tiggers

Since we got our STI a couple of months ago my wife as occassionally mentioned that it's very bouncy compared to our previous MY99 UK Turbo. She drives it a lot more than me so I just put it down to her not being used to it and kind of ignored her comments.

Well yesterday she mentioned it again so we swapped cars and I took the STI to work. Know what? She's right! Compared to my ITR this thing could make me sea sick. I have read elsewhere on here that at 30-40mph with the standard suapension they do bounce a littlem, but I noticed it most at 70-80mph on the M60 between Midleton and Stockport. Now I know this isn't the world's greatest road surface, but the ITR just deals with it whereas the STI feels quite weird chopping up and down like a mad thing.

Now what I need to know is - is this just the standard suspension's behaviour or does ours have a problem. I asked the dealer briefly about it as I hadn't noticed it on the demo car we test drive, but he said that car had the Prodrive suspension. I can therefore summise that we may need a Prodrive suspension kit to sort out the problem, but I can't believe how bad the standard kit really is.

Any comments would be appreciated - thanks in advance!

Regards,

tiggers.

talizman

iTrader: (1)

Common "issue" amongst STI 8 owners.....

Prodrive spring kit goes a good way towards rectifying this, but doesn't eliminate it completely.

tiggers

Thanks Talizamn.

Does anyone live with that suspension or are they all running the Prodrive kit - it really is bad!

tiggers.

jasey

I'm currently living with it - and it can get a bit tedious - but it only seems to be a problem on certain roads - I haven't worked out what the combination is - it isn't just poor roads - the bounce can appear almost at random.

It also seems to be a bigger problem on the straights - corners don't appear to be as bad !

I've got round the problem by avoiding straight roads

tiggers

TBH it probably feels worse to me as the ITR that I drive most of the time is pretty hard and flat on the suspension side of things.

Still I'm not happy with it and I think the Prodrive kit will have to be installed asap.

tiggers.

talizman

iTrader: (1)

Its not that bad to the extent that folk can't live with it, however, it is a good excuse to swap the setup, and at the same time dropping the ride height to a more aesthetically pleasing level.

tiggers

Which is what leads to my orginal question because IMHO on my wife's car it is THAT bad therefore maybe soemthing else is wrong. Put it this way faced with the choice of the STI or the ITR I'll be taking the Teg every time - in the STI I was almost seasick - I half expect to be piped aboard and have to shout "hard to port" to get it to turn left

Maybe driving an Elise for two years then an ITR has made any car with some suspension feel dodgy

tiggers.

barneyrubble

tiggers - I took an STi 8 for a test drive and it was bad as you describe to the extent that I bought an 03 WRX and PPP'd it. I really wanted the STi 8 but couldn't have lived with that bounce or justified spending more money to get the car to what I would consider an acceptable ride quality. I actaully did feel car sick after an hours test drive! Shame because it's a fantastic car otherwise.

tiggers

Thank God it's not just me then!

Will be ordering the Prodrive springs next week when they finally sort out the remote locking problem (if they sort it out - been in twice already and they can't find the problem )

Regards,

tiggers.

MattW

My mudguards scrape the ground getting onto our drive, so lowering is not agreat option for me. I'm living with it, but most of the time it's not evident.

barneyrubble

Good luck with the springs m8, I'm told it does the trick and the car will be spot on. In the meantime I'll drive around in my WRX PPP in relative comfort and pretend that I'm not a bit envious everytime i see an Sti 8!!!

cheers

Barney

tiggers

Barney,

I would imagine that a WRX PPP is as good as a standard STI (better in the suspension department actually) so don't be too envious. It was a close run thing as to whether we went for a WRX PPP or an STI - we got a better trade in against the STI so that's what we went for.

Enjoy it mate!

tiggers.

Ian236

Tiggers

If you look through most of the comments made especially by wives and girlfriends you will find that they all hate the ride, it is to do with the camber of the road and the fact the passenger is not driving - I dont think it is acceptable - I have an 02 STI and the ride is just as bad - the only way to get an acceptable ride is to drive faster than you normally would which is not a great idea, I believe that the EVOS are even worse although I cant believe it myself.

It is just not acceptable in a £ 27k car, how many other manufacturers supply cars that need 2K spending on them to make them have the performance thay should have ( PPP ) and then expect us to pay £ 400 to have the ride that they should have - surely with all the electronic aids available ( ie even Volvo have active electronic suspension )they could do better, and yes I know all about the emmisions angle regarding getting the car type approved in the UK.

Just putting my flame suit.

Ian

Ian

tiggers

Ian,

No flames here - couldn't agree more. It was funny as when my wife first complained about it I just thought it was her being silly, but I actually found it worse than she said.

Put it this way there is currently a scramble for who gets the keys to the Teg and that ain't right really is it?

Prodrive here we come!

tiggers.

mjb1

Mine is horrendous on the M25 in the Kent area. Also the A34 around Oxford makes it behave like a bucking bronco at around 50-60mph. It's quite embarrassing to have a guy in a BMW 3 series staring at you from the other lane as you bob up and down looking a bit green around the gills.

I reckon we should lobby Subaru for a recall and get it sorted out under warranty. Why should we pay an extra £300 to rectify their design fault?

I may just fire off an email to Top Gear and 5th Gear to see if they can reproduce it and get them on our side

WRX_BLUES

mjb1,

I live in Kent and I know exactly the bit of M25 your on about. You just beat me to it. When I first got my STI8 I thought it was a problem with the car stuttering, but it was in fact the suspension and on that particular bit of the M25. However, after that bit it all seems fine. It only seems to be on the anti-clockwise direction of the M25.

Ben

johnfelstead

That section of the M60 is really bad at finding the resonant frequency of the suspension. Whoever graded the surface under the tarmac was having a laugh.

DBY

Totally agree with Ian236 £2000 for PPP £1800 for 18 inch wheels and now £400 for spring kit to sort the ride and handling out!!
Very good value for money (LOL)in my opinion someones making good money out of all this and its not the poor owner.

Rant over

Regards

John

mjb1

DBY,
I fired an ameil off to the Beeb and got a reply straight away from their Consumer Unit. They are really interested in doing some research into problems that people have with brand new cars.

To be fair to Subaru I'm trying to contact them and see what their point of view is on doing a recall to sort out the problem. Has anyone approached them yet? I'm assuming if they have that they Subaru UK will not do anything unless all STI8 owners make themselves heard.

DBY

mjb1 I don't think its a Warranty problem more like a characteristic of the car that you have to put up with I'm afraid.
I Have a WRX 03 that has a PPP fitted which gives me the same BHP as a NON PPP 03 sti ie 261 and standard very poor brakes which can't cope with the extra grunt , so guess what I had to spend £650 on a Godspeed big brake kit to put this Characteristic of the car right. I think that Prodrive should offer a more intergrated PPP pack for both WRX and STI so some of these problems would be overcome , ie more comprehensive packs and better value for us customers.

Regards

John

mjb1

DBY,
Brakes are a bit of grey area and depend on loads of different parameters to measure effectiveness. By upgrading the car's power you found the standard brakes to be a bit weak. That sounds fair enough to me. The problem with the STI8 is that "out of the box" the ride can be unacceptable on certain roads and always at regular road cruising speeds 40-70mph. I think this is unacceptable for a new car and certainly causes my wife to feel very unwell after only a couple of miles. I fully understand that the STi has quite hard suspension and am prepared to put up with crashes and bangs over pot holes and ridges in the road but not the sickening bouncing. It can't be an acceptable feature it is a design problem with rebound damping on the spring/shocks on that model and I think Subaru need to know about it.

talizman

iTrader: (1)

mjb 1

At the end of the day, it comes down to one's perception of what is "acceptable", and although the STI's suspension is not ideal, I don't see IM admitting that it is "unacceptable"

DBY

mjb1 agree with you about springs & dampers and Subaru should be told very best of luck, hopefully you will get a decent response from them.

Regards

John

tiggers

Well I'm going to bring it up with the dealer and with IM because to me it is unacceptable. Got to be worth a try.

tiggers

scoobynutta555

Chatted to a dealer today and he said that the uktype sti needs different springs.

He said was a big improvement on the bug eye model which "should never have been released to the public due to so many things being wrong with it".

Ian236

I can see that if anyone runs with this one, BBC watchdog, a car mag or whoever then we will probably be sorry that we started it in the first place, however it should be pointed out that as I have recently written off my STI the one thing that is going to stop me getting another one is the quality of ride, along with a few other issues of less concern, surely Subaru should attempt to look into this problem as it is still a fairly small marketplace for such cars, I am sure that most owners are registered with Scoobynet or similar and are desperate for their cars to be all that they can and do not look to simply slate them for the sake of it.

It comes to something when I looked forward to getting into my L reg Vento on Monday mornings for some comfort after spending the
weekend bouncing around the countryside - I am seriously looking at some S & M to replace the scooby experience whilst I get another car.

Pip pip

Ian

mjb1

Bulldog never got back to me so it'll have to wait until next week now. I think this should be pursued until Subaru come up with at least a statement we can work with.

Can anyone come up with any car that does this?

Ian236

Yes they are mainly blue ones with gold wheels and a big tea tray on the back and have registrations that have 02 and 03 in them and some subtle gay pink stickers on them, I believe that they all do it.

Toot toot