Discovered Group N LCA Bushing for Legacy

Thank you for your reply! I just ended up going OEM/ Just for anyone searching here are the OEM Part numbers for the lower control arm bushings for a 07 LGT.

20204ag01b rear

20204ag04b front

Just curious what are some signs of worn out bushings? I was told mine look fine but my steering feels a bit loose at high speed and I also have some vibration when driving (tires are balanced.) Possibly have warped rotors too but curious how to rule our bushings

You can actually see them split and cracking if you look under the car.

If you have any miles at all on the car chances are they are worn out. At 75k my stock ones were shot.

OEM LCA Rear bushing.

I went with Group N

Part number is ST20204ZR000. I don't think you will be able to get these from your local dealer it is not a US part. You have to go to Rallispec, Japanparts etc getting them from JDM land.

They won't be cheap, and it is a small bushing so the effect is very small compared to the large rearward bushing. Buy them only if you just can't live with not going all the way and doing both LCA bushings cost be damned.

Part number is ST20204ZR000. I don't think you will be able to get these from your local dealer it is not a US part. You have to go to Rallispec, Japanparts etc getting them from JDM land.

 

They won't be cheap, and it is a small bushing so the effect is very small compared to the large rearward bushing. Buy them only if you just can't live with not going all the way and doing both LCA bushings cost be damned.

Ah, that's good to know. So I guess the 20204ZR010 is the rear one, right? Is the OEM STI bushing solid rubber? Unlike the OEM LGT one?

Yup, you got it!

All the bushing are the same shape, I think that is due to the economy of scale, they basically make the Group N stuff cheaply becuase they put the firmest rubber they can through a production mold.

As such they are the same shape, the STI (actually all Impreza) bushings are a little firmer than the Legacy one. And the Group N one, it is like a rock.

Nice picture. Fortunately the parts guy at Dunning expects this kind of behavior and just orders it. The STi bushing is solid compared to the LGT and is worth replacing once you spent the time removing the arm. You will need a press with a lot of room so that you can position the bushing under the press. We have a fairly large press at work so it wasn't to bad to do.

I supposedly ordered a pair of Group N rear CAB from rallispec a little while back and it is not a solid bushing as you are stating-- it has the same two slits as OEM, but perhaps a little smaller. It looks pretty much the same as the LGT but different material i suppose.

Anyone have a photo of what the Group N and/or STI rear bushings should look like?

Picture below. It should look the same as the stock one, same voids. Give it a poke with your finger it should have almost no give, the stock one is rather spongy. That is the key, the rubber is the same shape but super firm. The earlier post you quoted was talking about the frontward bushing which does differ from the stock one in shape. The rearward one looks like this, picture taken from my SpecB arm with Group-N bushing.

Note that the gen 4 JDM legacys all use the Spec B stiffer LCA bushing.

JDM tophats are firmer than USDM

JDM bushings are also firmer it seems

Not just in subaru but in other vehicles (honda civic) I remember ordering a US tophat for my civic because it was "Cheaper" took a week and had to get the JDM one, was too squishy!

vehicles that use the STI bushing:

http://opposedforces.com/parts/info/20204AG011/

Question. Will all 05-06 LGT (and impreza?) Bushings and suspension componets work on my 06 L2.5i 5mt? Well besides that front sway bar I guess?

What about sti LCAs?

I prev had installled USDM LCA bushings. Now those were shot and I replaced with JDM bushings. First thing I noticed is that the bushing is completely solid, no void as is found in the USDM one.

The impression I get is night and day. Front now feels invincible. Lol. Nothing else was changed on my front end.

has anyone looked into the 11-14 STI LCA rear bushings? They are pillowball mounts - one of the big changes for the 08-14 wrx chassis.

Those bushings are a rubber insulated pillow-ball and are physically larger than the previous bushings. They only fit in the wider track 11-14 STI arm.

So yeah. It's 2018.

My Group N lower control arm bushings (large rear ones) have served me well over the last 60k miles and are now torn. They lasted about the same mileage as the OEM Legacy ones did.

I ordered 2x through Rallispec in the past week and haven't gotten a confirmation email or had it show up on my card's statement. I wrote down the second confirmation number and will be calling if I can't get anything to happen... I want these new again! Will not get Poly. Anybody else?

Not sure if this helps but I just put in mevotech bushings since they are solid and have no voids. Since I have next to no mileage on them I can't say anything about longevity but I'm hoping they will last a long time.

They seemed to be about the same hardness as the old OEM's which could mean they are actually a bit harder then OEM's due to the old OEM rubber vs the new mevotech rubber but it's hard to say.

Without any voids though it should technically allow less movement. Can't comment on if it changed handling as I made a few other changes at the same time.

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I ordered 2x through Rallispec in the past week and haven't gotten a confirmation email QUOTE]

 

Anybody know where else to get the Group-Ns apart from Rallispec?

 

Just kidding, I'm an idiot and entered my email address incorrectly and therefore never received the email updated. Called them and they corrected the issue. Better yet, they're being delivered Thursday!

Great write-up. I've been doing a lot of digging, because the more I dug, the more interesting things I found about this bushing upgrade--what seems like a thoughtless upgrade. This settles it for me, though. Going w the Group N front and rear. Mine currently have ~177k on the stock bushings, so I cannot wait to feel this difference!!!

Thanks

So the bushings finally got installed yesterday. We had some problems separating the ball joint from the LCA. The pitman arm puller from K Tools works perfectly to separate the ball joint from the LCA and will not damage the rubber boot. I highly recommend picking up this tool before starting the job, we wasted a fair amount of time messing around before going to the store and buying one. I also purchased the self locking nut that secures the LCA in the rear. Shop manual recommends to not reuse this nut.

 

To recap, we replaced the pillow or "tennis ball" bushing with a Group N STi bushing purchased from Rallispec and the forward most bushing was replaced with an 09 WRX/STi bushing. The forward most bushing canbe replaced with a Group N as well but to save a few dollars I chose the STi bushing. The stock forward most bushing is "split" for lack of a better term and must be clocked properly if its being replaced with another stock bushing. The WRX/STi bushing is solid rubber and doesn't appear that it needs to be clocked.

 

Driving Impressions: the difference is night and day. I assume these bushings degrade slowly over time, much like struts do, so you really don't kow how bad things have got until the parts have been replaced. Corner turn in is very sharp and solid and cornering seems much improved. This was not a slight improvement, its more of a slap in the face improvement, you won't miss it. Big bumps seem a little more harsh but small bumps seem very controlled and the "chatter" that I thought I had when I hit these bumps is gone. For a long time I thought much of my handling issues were tire related, I'm still running RE 92s, but now its clear how much the LCA was moving with the old bushings. I would say this is a must repair for any car with more than 70,000 miles or if you plan to do significant suspension upgrades that will increase cornering forces. I would also replace both bushings on the LCA. It would seem that the forward most bushing is pretty complaiant. If you plan to use the poly bushing to increase caster I would replace it with a stock LGT bushing.

 

IMHO Group N and Sti is better systme than the poly bushings. I have never driven a car with the poly bushings so I'm only speaking in theory. The camber adding bushing forces the LCA to rotate forward which in turn puts some stress on the forward most LCA bushing and would seem to cause it to wear more quickly. Also there seems to be a number of poly bushing users noting increase NVH and the eventual poly squeek. These are also a few members that had the poly bushings separate. Its possble they were not installed correctly but using Subaru bushings ensures the the interference fit between the LCA and the bushing is correct plus like any OEM part it should have been highly tested so that it doesn't result in a warranty issue. I will say the enginners doing the testing on the stock LGT bushings were not optimizing it for long term life:) but you get the point. There are many great aftermarket parts and should be used when there isn't a factory upgrade available. My experience with OEM upgrades has always been good and I never have a fitment issue.

you know, you woke a year old thread. anyway good luck in the group n bushing upgrade.

what a big difference