Right Guys need some advice.

I have a 2002 Bugeye sti which is completely standard . But my rear shockers have developed the dreaded knocking. The car has only covered 23,000mls.

I have decided to replace the standard suspension with the BC Racing coilovers.

My question is how hard is this to do ???

I am not a mechanic but know my way round the car & how things work also handy enough with a spanner. Have been watching videos on youtube as a guide how this is done.
Removing the standard struts seems easy enough.

My brother would help me & i would get the geomatry & alignment done afterwards.

Just trying to save some money as hard up at the moment.

Any help would be greatly appricated.

Thanks

 

Its very easy to be fair, just make sure you pre load the coilovers before fitting,.

 

quite a easy job mate. just take all four wheels off day before and soak bolts in wd40. especially front ones can be a rite ******* to get off. you will need a long strong arm and try to have car high as possible so better leverage

 

And only use 1/2" drive ratchets on the large bolts (19mm clevis bolts).

Its fairly straightforward. Best is to get all four wheels up off the ground. but only work on either the left or the right side of the car at a time. That way you have the opposite side fully assembled and installed to look at as a guide (in case you forget where stuff goes).

Properly prep your coilovers before installing. Proper preload as Addi_monster says. Make sure you use anti-sieze grease on the threaded portions where there is ACTUAL thread overlap (like the lock rings) but especially the lower clevis bracket. Personally, I completely unscrew/remove the whole lower clevis and grease the threaded portion of the damper tube. You will need to reach in underneath to wipe off any excess of the threads or it will attract grit and dirt.

 

Thanks for replys guys.

I was going to order the BC coilovers from Scoobyworld because according to their website they can set the ride hieght , preload & grease the parts needed before sending to you.

 

It's five bolts a corner.
Make sure you have a torque wrench though.

hardest bit is lifting the car safely.

 

it's not that hard as said above as I done it with my car on axle stands in my parents drive way, all I needed was a 19mm ratchet spanner, a set of vice grips, plenty of wd40, and a large stone to hit the spanner with.
I don't know about other cars but on my classic the brake line was attched to the suspension strut so it had to be removed (broken off) and then refitted (replaced) and bent to the correct shape again, luckily I had a spare set of hubs with the brake lines and brakes still attached

windyboy

 

Agreed, not that difficult. The strut bolts on my MY05 were very tight and having invested in a new socket set and set of spanners before the job was very glad that I had. I would recommend 6 point (hexagonal) sockets and you'll need a long bar. I used a spare bit of metal tubing off kid's old trampoline which when slid over socket wrench, extended leverage to over 2 feet.

The instructions for BC coilovers are not good and I had to watch a few Youtube videos and make a couple of phone calls to my supplier before I felt happy with what I was doing. Mine were pretensioned out of the box and you shouldn't need to change this as long as you don't loosen the lower of the two upper lock rings. If you need to change the ride height after installation (which you will to get desired height across the 4 wheels), all you need to do is loosen the lowest lock ring and using supplied spanner rotate uppermost lock ring clockwise. To raise, turn second top lock ring (with smaller spanner) anticlockwise. Bottom lock ring then gets tightened when you're finished.

Measure the ride height before you start and bear in mind that it is normal for the rear ride height (measured from underside of wheel arch to centre of wheel) to be less than the front (by about 10mm). If you intend to lower the ride height, then it seems that you drop both by equal amounts.

Don't bother with getting the geometry done until you're happy with the ride height and the car's had a chance to settle.

D.

 

Hi fella,

If you haven't already ordered them give the below a ring. They are cheaper than Scoobyworld

http://www.dcperformance.co.uk/uprat...u/impreza.html

Ian

 

Great replys.

Thanks guys

 

I did it myself on my Hawkeye and found it not to bad. When mine were delivered they were set at quite a low height( I guessing to make them more compact for shipping ) so I would makes sure they are all set to the same height before putting them on ( ie that the fronts are set at the same height ). I would think about getting the extenders for the rears as taking the seats of to change this all the time is a real pain in the ****. IMO I would leave the geometry to the professionals with the right equipment as this can transform the handling.
Other than that all the advise above is good.

 

Easy job really, I fitted some BC coils to my blob last month, hardest part (for me) was removin the slide that holds the brake hose to the strut. Apart from that 5 bolts per corner.

 

How are you guys finding the ride after fitting the BC's?
Got the dreaded rear knock on my Hawkeye WRX and going to have to sort something out soon.
Not scared of tackling the change over job myself.
I'm more worried about the ride, I live out on a farm and the roads arn't fantastic. The Hawkeye is way too soft tho compared to my old GC8, wallows into the corners where as the old car was solid and gave you confidence to tackle the twistys, but wasnt overly hard on the rougher roads

 

Sorry mate . Havent even bought them yet was just doing homework.

Hopefully purchasing in the next couple of weeks.

 

Road Warrior

I have bought and fitted BC Coilovers (BR 5/4 kg/mm I think) to fix similar rear shock knock on my MY05 WRX. I too was worried about the ride quality becoming too harsh. This has not been the case. On the softest setting, the ride is different from standard but definitely not much worse than standard. If you wind up the damper setting above 20 (goes up to 32 I think) then you do start to notice that things get a little harsher. I've found front setting of around 10 to good compromise. Regarding handling, I would strongly recommend changing the rear ARB (and probably also the front) to a stiffer version. I have still to change the front ARB but you might find that you will still get excessive body roll on corners without addressing this weak area.

D.

 

Hi DJB3
Thank you for the feedback on these!
I was gonna upgrade the ARB's and drop links if I go ahead and get the coilovers
Funnily enough we had a guy come in to my work who has a Celica GT4 track car. He was wanting some welding done on the rear arms, and had BC's fitted so i got a good look around them! He was full of praise of them too.

Thanks again
John