Gen 3 Outback lift problem

Davidov · Post by **Davidov** » Tue Jan 10, 2012 8:21 pm

Hi.

About a month ago i installed 2" lift blocks to lift my MY03 Outback. At first everything seemed great everything was high and looking schmick. Today after seeing my car for the first time for over a week (and hard offroading just before) i noticed that the car didnt seem as high as it used to.

So i did some measurements this afternoon and was shocked.

The front has dropped by ~ 30mm and the back ~35mm! Thats more than half of my lift, gone just like that.

Does anyone know why it would do that? Is it the springs?

Cheers.

Tuckerbag · Post by **Tuckerbag** » Tue Jan 10, 2012 11:27 pm

Check your shocks. It could be damage when you put the strut lift in.

taza · Post by **taza** » Wed Jan 11, 2012 12:09 am

Tuckerbag wrote:Check your shocks. It could be damage when you put the strut lift in.

New shocks were put in only 2000km ago, if that. We had a hard time putting the rear 50mm blocks in and had to compress the rear springs almost completely to get the strut back in and bolted up.

Tuckerbag · Post by **Tuckerbag** » Wed Jan 11, 2012 2:28 pm

taza wrote:New shocks were put in only 2000km ago, if that. We had a hard time putting the rear 50mm blocks in and had to compress the rear springs almost completely to get the strut back in and bolted up.

By doing that, it might already damaged the seal and allowed the oil to leak slowly.

taza · Post by **taza** » Wed Jan 11, 2012 2:34 pm

Tuckerbag wrote:By doing that, it might already damaged the seal and allowed the oil to leak slowly.

Wouldn't it be putting more strain on the springs causing them to sag more so than damaging the shocks?

Post by **Alex** » Wed Jan 11, 2012 3:05 pm

it may have 'settled' now.

what brand springs did you use?

Fairly sure, even if the shocks are stuffed the ride height wont change as the spring dictates this, the shock is more of a dampener to the spring to prevent it bouncing.

taza · Post by **taza** » Wed Jan 11, 2012 3:47 pm

Alex wrote:it may have 'settled' now.

what brand springs did you use?

Fairly sure, even if the shocks are stuffed the ride height wont change as the spring dictates this, the shock is more of a dampener to the spring to prevent it bouncing.

The springs are still the stock ones. We had a hard enough time getting the 50mm blocks in the rear, the front was easy though.

Guess Dave better put some HD Kings in all round I think

Post by **Alex** » Wed Jan 11, 2012 4:14 pm

taza wrote:The springs are still the stock ones. We had a hard enough time getting the 50mm blocks in the rear, the front was easy though.

Guess Dave better put some HD Kings in all round I think

in that case it is possible that the springs are stuffed.

Its impossible to lose height any other way with a bodylift (unless something has been done incorrectly)

alex

Davidov · Post by **Davidov** » Wed Jan 11, 2012 7:00 pm

Alex wrote:in that case it is possible that the springs are stuffed.

Its impossible to lose height any other way with a bodylift (unless something has been done incorrectly)

alex

the struts are kyb with only about 700km on them. Springs are stock and have 170000km on them. I find it strange that all springs would be stuffed in such a uniform way. When installing the rear lift i think we greatly over compressed them to get the lift in. That shows as the rear has dropped more. Fronts we didnt need to compress at all.

Could it be that because of their age the added pressure from being lifted has caused them to finally give out?

Tuckerbag · Post by **Tuckerbag** » Thu Jan 12, 2012 12:27 am

I though that would be the self leveling shock stuffed itself but i was wrong. As Alex said it could be the spring which is compressed too much.

RSR 555 · Post by **RSR 555** » Sat Jan 14, 2012 10:52 pm

I'm also going with springs.. probably didn't really notice it because of the worn shocks.