I got some questions on some of the first mods i would like to do. 1. Lowering a forester. I was reading Gridlocked's post about raising his suspension and it sounded like to me is that people just replace the springs on the forester with a WRX spring? Did I understand that right? Otherwise i found some from Swift Springs. I want to keep it a little more of a OEM ride, cause the wife hated the stiffness of my last lowered car. Would the stock shocks have enough travel for any of those? 2. Ive always loved the look of the dash mounted gauges. I only can find kits for the WRX. Does anyone make one for a Forester? I really dont like the OEM one. I would prefer the ones that contours the gauges better. You should know what mean. I have the 52 mm green/white gauges picked out already from prosport gauges. I would be going with boost/EGT/oil pressure. I really didint want to start a new thread for all of this, but ive been looking thru the internet for weeks now! Was getting a little frustrated! Thanks! -Brandon
Yep, I'm running WRX springs over GR2's and it's pretty darn decent. I would be willing to guess that this is likely the most cost-effective way to go about it - springs are expensive. If you're in the cities and it works out, come have a ride. My wife doesn't mind it at all. It dropped me a moderate amount relative to OEM ride height. I don't know much about the stock shocks. I would PM BackRoadRunner, he knows a LAWT about this stuff. As far as the gauges go, I believe Bill (02blubru) has that dash mount. I don't know where to source them, but I would guess the guys on the Forester site would. Do you have an account there?
Oh, sorry. :biggrin: Shocks: KYB GR2 They have a bit more damper than the stockers and and pretty cheap. On my WRX, I went with GR2's and some Prodrive springs. It was a stiffer spring and I liked it but I'm happy with the ride I have in the Forester now. My picture is bigger than yours, Paul... :biggrin:
I am running stock forester struts with swift forester specific lowering springs and I love that set up waaaaay better then when I had wrx struts and spring in it. It handels a loaded cargo area much better. And the ride height with the springs is not much lower then stock, but is lower. My wife and I go out of town just about everyother weekend and we both like the ride way better then when I had a wrx with prodrives springs. I would suggest you go with the swift springs, I found them for just over 300 shipped from evassive motorsports.... or something like that. I have the dealer installed option gagues in my car.
not just srpings.. the whole struts from a wrx.. otherwise the sturt body would be bent or damaged... you can get Forester specific swifts... I have 04 wrx suspension in mine.. rides the same as a stock WRX.. although I am looking to throw some Tokico D-specs and ground controls in mine asa$ are available go to Forester.org, they have every answer you need for our cars... and parts, and people sell the pod setups all the time.. the issue you have is it will replace the center lid and make that storage spot useless.. I was looking into making some that allow the use of that storage still...
I believe Bill has this style... which personally I dont like... I prefer this style.... but REALLY WANT this style...
Here is a profile of the suspension that I have on the car now: I suppose the smaller BBS's tweak the look a little...
the third pod set is about $200+ just for the pod... if you can find it... I think you can track em down on ebay... but it still makes that compartment useless.. well even more useless...
guess the pricing has come down a lot in the last year.. although the $50 shipping kills the bargain http://shop.ebay.com/300364929225 http://shop.ebay.com/250529472699
What i found out on subaruforester.org is that the last gauge pod is a XPTUSA triple gauge pod. Sounds like it was a group buy thing last year! I cant even find anything about XPTUSA.
Im just a little sketchy on the ebay ones. I just dont see how it can fit on the impreza and forester. And like you said, $50 shipping does kinda kill the deal. Up to 3 weeks for shipping too!
