by bass_straitener » Sat Jan 14, 2012 4:16 pm
Some good information here. Everyone has their own needs and expectations as to the handling characteristics they'd like to have.
When I made my decision, here is the process I followed.
My needs were a comfortable ride and good handling on longer trips as I spend quite a few weekends a year down at Phillip Island and the roads there can have pot holes, are not bitumen where I stay and not too flat either. At home I have a fairly steep driveway and places I visit I find I'm having to take it easy getting in and out and even having to come out angled. I can't stand the noise of STI lip scraping. I also don't need to feel every bump and have no desire to track my car. Nor the need to test it's handling driving up and down Mt Dandenong or the Black Spur. I did that with other cars when I was younger and don't see the Liberty as a boy racer type car.
People's advice I took were the guys at Trutrack suspension, manager of STI Docklands, Coyote and a few other guys on the forum and few members of the WRX club with Libertys and WRX's.
The common consensus was that the OEM Bilstein was not the greatest unit straight out of the box and Subaru's use of them with a lowered spring such as the STI in my case made the shock wear much earlier and prone to failure from 20,000kms onwards and the knocking noise.
The Bilstein however if properly rebuilt by professionals such as Trutrack where they are revalved and matched to your spring with extra grease around the top bearing and dynoed to ensure performance would produce a fantastic result. Trutrack have done a number of these rebuilds with great results and have assured me the difference would be like night and day. The cost to do this is not all that cheap at around $1200 for all 4 struts. It does include a 4 wheel alignment, 4 wheel balance and removal and refit of the units. This is therefore a drive in drive out solution. It suits me. I will be working with the STI springs as I don't need to go lower or higher and will speak to the boys to see if they can do anything about spring rates etc.
Coilovers are great as well but all sources warned me about cheap coilovers not being an improvement over a properly setup Bilstein spring setup.
I trust the people I've spoken to and have had a few people now PM asking about pricing etc so will speak to Ralph at Trutrack to see if there is any cost saving for multiple cars. Trutrack return to work this Monday so will call later this week. If anyone else is interested PM me. I don't work for them or have any affiliation.
Again this is only an opinion and the process leading to my decision. It suits my requirements. And your's might be different.
"If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut."
A couple of guys on here already have that sort of setup and are very happy.
