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Forester Suspension / Handling Guru Wanted


THUNDA

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Hey all

Taking my Mrs 04 Forester Cross sport to a amateur rally in september

Have already taken it to one event which was great! were talking seriously amateur rally on private land gravel driveway

any I discovered

 

- Handles like a boat

- Tail doesnt kick out when leaving a corner on acceleration  (fronts spin and understeer occurs) (this is on gravel)

- Tail kicks out when braking even if only turning slightly (this is on gravel)

 

Car is stock, stock boost, stock wheels, manual turbo

 

Anyone know any easy cures? was thinking sway bars?

It has slotted rotors on the rear (no idea why)

 

Unrelated -

Shock or near has a little clunk on drivers side wheel during turning on long right hand corners (on tarmac normal driving) - local mech cant find it and apparently its common as after google searching it

Change sway bar ends but made no difference 

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I took a SF5 turbo Forester from stock to a track day car and was a heap of fun. Need to do a lot of work in handling an brake department that's for sure.

 

-Sway bars made big change for the SF version as did coil over suspension stopped the boat like handling.

-We used to have the SG Forester for my wifes car and had issues with rear diff and noise its whole time we had it rebuilt under warranty and was till never right so flicked it soon after.

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2 hours ago, Kiwiflyboy said:

I took a SF5 turbo Forester from stock to a track day car and was a heap of fun. Need to do a lot of work in handling an brake department that's for sure.

 

-Sway bars made big change for the SF version as did coil over suspension stopped the boat like handling.

-We used to have the SG Forester for my wifes car and had issues with rear diff and noise its whole time we had it rebuilt under warranty and was till never right so flicked it soonafter.

 

My mrs SG5 Foz is the cross sport version which is ment to have the same suspension as the STI, ive had a look, and the struts (the chrome shiney bit of the shock) is super wide compared to a stock RS shock so im guessing it does have the goodies (well shocks at least)

 

Has stock 4pot brakes up front and 2pot rears 

 

Its funny you mention the rear diff whine because it was really loud when we bought the car and it failed a wof on on the whine and mechanic said rear wheel bearings, got them changed (cost a fortune) and it still whines just not as much but passed the wof -_ -

 

what sway bars did you install, and did you do front and rear?

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My mrs SG5 Foz is the cross sport version which is ment to have the same suspension as the STI, ive had a look, and the struts (the chrome shiney bit of the shock) is super wide compared to a stock RS shock so im guessing it does have the goodies (well shocks at least)
 
Has stock 4pot brakes up front and 2pot rears 
 
Its funny you mention the rear diff whine because it was really loud when we bought the car and it failed a wof on on the whine and mechanic said rear wheel bearings, got them changed (cost a fortune) and it still whines just not as much but passed the wof -_ -
 
what sway bars did you install, and did you do front and rear?

Yeah the diff place that did that and then th bear box said they had a lot of issues with the SG Japan imports as they had cheap as s*** components vs the NZ new ones.

I had front and rear sway bars from white line. Rear subframe locks from white line. Camber arms and lots of Cusco bracing along with the coil overs and 4pot/2pot brakes. I used mine in sealed tracks though so different setup for that
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Big rear swaybar will induce oversteer, they tend to have a whack of body roll till you get them a bit lower, but very capable. Unless they are auto as joker mentioned, then they are like 70/30 fwd biased and will push like a mofugger into corners with low traction. 

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hah yea & rapid Down changes get the back loose too (I was accused of Handbraking into the Hairpin on the back track of Manfeild)

 

so yeah @THUNDA

 

can you confirm Trans?

 

I did start this thread once

 

and got LOL'ed at

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3 hours ago, Joker said:

hah yea & rapid Down changes get the back loose too (I was accused of Handbraking into the Hairpin on the back track of Manfeild)

 

so yeah @THUNDA

 

can you confirm Trans?

 

I did start this thread once

 

and got LOL'ed at

 

Gearbox is manual - says in the first post

 

yes I Defo want to induce oversteer, I’m so used to Controlling the oversteer from my younger days lol. But when I got a bit of understeer during a corner I was like ewwwww 

 

so big rear swaybar it is! I’ve never done a sway bar before - I’m hoping there is a kit that I can just buy off trademe because if I have to measure anything  I know I’ll never do it

 

i won’t be lowering it, body roll on gravel / dirt is hard to feel, only feel it when driving on tarmac gripping hard

 

im running a 5% larger than stock A/T tyre on the stock 16inch rim 

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Whiteline adjustable sway bars are good for dialing in the balance of understeer / oversteer.

 

i got 22mm front and rear on my WRX sedan, I found the best setting was hard front (two holes) and hard rear (three holes), off the top of my head it effectively made the front 22.5mm and the rear 23mm I think. On stock springs this setup was great, progressive oversteer and could feel the car hook right when the car transitioned it’s weight from left to right and vice versa.

 

lowering the car on coilovers didn’t do as much as the sway bar kit, I actually had to adjust the dampening (softer) to get more feel out of the car. Stock suspension was soft as hell but seemed to work great with upgraded sway bars.

 

i imagine a heavier forester would be the same but more dramatically improved 

 

 

Edited by Omsin
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Looks as thought current my rear swaybar is 17mm, although it says 22 on it

Having trouble norrowing down whether or not the cross sport version had upgraded sway bars, definately came with upgraded suspension but whether that includes sway bars not sure

 

Was speaking to a cusco rep and he rekons for 280+GST he can get me an 18mm sway bar which is 180% stronger than stock

 

Kiwiflyboy has put me onto the 22mm whiteline swaybar, which ill probably go for, as it is most likely 340% stronger over stock if my maths i made up are correct :P

 

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I doubt that is 22mm, not even the sti has that in the rear, 19mm off the top of my head would sound more accurate.

 

The 22mm whiteline has adjustable preset mounting points which effectively make the bar stiffer or softer depending on which mounting hole you use, if you wanted to futureproof you could go for an adjustable 24mm bar, I think it’s 1mm up or down for a three hole setup. Adjustable endlinks are a must 

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On 17/08/2019 at 6:20 AM, Kiwi_Fozze said:

In a foz I'd go for the 24mm 3pt adjustible jobbie. There's more weight higher up to deal with. And for sure, heavy duty endlinks are a must.

 

Be glad you don't have an sf chassis, the rear bar on those are only 14mm LOL

Already broke my end links, can confirm.

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On stock suspension (a lot of shock travel)  I found the biggest difference when I went from the middle hole to the closest hole (Hardest setting). Sway bar settings go out the window when you change the factory struts/springs though.

 

Big advantage of adjustable end links is taking out pre load so the bar can work how it’s designed to. Setting up corners is a lot smoother and you can feel a gradual resistance building up. If it’s already carrying tension you can get all sorts of weird handling going on and a really bad time on bumpy roads as the bar becomes “snappy” loading up more and unloading when the endlinks move with the control arm

Edited by Omsin
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There should be no pre load on even factory links. They are the same height on each side so as long as car is level or fully off the ground the bar has zero load. 

 

You can put side loading on the links lower rubber mounts if you don’t get the ones that slide along the lower bolt mount and you move spacers around to make them sit vertically below the hole in the swaybar. 

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