Suspension components are one of the most popular upgrades for a Subaru Impreza WRX and STI, making an already great handling machine even better, and often without breaking the bank.
Theres a huge range of suspension upgrade component parts available, from some of the biggest names in the industry such as Whiteline, Powerflex, Superpro, offering products from uprated Anti-Roll Bars, to Droplinks, Polyurethane Bushes to Caster Adjustment inserts. We’ll cover all the major areas in this article with a few links to products of interest.
Anti-Roll Bars
Anti-Roll Bars sit at the front and rear of your Impreza and are connected to the suspension arms by droplinks and connected to the chassic by Anti-Roll Bar bushes.
As the name suggests Anti-Roll Bars are designed to reduce body roll during cornering, and the greater the diameter the more effective they are. As standard, Impreza models are normally fitted with 18-19 mm diameter Anti-Roll Bars, with hard rubber bushes. These do a pretty good job at reducing body roll, however fitting larger diameter versions make the even better. Whiteline produce 20, 22, 24 and even 27mm Anti-Roll bars and most are adjustable with either 2 or 3 point adjustment allowing owners to fine tune the performance. Polyurethane mounting bushes are supplied with each kit helping again to reduce body roll as polyurethane is a stiffer material than the factory fitted rubber mounts.
When choosing Anti-Roll Bars ensure you purchase the correct model for your Subaru, as there are different models depending on year and model. For example some of the Wagon WRX bars and different to the Saloon variants and the wide-track STI models used a different rear bar to the non-wide-track versions. Also don’t assume the bigger is always best, for example a 24mm front Anti-Roll Bar and 27mm rear might work really well on a track car on super smooth track tarmac but prove way too taut for a road going car on poorly maintained roads.
You can see the entire range of Whiteline Bars and Components for your Impreza WRX and STI at this link https://scoobyparts.com/subaru-impreza-wrx-sti-coilovers-springs-braces/whiteline-for-subaru-impreza-wrx-sti
Droplinks – Subaru WRX & STI
Droplinks connect the Anti-Roll Bar to your Impreza’s suspension arms, and allow rotational movement between the arm and bar. Uprated Droplinks are usually much thicker and robust than the standard factory fitted units. Often a clicking or knocking noise can be heard from worn anti-roll bar Droplinks and its a relatively quick job to remove the old ones and upgrade to a new uprated set. If upgrading Anti-Roll Bars its a good idea to change these at the same time, as the two components work with each other. Costs from just over £100 per pair, see here for more https://scoobyparts.com/advanced_search_result.php?search_in_description=0&keywords=anti-roll+bar+link
Suspension Bushes – Powerflex, SuperPro and Whiteline
Suspension Bushes are designed to hole to suspension components together and allow (usually) rotational movement. For example Anti-Roll Bar Bushes hold the Anti-Roll Bar to the chassis, Front Suspension Arm bushes hold the front Balljoints to the Suspension Arms.
From the factory these are usually all hard rubber bushes which start to wear and lose their effect over time and mileage.
Upgraded products are usually manufactured from Polyurethane and are designed and manufactured by the likes of Whiteline, Powerflex and Superpro.
With the original rubber bushes, worn or not, there will be a certain amount of play or flex in the bushes, and this gets worse with mileage wear and tear. The Polyurethane bushes are generally harder than the standard rubber ones therefore making the handling more precise and less vague, however depending on which bush is replaced they can sometimes come with a reduction in comfort and ride quality making it firmer which might not suit all owners. To address this companies such as Powerflex provide various different colours of bushing including their purple range for road use and a firmer black range for track.
Many of these bushes can be fairly easily fitted, however some need to have the original bush pressed out of the suspension component and then replacements pressed back in using an industrial hydraulic press. This is definitely a job for a specialist or good car garage. A good example of this is the front suspension arms.
Check out our range of Suspension Bushes from Powerflex in both their Purple and Black varieties https://scoobyparts.com/subaru-impreza-wrx-sti-coilovers-springs-braces/powerflex-bushes-subaru-wrx-sti
or Whiteline here https://scoobyparts.com/subaru-impreza-wrx-sti-coilovers-springs-braces/whiteline-for-subaru-impreza-wrx-sti
and finally Superpro here https://scoobyparts.com/subaru-impreza-wrx-sti-coilovers-springs-braces/superpro-bushes
Strut Braces
Strut braces are bolted between the front or rear suspension strut tops and provide extra rigidity to prevent the strut tops flexing under heavy load during cornering. The fronts are very straight forward to install in around 15 minutes, the rears are a little more complicated and you need to remove rear seats and fitting room on a saloon Impreza is tight.
Strut Braces come in various coloured ends – such as pink, blue and red and available for Classic Impreza 1993-2000 and the later New Age WRX and STI models 2001-2007 and Hatchback WRX and STI 2008-2012. Strut Braces for 2014 onwards should be available shortly. Full details are available here https://scoobyparts.com/subaru-impreza-wrx-sti-coilovers-springs-braces/strut-braces