Advice - Subaru for some sand work

thunder039 · Post by **thunder039** » Mon Apr 23, 2012 10:33 pm

as long as the rear shock is still functional it will be fine, although if your replacing the springs, while your there and IF you can afford it you should replace struts also

taza · Post by **taza** » Mon Apr 23, 2012 10:37 pm

thunder039 wrote:as long as the rear shock is still functional it will be fine, although if your replacing the springs, while your there and IF you can afford it you should replace struts also

I would say 100% do them but thats me. I'd rather not be strandard somewhere if I knew an extra $200 could of prevented it.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Mon Apr 23, 2012 11:21 pm

taza wrote:Its hard to explain but they can physically bent or snap. The spring perch can break. The shock part itself can fail causing no dampening at all and the spring having to absorb all the weight.

I don't know about snapping. Bending yes, but that's pretty extreme - you've got to have the vehicle loaded up and doing something wrong pretty much. Spring perches break from either overloading the vehicle or the shock shagging out and allowing the spring to fully compress leaving the spring pearch/hat to take the brunt of the remaining force.

taza wrote:You really don't want one to bend or for the spring perch to break while offroad as thats worse than the shock failing. It may or will likely make the car undriveable.

This can happen at any point in time when offroading. Fresh struts might prolong the event in which this occurs. Carrying spares that you can use is always the key here.

thunder039 wrote:as long as the rear shock is still functional it will be fine, although if your replacing the springs, while your there and IF you can afford it you should replace struts also

It is generally done as a "best practise" and saves you from doing it twice if/when an older strut dies. The heavier springs will work the struts harder - really a set that's beefier should be installed but no one makes them. They will do the job though...

If the struts are ok and you're fine with running them, leave them as is, then save for a new set for when needed

Cheers

Bennie

d_generate · Post by **d_generate** » Mon Apr 23, 2012 11:57 pm

I'm just running standard struts in mine and they have been fine so far, I don't even know which Foz they came out of but my ride is great, pretty much as Subaru made a WRX to be honest, if you're going to carry all your possessions with you then I'd suggest an upgrade but if you can throw the springs in yourself which is pretty easy you'll save a fair bit for now.

thunder039 · Post by **thunder039** » Tue Apr 24, 2012 8:50 am

i didnt replace mine, couldnt afford the extra few hundered $$ and they are still fine the only issue i had was when i bent my front strut, but that was a hard hit

akpv · Post by **akpv** » Sun Apr 29, 2012 8:20 pm

Just back from a 5 day trip down to Esperance and surrounds. New car went well, a bit of a rattle from the P/S header heat shield which I will need to sort out but handled the sand like a dream. Got stuck once before letting the tyres down on the way out to skippy point, once the tyres were down she floated over it all beautifully. Looking forward to a lift kit, sump guard and 12V compressor (the bike pump was a bit of a workout in the sun

)

LIFTED · Post by **LIFTED** » Sun Apr 29, 2012 10:50 pm

Bike pump!!! That would have been a work out.

akpv · Post by **akpv** » Sun Apr 29, 2012 11:17 pm

It was a work out but nothing too crazy, I have a pretty good track pump. Was about 2 minutes per tyre from 15 - 36 psi with a bit of a break between each one.