Suspension Woes!

[scouk]

Just how soft is subaru /prodrive suspension!!!

I replaced the rear dampers on my car with KYB shocks last year along with a full brand new set of prodrive springs all round!!

Discovered a couple week ago that one of the rear shocks appeared to be leaking!! (I've heard the stories of chocolate dampers on here) so was looking into upgrading to prodrive /Bilstein shocks to replace them next year..

But... After going over the car today (just started, gawd knows what else I'll find) It appears I have a very broken prodrive spring on the front offside!! The bottom loop of the spring has broken off!! The damn things are under 18 months old!! Now I know the car has felt a bit wonky recently but bleedin ell!! How can the Impreza suspension be so soft and brittle with road driving!

Not a happy chappy at the mo.....

Edited November 8, 2008 by ScoUK

[RA Dunk]

ohh dear!

[Spaceman]

cntact prodrive see if they will do a good will for you greig guess the car will have not done many miles on them Greig

[nkwrx]

Jeez oh mate that's an outrage! As you say chocolate shocks etc but a prodrive spring...WTF???

Edited November 8, 2008 by NKWRX

[euan_r]

its the ****ing state of the roads. ive done the same a few months back alan.

lowering springs on standard shocks will lower their life expectancy too, surprised at only a year though.

you didnt grip the damper with anything while tightening top nut i hope.

edit: also a good idea to fit coil wrap to bottom one/two coils on spring when fitting as it stops strut cup scrapping off paint on spring.

Edited November 8, 2008 by euan_r

[cullenmin]

Got to agree there, lowering springs on standard dampers won't last as long as expected, especially on some of our roads.

Best get saving for the prodrive/bilsten setup Al

[scouk]

Well it's a case of out with the new and in with the old! Handling will be even more shafted than normal now as well..

edit: also a good idea to fit coil wrap to bottom one/two coils on spring when fitting as it stops strut cup scrapping off paint on spring.

Good point! Must remember that when getting it back together again..

Got to agree there, lowering springs on standard dampers won't last as long as expected, especially on some of our roads.

Best get saving for the prodrive/bilsten setup Al

Yeah expected the shocks to wear out a little quicker due to stiffer prings but just over a year is silly also the fronts still appear to be OEM shocks yet replaced the rears last year and it's one of those that appeared to be leaking again (and care was taken when fitting ).. certainly shouldn't be seeing broken springs after just over a year! (about 14k miles or thereabouts.. I think)

Yep, full prodrive package is definately on the cards... Just dunno when now..... *sigh*

Edited November 8, 2008 by ScoUK

[scooby222]

thats shocking Al,ive had prodrive springs on mine for about 15k now and theyre fine and its safe to say im considerably more aggressive in my style than you! as for the dampers well... heard today about a gb270 with under 2k miles and on its 3rd set of shocks!!!

having had a proper run todat on my new setup im delighted with them,best money ive spent on the car. first time ive been truly happy with the suspension in 2 years,so next time im down or your up should meet up so you can see what yo think- in VFM terms i think its very hard to beat.

as an aside nice to hear today that whiteline uk distribution is back in safe hands,pleasure to bump into Job at awd.

[scouk]

thats shocking Al

ive had prodrive springs on mine for about 15k now and theyre fine and its safe to say im considerably more aggressive in my style than you! as for the dampers well... heard today about a gb270 with under 2k miles and on its 3rd set of shocks!!!

Yeah I've heard the hawkeyes are particularly worse again for the shocks than the bugs/blobs Always seems to be the rear end ones...

Never heard of any problems with the Prodrive springs though..

If I can't get the spring replaced easily and am effectively forced to buy a whole new spring kit, I may look into the same coilover you got.. But would prefer to stick to the Prodrive theme Asssuming they don't break again.. Other 3 springs look fine.. Possibly just a flaw... (which could have been V dangerous!) I'll get in touch with T&C on monday and see if they will do a good will gesture, otherwise will try banging on PD's door.. You never know... More chance of getting somewhere there than Moray COuncil/BEAR scotland

It's a right bugger!, got 2 weeks off work just now and had great plans for the car, got a few new goodies to fit and had just started to get all the crap cleared out from every nook and cranny then sealed before the salt roads really kick in, only to discover the spring looked a bit dodgy..

BTW - Don't suppose you remember where you were seeing that Bilstein Dampers for sale that you mentioned last week?

[the_ex_leper]

i dont know if the bilstiens are any better the rears on our RB320 are rattling and need replacing

[scouk]

Wonder if you can get a lifetime insurance policy for subaru shocks...

[cullenmin]

Group buy on Tein's

[Gee Wr1]

It's probably due to the state of the roads we have up here

Go find the biggest pothole you can see, take photos of it, contact the council & blame the pothole for the damage to your spring & make a claim

It's worth a try lol.

I'm only on 2nd set of rear shocks on the wr1 in 4 1/2 years so i seem to have been quite lucky.

[scouk]

Go find the biggest pothole you can see, take photos of it, contact the council & blame the pothole for the damage to your spring & make a claim

Not a bad idea... Was having a look around today for one

Excuse my ignorance, but what is the faciniation with Tein suspension... OK everywhere seems to sell it and quite a few peopel have them,. but there's also comments that they are very low and very hard ride.. But in the real world are they reliable...? Anyone manged to break a set yet? Kinda the prioroty at the mo..

At the moment I'd have nightmares of having to replace coilover kits annually... Looks like annual rear shock change is standard these days...

[cullenmin]

Tein's were the first make of coilovers that came into my head

[scouk]

LOL that's fair enough... If anyone mentiones coilovers it's always TEIN's that enter my head as well....

[scooby222]

theyre good,lornas got them on her teg and thats what convinced me to get a set of coilovers as ive no probs with them,8k miles so far and no issues. she reckons theyre a bit harder than mine but theres not much between them-apart from about 300 quid and ive got rear camber adjust top mounts

[fai17]

subaru supsension are shocking right enough....i've got Tein Super Streets coilovers on and are lowered to the ground.It is firm but it's not too bad LOL

[peacher]

Just got a TEIN coilover kit fitted by Hypertech at the weekend (basically because my rear shocks were goosed). Initial impressions are that they don't feel any harder than the standard suspension (and I am running 18"s) and it actually feels slightly less crashy. The only problem I do have is that it has lowered the front by 35mm so the bottom of my mudflaps are about 1cm off the ground (that will be easily sorted when I re-fit them next weekend tho).

[scouk]

Hmm... I thought TEIN's were £1,200 for some reason.. £650 is more resonable.. Possibly better option, assuming there's no known reliability problems... (That'll be going on the 2009 Scooby budget )

Anyhoo, scratch the head time methinks... Just been out for a quick test drive with the standard front springs back in (Still Prodrives on the rear) and, erm.. apart from it beign more wobbly the steering feels sharper and it "feels" like I have more grip! Very odd...

Edited November 10, 2008 by ScoUK

[cullenmin]

Tein kit + upper mounts + EDFC + fitting and your quite close to £1200.

[scouk]

Tein kit + upper mounts + EDFC + fitting and your quite close to £1200.

That sounds closer to the sort of price I had in my head...

EDFC is soooo tempting... Saw Smilers set-up and fell in love Not with smiler... but the car.....

[Smiler AS]

Yep, the EDFC is great fun, 3 memory settings, ive got "family" soft mode, medium "fun road" mode and "solid" mode!

Thats my names for them anyway. Cant fault the Teins in any way.

[toby69]

I've had a few differant sets of coilovers on my Imperza's. The Tein's were the best so far! I didn't really get a chance to get them properly tried out though!! sold the car before I got the chance to try them on track

The first set I tried were AVO's (NOT RECOMMENDED) leaked from day one and had a couple replaced under warranty. The last straw was when one snapped in half just at the top of the threads that adjust the ride height!! Could've been very nasty if traveling at speed!!!

They were however very well set up (damping etc) and very good on both track and our local bumpy roads. These cost around £750

The second set were KW variant 3 these were very nice to look at lol!! Not so well set up as the AVO's but did have rebound and compression damping which I could have probably had someone who knew there stuff to set them up properly and make them perfect. These were pretty good on track but a wee bit harsh on the local roads. These cost around £1000

Then the Tein's I went for them because I wanted to try something differant and liked the idea of the EDFC. I fitted these without the EDFC motors connected for a start and the were ok, maybe just a wee bit harsh. But still much better than the standard set up. Once the EDFC was connected a perfect setting could be found for any type of road surface. These cost around £1200

These would be my first choice if I was buying suspension again and would recomend them to anyone.

I have to say though I did like the look of the APEX items on the scoobynet groupbuy.

In between all this I tried various types of shock and spring combinations ie Bilstien/prodrive/sti etc but was never 100% satisfied with them

[scooby222]

yea,ideally i wouldve gone for teins with edfc or ast's-maybe later.... but i needed to do something as i was just getting so fed up with the car feeling squishy all the time and the apexs were 560 delivered so decision made and not regretting it at all.