Hey all, I am getting some new suspension stuff this spring, so far i am looking at running KYB AGX Struts, with Version 5 STi Springs. i am wondering if i should upgrade to the group n strut tops, while i am getting new stuff. i dont need anything that is overkill, but my stock strut tops are starting to show their age. input? experiences? Thanks
yes! upgrade. I have agx and spt springs and I am still running my stock top mounts, they are already clunking in less then 10k miles, although the mounts had 85k on them before that.
I ran with them on the RS before the coilovers....I was on STi V5 struts/springs. Do you need them? No. Are they an improvement? Yes. It all comes down to what you are looking for and what you currently have. If you are not running one of the top summer tires, don't bother, as they will flex too much to benefit from the mounts. If you are looking to improve handling, but already have good tires, they will make a noticable difference. Sorry I couldn't help more.....
^ thanks. right now i am running all seasons that have too much sidewall flex, so it wouldnt be worth it. however eventually maybe next summer or something i would like to switch to dedicated summer winter tires. imo it would be cool to dabble in some motorsports stuff, maybe autox or some track dasy or something, but mostly its street car. What did you think of the V5 setup overall? where did you get the tops at? an mind if i ask how much you payed for em?
strut tops rarely wear badly on subarus. The only advantage the group N tops have is that being stiffer rubber (although almost identical to stock design wise) they deflect less into positive camber under heavy corner loads. I'd say that's something only autocrossers and tarmac racers would really need to be concerend about. For the street, the stock tops are pretty much fine. I havent heard of strut top wear causing clunks before, but I guess that it might reposition the struts so that the struts themselves could clunk. I had group N's on my rear struts and cusco camber plates on my front struts of my RS. It worked well. It's worth paying a bit extra and getting camber adjustable front tops, and pillowballs dont flex at all. the downside is it transfers more vibration from the road to the car. The camber plate front/group N rear setup is only about $100 or so more than all group N's and has some pretty nice advantages like, swapping the plates and getting camber/caster adjustibility.
yeah, I don't know. Both of our wagons have about the same number of miles (close to 100k), but I put AGX struts and SPT springs on mine about 10k miles ago. When I compare the strut top mounts I can see a lot of stress cracks that have developed in the rubber on mine, and none on my wife's car. I assumed that the rubber was flexing more due to the increased damping rate on the struts. I was planning to get some group N strut top mounts since I figured the stiffer rubber would handle the increased damping better. I was hoping for more longevity moreso than performance improvements. But after reading this thread I'm thinking maybe a new set of stock ones will be good enough. When Justin changed his top mounts to group N ones, his old ones visually appeared to be just fine, and the bearings were still ok. But he had a clunking noise that he said went totally away after switching... That's mostly why I was thinking that top mounts could make noise. I guess my advice for Martin is to at least install new top mounts as long as you're in there changing the struts.
Ahhh, the old V5 suspension.... somebody here can chime in considering they have the struts/springs on the car... Anyway, it was a long time ago that I bought the setup. I bet it was '01 or so, but can't remember when. I bought them from Gwinnet Subaru, if I remember right. When I bought them, they were still cheap! I remember that after a run-in with a curb I had to order a new strut and they had recently doubled in price. :O As for the tops, I believe I got them from Paul Eklund when I worked on his rally car....not sure though. ...I don't remember the price, either. I loved the setup at the time, I won my first year in DSP running AutoX on the setup (I will admit the competition wasn't real strong at the time) with street tires, so they can't be all that bad. I think they were a great compromise for a daily driver.
cool, i am loking forward to getting my new suspension. from what zak said i think i am gonna hold off on the group n's, as i dotn for see my self doing any auto x this summer. i will need to inspect my strut tops and see if its worth replacing them.
