Handling feel?
 

Cars an 03 sti just turned 75k miles and I'm looking at tightening up the steering feel, currently running pedders with whiteline droplinks and fast Road geo, don't know if more whiteline stuff is the answer or start with replacing simple bushes first.........advice appreciated.

One thing i've learnt is do things slowly.. adding loads of new bits at once can mislead what gains you have made from individual items . It can be costly if you are not overly keen on using spanners etc..

Steering rack bushes and front control arms is a good place to start.

Im looking to do something similar on my 06 hawkeye. but suspension is completely standard. I've been looking at a lot of threads here and other sites and majority highly recommend uprated antiroll bars. So pick yourself up some whiteline front/rear arbs and then take it from there

Front & Rear Anti-Roll Bar Kit Subaru Impreza WRX GD 2002-2007

No reviews

good quality tyres are vital :thumb:

Tyres are all good mate

I agree, this is your first mod to do. It is very cheap and can give nice effects (if rest of your suspension is fine).

Other cheap mods could be polybushes in control arms (but can squeal) or at least group N bushes.

Things which are much more expensive: thicker anit roll bars (but don't go too thick), quick steering rack (13:1 ratio), nice setup of coilovers (meisterr get good reviews for a road).

My take is the anti roll bar is a a false road, albeit cheap route. The Car is VERY sensitive to roll centre and therefore ride height, and just 5mm of front end drop will correct that dropping into the rear corner feel you get with O.E.

I run coils, BC's top of the range ZR now, and with Whiteline Anti-Lift, and 3 position Whiteline ARB in the softest setting I can play with the shocks and get very differing feel quite quickly.

What really makes a Subaru ride crap is dropping it.

A million times over this mistake is made

Guys, he just asked about improving handling feel, not 'what are the best suspension mods'.
One of the main factors improving feel through steering wheel is increasing castor. Take a look at "free castor mod" which as name says is free :) and can give you 0.5-1 degree more of castor. Additionally you could put some non-centrinc rear LCA bushes or whiteline anti-lift kit. Next thing that would give you more castor are spec-c (or some other special edition) front LCAs.
For me: steering rack polybushes, STI cross member (you obviously have it already) and free castor mod gave really noticeable difference in steering feel, and these mods are very cheap. I would say these are must dos.

On the other hand, swapping suspension from stock WRX setup to STI setup gave me vast handling improvement, but not too much more of steering feel.

I take all your points Uxon, and they are worthy, but castor increase shouldn't be given too much cred - it is one of the more subtle suspension mods, which mainly increases grip levels, while giving some mild improvement to steering self centering and weight

One simple, cheap mod, which will significantly improve steering feel is rear subframe lock bolts

https://www.scoobynet.com/suspension...nsion-mod.html

Yeah it's more of the feel from front to rear and the steering wheel movement between the 10 to 2 positions feels very vague and disconnected, my mechanic who usually works on an makes of modified cars can't see anything obvious with my description that I've just wrote here.

bonesetter, the OP is asking for mods for his '03 sti. Isn't the mod that you mentioned only for hatches (08+)?

I also wonder if polybushes on stock antiroll bars are worth considering? Will they give noticeable improvement in turn-in feeling?

The principle of 'locking' the rear subframe is the same for all impreza, classic and new age.

The hatch is slightly different from previous cars as you 'fill' the subframe mount bush voids with pu inserts where on previous cars a long bolt is inserted through the frame into the chassis

Both achieve similar results - tightening steering feel, connection front to rear an more floating boat feel

Although some versions came with metal rear subframe bushes, in which case the rear subframe is already 'locked'.

You've got my attention :) My Scooby is 04 WRX so for sure it's not locked.
I see 2 types of items that locks rear subframe:
- bolts, like Whiteline KSB750 (a set of 2); this look like a simpler and cheaper option, also you can use some diy bolts like bonesetter did here: https://www.scoobynet.com/suspension...bolts-wow.html
- solid polyurethane bushes (a set of 4) for a price closer to 100 pounds. Also it would be much harder to replace them (or costier).

Which solution is better (especially for a daily driven car)?

The WL KSB750's are great as they have sloped ledges to help the bolt in

You may find you need to chase the thread as there's been nothing in it since '04 so will be rusty (M12x1.25)

Great easy job which will have you smiling ear to ear when done :)

Crikey - that sounds like a lot of NVH

Shouldn't really. STIs have theirs locked and it isn't noisy or harsh, just a lot more precise.

No production Subaru has its rear subframe locked as standard (to my knowledge) that's what the aftermarket kits are for (bolts and bush inserts)

Edit: some models were - see links below

https://importcarparts.co.uk/parts-i...y=&searchPart=

Post #11
https://www.scoobynet.com/suspension...bolts-wow.html