Hi all.

Need help and advice. I am getting a knocking noise coming from the rear when I pull away slowly and at low speeds. The car is an 06 WRX. I know from looking at other threads in the past from here that the suspension typically goes at the 50k miles mark. Mine has done 54k.

I have purchased a couple lower ball joints as I heard that might fix the knocking noise (there were cheap anyway).

The rebound stiffness on the suspension is awful. It feels like the shocks have completely gone and are not soaking up any bumps. If there is another Hawkeye owner who knows what I'm talking about in the Beds area I would love to know what they think and am happy to let them drive my car.

Having said that I am planning to get new coilovers (BC) and new springs (Tien) and replace the lower ball joints whilst I'm at it. I hope this will fix the problem and obviously be much better than it was.

Who else has had this problem and how have they fixed it?

All help appreciated, thanks everyone!

Matt

 

It's very common for the rear to be clonking knocking etc...

Good reason for coilvers

 

Missus has already given me the ok to get a new set up and BC are currently offering 0% finance.

I will be using it for weekends and fast road driving so don't want a too focused set up.

 

Coilvers and a 4 wheel alignment is a MUST

 

The rear knocking was my reason to get coilovers in my MY05 WRX. Replacement shocks were going to not far off cost of coilovers if I was to replace all 4. Be careful about choice of spring rate (the weight required to create specific spring deflection, the higher the figure in kg, the harder the suspension). I can't remember what weight mine are but I wouldn't want any harder for regular road use. Agree about wheel alignment - look out for place with Hunter laser equipment (tells you on their website).

I would advise against lowering more than 30 mm without roll centre correction mod. You'll make handling worse otherwise.

 

Ps I would bet that the knocking has got nothing to do with the lower ball joints. There are 3 common things that cause knocking that you describe: ARB bushes, drop links and shocks.

 

My old hawk had the low speed knocking and it turned out it was as simple as tightening them up. Something had come loose, my local subaru garage tightened it and they never knocked again. They are known to suffer with knocking shocks so may not be as simple in your case but worth a look if you haven't already. I always found them a bit jumpy at speed and changed my springs for prodrive ones which were a lot better.

Coilovers - if you can, go and drive one with Coilovers first. They are not as simple as soft giving you a nice ride and hard making it into a track weapon. I find soft makes it bouncy and hard is HARD! Mine also creak badly over bumps which is driving me mad. Mine are set to about half way but I am really tempted to ditch them. Saying that my problem is dreadful roads where I live and Bridgestone potenza's. I'm about to change the tyres to see if softer side walls and different tread pattern make the Coilovers feel better. I dare say on a track or smooth road the Coilovers are a excellent but for day to day I'm not sure I would choose them over decent shocks and springs. Mine are bc's by the way and are about a year old.

They do make the car sit well tho!!!

 

A gentleman man at BC has suggested fr 02 br ra 6/5 kg. Not a clue what any of that means.

I just want a more comfortable ride albeit a slightly lower one. Like I said rebound seems awfully stiff!

 

Hmm. I'm on 5/4 and am considering softer springs. I have the more expensive separate rebound/compression adjustable ones on mine and went for long travel shocks too. With standard springs I need assister springs to lower the car as they are longer than O.E. I can swap the top rear mount for pillow ball and then use longer softer springs from elsewhere to try, but work keeps me away much of the time so I don't get to play any more.

Remember, the height, spring rate, length and damping are all customisable.

 

If you're wanting a more comfortable ride, then don't get coilovers. You'd be better off getting KYB shocks and separate springs. Coilovers are really more suited to track use in my opinion. UK roads are too poor for everyday use.

 

Thats interesting to know. I'm generally in the dark as I'm a new scoob owner. I just assumed coilovers was the type of suspension
Got any examples?

 

http://www.tein.co.uk/product/street_basis.html

These might be the best option for me. Would like the odd track day in the future and I do want to car more stanced. What do you reckon?

 

Agreed

 

Tein are highly regarded and is as good as any. Do you want to lower the car in which case spring and shock combo will allow this but the ride height will not be adjustable. You would choose a shorter spring than stock to allow ride height drop so you have to decide up front how much you want to drop ride height. As I've said above, with the suspension set up on the WRX if you lower too much, this can affect the roll centre and actually makes the car roll more on corners. This sounds unlikely but trust me, from experience, it's true. 30 mm is about the limit without changing the lower ball joint to shorter one (so called bump steer mod). Coilovers usually allow adjustable ride height. There are other mods to consider such as stiffer anti roll bars (front and rear) and drop links. If I was changing suspension all over again, I would go for KYB shocks (can't remember exact type) and slightly shorter springs with similar rate to OEM but I would uprate front and rear ARBs with poly bushes and solid drop links.

 

That's a really helpful chunk of advice. Thank you.