Hello MN Subaru, this is my first post I hope I don't mess it up. So I have a 2002 wrx and it's fairly stock, recently I noticed when I had all 5 seats in my car taken up the back seat sagged down very low. After driving I put my hand on he rear tires and wiped off a fair amount of black rubber. I'm just assuming that my rear suspension is going out but I thought this was a good opportunity to get into the MN Subaru forums. I've searched around on the web but all I can really find is scrapping problems when equipped with larger than stock rims and tires. I couldn't really find anything on a stock setup. Am I right to say the suspension is going out? Is this common in 02 wrx's? Where should I go from here? Also if there's anything I did wrong on posting this please let me know, Thanks!
Sedan or wagon? Miles? I know the wagons are common to sag in the back, and they make "saggy butt spacers" to compensate for it. I've got them in mine and it helped quite a bit. Also, welcome aboard!
I think that they could be going. But ultimately, whenever i've had 3 grown adults in the back of mine i've had rubbing issues(shut up Sheen). lol Welcome aboard!
Struts dampen the force applied from the springs. Springs support the weight of the car. Unless one of your springs broke (somewhat unlikely, but possible), you just had too much weight for the rear suspension. So either tell your passengers to lose weight, or take less passengers! I'll also note, that if you're still on the original struts at 118,000 miles, they are probably shot and due to be replaced. If your struts are bad, you can get odd tire wear and funky (floaty) handling.
This, but there's one more item you're not factoring for... bump stops. The parts specifically meant to keep this from happening. at 118k and 14 years old, the bump stops are probably either disintegrated or so soft that they're no longer effective. Would agree, do some fresh struts, check your springs for damage, and roll some fresh bumpstops.
Thank you all so much, I've been searching around more on this topic and I think I should get fresh struts and I'll check my springs for damage (I would now but I'm at college and my car is at home). I got an idea from a friend that told me to get used forester struts because that would give me a little bit of a lift, I go to school in Duluth and was thinking if I brought my car up here next year I would want to raise it up a bit because the roads are so bad. Is this a good idea or is there something else I should do? Also if anyone has any other ideas I can do to my car so I don't ruin it when I bring it to Duluth please let me know? Thanks again for all the input!
The best things you can do for not ruining a Subaru are keeping fresh oil in it and not driving it during the winter in MN. (And don't go full stance tard)
Forester struts will yield more than a little lift. It's an option, but you'll want to do all 4 at the same time. It does seem odd that you would have rubbing/scraping with a completely stock setup, but it's possible. No, struts won't really help your load capacity, but springs will. There are several options for a small (3/8" or so) spacer for the strut top to give a bit more clearance. There are companies that make HD springs if you want more load capacity. Of course, scrapping your car would solve the scraping.
