I just bought an 03 WRX with 141k miles. I will be upgrading power eventually, but before I do any upgrades I need to get the general maintenance items taken care of first. It's a little loosy-goosy right now, understandable and expected for the mileage. I KNOW it needs rear struts (GR2s on order) not sure on the fronts and will wait 'til the rears are on, as they're REALLY bad, before I decide to replace them now or wait 'til I put GOOD stuff in a year or so down the road. I'm sure it can use bushings and that is the purpose to this thread... is there any preferred or recommended bushings available? Or is OEM stuff good enough? I think I saw mention of Group N bushings available from the dealer, worth it? I want this thing riding nice and tight again before I start feeding in the boost/power, so any advice/pointers/tips is greatly appreciated.
Nothing??? What about Turn in Concepts bushings??? Like 'em? Hate em? Waste of money? Just go to dealer and get stock replacements???
I redid all of my 02(204,000 miles) bushings,endlinks, and mounts with OEM. As far as i'm concerned, OEM is good enough. Everything feels great now with all of the new stuff! I've never heard any complaints with TIC, Whiteline, etc. Just depends on how fancy you want to get and how many dollars you want to throw down! The real deal is going to be the struts and springs. I'm running the KYB AGX 4-way adjustables as my car is a daily driver all year round and it handles like a dream in the corners/cloverleafs. So imho, order up the OEM unless you're planning on big hp #'s or autocrossing or whatever. All new parts are going to show a huge improvement no matter what the brand.
A lot of the OEM bushings need to pressed out/in. Most of the aftermarket poly options are split in two for ease of installation. I had a whole bunch of the Whiteline ones on my 2001 2.5RS, and it felt great. YMMV, but the price doesn't really vary much between the OEM choice and the aftermarket ones, but you may find the aftermarket ones easier to fit.
thanks guys, I haven't gotten a price quote on stock stuff yet, waiting for a reply... the press in/out isn't a big deal, got a press in the garage...
Good to know! Thanks for the insight Stoooooo So I would assume that the Group N stuff would probably be the same as far as "press type" would be concerned.
Yep, GrpN ones are the same style as regular OEM, but they tend to have harder rubber compounds. They may also have more material in them. But they are still not as stiff as poly bushings. For instance, the standard 5MT tranny mount v the GrpN 5MT tranny mount. Firmer rubber, and the gaps are filled so it doesn't flop around anywhere near as much... (If the picture doesn't show up, let me know and I'll rehost it.)
Seems to be a nice stout piece! Looks like the poly ones would in fact be the better way to go since the cost isn't too much greater.
well, my plan to do all this before getting more power has ended, good ol rod knock... so, due to financial reasons, will have to do the engine work first now... I'll likely be going with TiC or Whiteline for my bushings and mounts and dspecs for struts, just gonna take an extra month or so. Oh yeah, and I found out why it was such a "loose" feeling ride! At least part of the reason is the front swaybar endlink is broken! lol Kinda gonna need that...
