How long did your OEM suspension last?

I'm at 61k miles and my ride seems a little bouncy, shall we say... I'm thinking the shocks are simply not damping like they used to, but maybe it's just my imagination and it's always been this soft?

 

How long did your own suspension hold up? Would 8 years/61k miles surprise anyone as needing replacement?

 

I'm thinking of just going with a Tein upgrade if I'm going to replace anything at all down there, but kinda needed the justification to bother replacing anything at all.

oem suspension stinks anyway grab some koni struts and enjoy yourself.

I was at about 80K of which 43K were definitely NYC miles. Don't know what the first 37K miles were. My suspension still worked fine. Soft, but the dampers functioned properly, no bouncing or oscillations. Started squeaking a bit, but still good. LCA bushings were shot though, much earlier than that.

i got 140,000 out of my stock suspension, it was mush by the time i swapped it out for Tein springs and Kyb struts. Huge difference.

I went about 120K on my Factory Bilsteins HD's, just replaced the rears and fronts are still holding strong, will all depend all what type of miles you put, mine are 90% highway miles. Easy swap.

154K miles on my 2005 LGT and no problem with the suspension except the usual front control arm bushings. No track days. Replaced front control arm bushings twice; first time (60K miles) under extended warranty, second time (136K miles) with Whiteline ALK which made a noticible improvement in fairly hard cornering.

It is very dependent on the driving conditions. I've seen NYC/NJ cars with dead suspensions at 50k and I've seen them fine at 90k.

 

If you think it's shot, I would upgrade to Konis and call it a day.

 

-Mike Paisan

 

http://www.pbase.com/paisan/image/91072632.jpg http://www.pbase.com/paisan/image/145749898/original.jpg http://www.pbase.com/paisan/image/133406601.jpg http://www.whiteline.com.au/images/logos/perf1.jpg

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Hmmm I see, thanks for the input everyone!

 

If I'm going to replace anything though, I'd really like to get adjustable height. Ideally, I'd like to drop 1" or so for daily driving, but have the flexibility to (relatively) easily go back to stock height when I go camping, which is why I was looking at the Tein Street Basis set. Any different suggestions for that?

My wagon went 160,000 or so before I had the Koni's & Epic's put on.

 

Nice 1" drop and can still carry a load. They are pictures of it in the

 

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/group-buy-epic-springs-05-09-lgt-192277p11.html I think they are there.

 

If not PM me and I'll link you to some from home tonight. Can't view photo's here at work.

If I were to buy coil overs in that price range I would also go with teins. Don't rule out factory springs with better struts. That's what I did and love it

Hmmm I see, thanks for the input everyone!

 

If I'm going to replace anything though, I'd really like to get adjustable height. Ideally, I'd like to drop 1" or so for daily driving, but have the flexibility to (relatively) easily go back to stock height when I go camping, which is why I was looking at the Tein Street Basis set. Any different suggestions for that?

 

 

There is really no such thing as "easily" changing the heights. It isn't as simple as jacking the car up, and changing the coilovers (which will get all corroded and won't likely move easily anyway). Additionally if you "raise" it up you would need to have a new alignment done to it.

 

If you have to get sub $1k coilovers, I would go with the ST or Teins but I never recommend any coilovers in that price range.

 

-Mike Paisan

 

http://www.pbase.com/paisan/image/91072632.jpg http://www.pbase.com/paisan/image/145749898/original.jpg http://www.pbase.com/paisan/image/133406601.jpg http://www.whiteline.com.au/images/logos/perf1.jpg

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If I were to buy coil overs in that price range I would also go with teins. Don't rule out factory springs with better struts. That's what I did and love it

 

Agreed, good dampers like konis coupled with OEM springs are a good setup in my opinion.

 

-Mike Paisan

 

http://www.pbase.com/paisan/image/91072632.jpg http://www.pbase.com/paisan/image/145749898/original.jpg http://www.pbase.com/paisan/image/133406601.jpg http://www.whiteline.com.au/images/logos/perf1.jpg

11+ Years Maintaining, Modifying and Educating TriState Subaru Enthusiasts.

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Do you guys ever suggest that people use some sort of coilover "cover" to prevent the corrosion?

 

Nope those are actually worse. Those coil covers trap in the moisture and dried salty/briney mixture and this causes the corrosion to happen even faster and worse.

 

The best thing to do is 1x a year remove, clean, grease and reinstall your coilovers. I would go so far as to say remove the coilovers for the winter entirely and put your stockers back.

 

Each removal/reinstall though requires an alignment so make sure to become friendly with your local alignment shop

 

-Mike Paisan

 

http://www.pbase.com/paisan/image/91072632.jpg http://www.pbase.com/paisan/image/145749898/original.jpg http://www.pbase.com/paisan/image/133406601.jpg http://www.whiteline.com.au/images/logos/perf1.jpg

11+ Years Maintaining, Modifying and Educating TriState Subaru Enthusiasts.

Like us on Facebook! | E-mail: sales@azpinstalls.com | 725 Fairfield Ave | Kenilworth, NJ 07033 | 908.248.AZP1 (2971) |AIM: AZP Installs

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142,500 miles, original struts, original frt end links. The only thing ever replaced in my suspension are one set of the infamous LCA's and rear end links. The car still rides beautiful, and is quiet.

That said I have done plenty of strut installs and my recomendation are the Koni's.

Got 120k out of stock suspension. Then I replaced springs with tein h tech, kyb struts, kartboy end links, Perrin front and white line rear sways

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Wow, here in NY/NJ we see most Subaru dampers losing their effectiveness between 80-100K miles.

 

-Mike Paisan

 

http://www.pbase.com/paisan/image/153798190.jpg

Maintaining, Modifying and Educating TriState Enthusiasts since 2001.

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120K. The 1st 90K the car spent time in the country and did mostly highway miles. The last 30K I used it to commute in/out of the city. The potholes left after this past winter was the nail in the coffin.

 

Just swapped in some lower milage struts with H&R springs till I can put a proper suspension on the car. The ride is noticeably better, but not great. If I can get 1-2 years on this setup I'll be happy.