as all I ever read is that they leak after a short time on the vehicle.

 

STI reds or Bilsteins from the WR Sport package (bloody rare it seems but very good imo)