Hey guys I need some advice on what my options are for my rear sagging problem on my 03 wrx sedan. The back of my car sits a lot lower than the front. It didn't bother me much till I got bigger tires, now they rub coming into my driveway. Would my best option be to get lowering springs to compensate for the rear sag or get the saggy butt spacers? Thanks for the help
Either your springs are worn out, and actually sagging, or you are falling into the visual illusion that the WRX's front fenders are the same height as the rears. They're not. The fender arches on the front of the car are considerably higher that the rears. They're built this way to accommodate that the wheels aren't always pointing straight forward when the suspension is completely loaded up. If your tires are rubbing (probably on the fender lip) adding "saggy but spacers" isn't going to help, as the suspension will still be able to compress to the point of rubbing. Rolling the rear fenders is pretty universally the fix for this.. assuming that your wheels are a reasonable size and offset that is. If they're rubbing on the strut, or sticking out past the fender.. you're on your own.
I'm going to politely disagree with you here...adding saggy butt spacers will add ride height and make it less likely that the tire will rub. I guess it depends on just how saggy said butt is...which would determine how big of a spacer you would need to add. Anything more than about 1/4" inch would require longer studs on the top hat. It sounds like 1/4" wouldn't be enough in this situation. However, Matt, are you on the original OEM springs? You should not be getting tire rub on stock springs, unless your new tires are much larger than stock tire size or your springs are worn out or broken.
I have 225 40 18 on right now. I just bought the car so I don't know if they are original or not. The car has 208,000 on it so I should probly look into that. I'll put up a picture when I get a chance
if you're on a 225/40-18.. the bad news is that it's your wheels. They've gotta be the wrong offset if they are rubbing anywhere, as i've been able to slide 245s under the back of a GD. They're probably +35 offset VW wheels to "Get some dish" or something assinine like that. Post some pictures of your car. Grab some profile shots of the wheels too. If you have the tools, pull one off and the offset should be written on the back. On the saggy but spacer argument, yes.. a saggy spacer can give you some extra height, but my argument is that it won't stop the rubbing going over bumps, as you'll still compress the spring to the point of rubbing, unless you wind up hitting the bump stops before hitting the fender. This is why i don't consider it a "fix"
I would start with fresh springs (and probably fresh struts as well). Your car looks lowered and could have been done by cutting springs. Also if your struts are blown, you might have a tendency to rub on weight transfers.
As Shane alluded to, those wheels could be a low offset, which will push the wheel/tire closer to the fender. If you want to fix it right...I'd check out the springs and struts (really should check all 4, and if struts are original or bad shape, they should be replaced). If you still have rubbing issues, then you should roll your rear fenders and/or get saggy butt spacers. It actually doesn't look too low, so they might be just old, tired original springs. Tough to say without seeing it though.
It's hard to tell with all the instagram filters. From what i can see, the tires don't look stretched, so i'm standing with "wrong offset" It's definitely sitting lower than stock, but doesn't look uneven at all. More pictures OP. Less Filters. Take ones at an angle so that we can see how deep the wheel is in the wheel well. These straight on ones give no depth perception. Additionally, can you look and see if there are any spacers? it's possible previous owner bought the right wheels and then spaced them out so that they look "MAD SICK HELLA TIGHT FLUSH BRO." and fixing this may be as easy as removing them.
There are no spacers, I'm going to contact the guy I bought it from to see if had any suspention work done. Surrey about the filters, had bad lighting so I used them to brighten it the best I could, I'll get some new ones up
One thing I did notice from the pics, is it looks like there is fender damage on your drivers side. Is only your drivers rear rubbing? It could be because that fender is damaged and pushed in further. In any case, to stop the rubbing issues you need to: -raise ride height -roll your rear fenders and/or fix that rear fender -get higher offset wheels -stop going over big bumps -some combination of the above options.
After looking at it a little more the right rear sits 3/4 inch higher than the left rear. I'm guessing worn out springs
It's actually pretty common for the driver side rear to be lower than the passenger side rear. Blame it on the driver's weight, slightly more weight on that side of the car, or whatever...it seems to be a frequent occurrence. I'm not sure than even fresh rear springs will fix your issue though, as I think sometimes the whole chassis just sags to the driver rear. Your "easiest" solution might just be a fender roll. It sounds scary, but it is actually quite easy with the right tools (fender roller and heat gun, which Jeff the Alignment Guy rents out) and taking your time.
