Typerav5

Hi everyone complete new on posting,just got my first subaru wrx 03 uk version today after many many years of thinking maybe today maybe tommorow blah blah,gonna need help from the community,there's a few issues but first why does the steering feel so heavy, its on standard wheels,I have a feeling its lowered but cant be sure as ive only just got it home, not had chance to check anything ,any help?

ted bass

Check tyre pressures first of all

BBB3

iTrader: (7)

Could be a few things,

1. check the fluid
2 change the fluid of you've never done it
3 Tyre pressure
4 power steering pump / rack

hope you get it sorted

Vxr2010

Change the fluid first , last time I used a syringe to suck the old stuff out , re filled , used the steering , then repeated this around 4 or 5 times , other things that cause issues are , there is a 5£ rubber seal on top of the pump , sometimes they leak , fairy easy to change but make sure when you push the metal pipe back down back on to the pump , the rubber seal seals the metal pipe , the metal pipe needs to be properly seated or you will break it as you screw it down , the other issue is the rubber pipe from the plastic reservoir that goes to the metal pipe with the seal , the rubber pipe hardens and let’s air into the pump , again causing issues 👍

Andycat

change fluid ....I had same thing with 03 STI fluid had gone off because it had not been changed and had gone off

Shane

iTrader: (6)

Not sure if the newage cars are the same but the classic has a UJ in the steering column that dries out due to being in close proximity to the turbo and downpipe. A good clean up with penetrating fluid and then a regrease tends to sort it. Power steering is a good call as well, did mine when the pump was getting noisy, change of fluid quietened it right down.

ST-X

Is the steering consistently heavy, or does it appear worse at certain points in the steering wheel's rotation? If it's the latter then it'll likely be the UJ. My experience with that is once you can feel it through the wheel it's toast. You can get decent WRX ones for c£20 and STI for c£40. It's a bit of a faff to change but far from difficult if you're competent with the spanners.

For ride height I'm sure @2pot will have the stock centre to arch measurements so you can see whether it's been lowered, although the back is likely to have sagged a bit over time.

Typerav5

Thanks for all the advice,I have checked tyres they were slightly low,but like I said I have not checked anything on the car when buying,today I've had a look at power steering fluid and its on minimum,so that could be something,also its heavy all the time not a certain points in a turn,also not having owned one before it's hard to compare to another,thanks again for all your replies

Linksfahrer

On the ride height , measured wheel middle- to longest arch I run in winter 38cm rear and 37 cm front, In summer I reduce these 2-3 cm . I assume you have after market coil overs and adjustment keys.
While you have the car up on a pair of Jacks, you can check level on the steering fluid , run the steering lock to lock as many as 10 -15 times without the wheels on the ground, this will back bleed the system.
Check again if the level drops , you might still have a leak. You should be able to feel the steering as it moves back and forth , with a constant smooth feel it is the sign of a healthy system.

If you have original suspension I would consider getting coil overs fitted , if you do this yourself then at least go to have the suspension geometry measured and set by a good tuner / garage.
I can recommend Subaru4you in Newbury , our cars are getting on a bit now and the bushings are best replaced before setup.

ST-X

If the PAS is consistently heavy then it may be you're used to a much lighter car but equally the steering on mine, which is heavier than stock due to increased caster/quick rack etc, is significantly lighter at speed than sport mode on my BMW and on a par with comfort settings. You can replace the fluid which may help and you can do this by getting a turkey baster to empty the reservoir and refill with good, running it and then repeating until the fluid looks fresh and red rather than blackened and burnt. As @Linksfahrer suggests, on axle stands is useful as you can also feel if anything feels slightly rough/sticky, as well as any strange noises. Clean the PAS pump with brake cleaner and see if any wet spots appear around the connectors. The o-ring where the connector for the high pressure line comes out the top is a fairly common spot for sucking air in but you'd likely be hearing groaning sounds too.

For suspension just have a look under the arches. It'll be easy to tell if it's on struts or coilovers as a first stop, and stock struts should be black with black springs. If the springs look suspiciously new or say something like Eibach/Prodrive on them then they're lowered. If it isn't already on coilovers I would disagree with the 'just get coilovers' approach, unless you like driving only on smooth roads. For me a good strut setup is much, much better for typical British B road fun unless you're spending daft money as it has better ground tracking ability - too many coilovers really struggle on the more complex surfaces where you have ridge lines, significant camber movement and potholes/lumps everywhere. My BC's spent most of their time with the front wheels either off the ground or on the stops and not much in between. To be fair to them, they were great on smoother tarmac, but they're pretty symptomatic of most basic short travel systems (i.e anything below £1200, or probably more now with the fx rates) where you have 4" total travel at the front and 5" at the back. With them sitting around 2" compressed this gives you less than an inch of travel before hitting a short and hard bump stop (the stops in my front struts are longer than BC's total bump travel), and 2" of droop. If you're turning hard into a corner where the inside is broken and falling away, this leads to your front wheel frequently being in the air. But you will find advocates saying the exact opposite of me - unless the suspension is trailed out of it I'd suggest giving it a bit to work out what you want before dropping a ton of money on something different. WRX stock stuff is much softer than STI/lowered stuff, but both are still noticeably more in the wheel travel and comfort range than coilovers.

For bushes, give them a pry - unless you want to go full restoration effort this can be a never ending journey of asking yourself what really needs replaced, because there are a lot of them and they get expensive quickly. The rear front LCA bush is one that can give some bad traits if it's gone soft and my OEM ones were dead at 50k miles/10 years. This is the bush many replace with an ALK. Personally I liked the ALK as with stock suspension it improved turn in and reduced the need for left foot braking to dial out understeer when pushing but others feel it softens the effective front spring rates too much. I think it depends how and where you drive. Either way, it's a cheap and easy fix using stock spec bushes at £60pr, hardened group n spec ones at £100pr, or an ALK at £160-200. At the back you have a front trailing arm bush that essentially controls the front-rear position of the rear wheel and then the LCA arms which control the side to side position and thus camber. The reality though is that these rear LCA bushes are small and while yes, they do make a difference, I wouldn't bother replacing them unless they're clearly all failing or you want to go all out. All the bushes will be soft as they're 20 years old, unless of course they've already been replaced, but because you have so many controlling the wheel there's less impact from each one being soft - compared to the front at least where you have one bush which can have a huge impact on braking/cornering stability. I noticed a difference going from 17yr old OEM to brand new hardened rubber ones from Hardrace but it wasn't as if they were a problem before, I just wanted shiny stuff. If you're handy doing DIY then there are options from ICP/Hardrace which give you all the bolts and bushes (either OEM or Superpro) for the back end but be warned that these bolts are commonly a PITA and will likely need cut out; the long rear hub one is notorious for seizing into the hub, and the bolts which go through the arms into the subframe corrode to the inner sleeves of the bushes. It's totally doable DIY as it's all pretty straightforward stuff but quite an expensive one to get a garage to do just because of the amount of time it can take.

Linksfahrer

Loads of good stuff in above , when I first got my car most of the original suspension was knocking and it felt really tired / sloppy, I'd always enjoyed a bit of left foot braking, learnt in 80's FWD hot hatches,
but you needed it to make any sort of progress when the suspension developed a mind of its own.

I run BC's ( reasonably cheap ) and I agree that for uneven roads these are short travel and not always ideal , but when I bought them I was still living in Germany, agree the roads are much better. The BC's were therefore a really good improvement and allowed me to run the Prodrive Tarmac suspension settings, these were fine for a blast around the "smooth" Ring, and very good for my favorite hill climb /descent of the Feldburg from Oberusel at least until small speed bumps were placed on the "applause" curve below Sandplacken , which ruined the curve for the motorbikes and becomes deadly for the bicycles and stopped the applause.

Now in Cornwall I have rough tarmac and ground clearance for the green bits in the middle is the main issue , so the BC's height adjustment is very helpful.
I did change s lot of my bushings for new / hardrace and some superpro and over a period of time and have gone back to std diameter anti roll bars and more new bushings since leaving DE ,
In combination to the BC's I found I just did not get on with aftermarket thicker roll bars on our tight lanes, So yes compliance can be found / dialed in according to taste/conditions by using different / OEM materials.
However while far better coil overs can be had (at a price) I still remember the feeling of driving the car with properly aligned suspension down my favorite road after just fitting /alignment of the BCs and the bushing changes,
which altogether transformed the driving experience, therefore I see trouble in using just the standard struts especially before doing bushing replacements as they don't easily allow the setup to be dialed in.

Therefore on a budget, yes I'd DIY replace the major bushings out first , do the roll bar bushes / and LCA's then maybe as an alternative to new BC's find maybe some Eibach's / others SH on the marketplace here,
but still finally go get them expertly aligned.