Currently I am running 04 STI struts with 05 STI springs and top hats. My LF strut decided to take a crap today making all sorts of horrible popping sounds and binding(and I 100% confirmed it is the strut) I still have all of my stock suspension hiding in my attic. I'm currently broke but need to get this fixed ASAP. My question is should I put the STI springs and top hats on my good OEM struts or just put it 100% back to stock(springs, struts, and top hats)? I do plan on auto crossing this year 5-10 times but it is my daily driver. I would prefer running the STI springs if possible... Looking for any input or if anybody has successfully ran STI springs on stock WRX struts. Thanks!
Unless the stock struts are worn, I doubt it'll be that quick. Sti front spring rates are what? 40% stiffer? Iirc they're arund 220 vs 160ish for wagon front springs (slightly higher than gc) ran that setup on a wrx for 10k miles including 15 autox events before switching to coilovers. Hell gc struts with sti springs carrying an h6 are going strong on the rsvx which only gets rallyx'd.
My friends rear struts in his '06 WRX were shot at 20k with stock springs and no rally rally rally, just sayin', Sheenis
Your right. Based on http://www.northursalia.com/techdocs/spring/spring.html the spring rates increase over stock 37%F and 45%R. So I'm hoping then that it doesn't blow out the WRX struts too quick. The front WRX struts were replaced about 20000 miles ago, so they should last. Follow up question... Should I just swap the front struts or should I do all 4? I would be worried about a really weird ride with STI damping in the rear and stock damping up front.
Not sure about the difference in valving between sti and wrx wagon. If it were me I would leave the sti strut/spring combo in the rear since you know they're matched. If there's any weird balance issues front to back you can change the total spring rate via sway bars (even simply unbolting one) until you have a more permanent solution.
