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Hey new to the forum.
Currently drive a 2002 Forester and have been looking into getting it lifted a little to allow for bigger tyres, getting more clearance for offroad use.
I don't have much knowledge or experience in this field but from what I've read, installing spacers between the strut tops and where they mount the body, will give more clearance around the tyres allowing room to size them up.

Looking at my car, the bottom of the struts curve out over the tyres leaving little room between them and the tyre. I don't see how the spacers will increase the room between the bottom of the strut and the tyre.

So going on what I've seen on my car, basically my question is :
How does a body lift allow for bigger tyres.

Any help would be much appreciated.

The Lift kits for the subaru are very different to most other 4wd cars. Basically, assuming your going with a 2inch kit, these are just blocks that are placed all along the bottom of the car dropping the drivetrain of the car, making the body higher. In doing do, you only now have a higher 'taller' body but no gain in clearance.
However this gain in hight allows you to put bigger tyres, given you better ground clearance and even more height.

I'm not sure but most of the guys with the older cars, L series, brumby's use 2inch body liftkit blocks but replace the strut 2 inch blocks by 3 inch blocks. This gives you an extra inch of clearance:)

Now you could only put an inch, 2 or even 3 inch strut tops like on Davidov's Outback. Much cheaper than buying a full liftkit but at 2 or 3inch you will put enormous stress on your cv joints.

Another thing that will give you lift is if you get new raised springs that suit your car.

Hope this helps

Hi Brad and welcome to AUSubaru

Another sandgropper amongst us I see

There are 2 types of lifts you can do to your Foz. Pretty much like Guyph has meantioned.

1. Is the Suspension Lift. This is generally a 1" spacer that goes at the top of the strut, between you strut top ant the body of the car. This allows you to increase your tyres by 1 size but also puts extra stress on the CV shafts. Not a lot but just means the shafts/joints will wear out quicker.

2. Is the full Body Lift, which you have a spacer put between all the suspension and crossmembers points which effectively raises the body by what ever the size of kit you buy 2", 3", 4", etc.. This allows the mechanical parts to remain in there original location but now you have extra room for tyres. You can still only go as big as the wheel arch or you'll need to do some modification to the body panels.

Anything bigger than a 2" requires engineers certificate and the higher you go so does the centre of gravity.

Jeff from Crossbred does an awesome kit. Richie-Rich just fitted his own and it looks great.

Thanks heaps for the help guys. I've been eyeing off the 1' spacers from subtle solutions. These are just the 4 spacers that go ontop of the strut so i'm guessing this fits in the category of suspension lift.

I was planning to install the kit myself so i think this would be the way to go seeing it seems fairly simple to install. I checked out the full body lift from crossbred and it looked like there was a fair bit more to it and probably beyond my capabilities haha.

I'm still a little confused at the bottom of the strut situation. I understand that the lift kit will increase the space between the tyre and wheel arch. But the base of the spring and strut assembly just above the tyre looks like it clears the tyres by about an inch. The lift kit won't affect this distance and it seems as though increasing the tyre size will bring the top of the tyre very close to the base of the strut/spring??

brad_e10 wrote:Thanks heaps for the help guys. I've been eyeing off the 1' spacers from subtle solutions. These are just the 4 spacers that go ontop of the strut so i'm guessing this fits in the category of suspension lift.

I was planning to install the kit myself so i think this would be the way to go seeing it seems fairly simple to install. I checked out the full body lift from crossbred and it looked like there was a fair bit more to it and probably beyond my capabilities haha.

I'm still a little confused at the bottom of the strut situation. I understand that the lift kit will increase the space between the tyre and wheel arch. But the base of the spring and strut assembly just above the tyre looks like it clears the tyres by about an inch. The lift kit won't affect this distance and it seems as though increasing the tyre size will bring the top of the tyre very close to the base of the strut/spring??

If you can install those spacers you can install the crossbred kit.
i just bought one and i'm impressed with the build quality (for brumby, see pics in my build thread).

otherwise just get a mechanic to fit it, wouldn't take them too long.

If you want larger tyres than one size over stock, look into outback struts, I'm pretty sure they're longer than stock struts so you can fit larger tyres again.

Or if you're really game, some of the boys over in the US do their lift with an extension on the bottom of the strut between the strut and the hub, this allows a much larger tyre to be used, but in my opinion is not the best option to lift the vehicle. I'm 90% sure the outback struts will do the trick for you, otherwise you need to look into custom built struts...

Cheers

Bennie

Arent the forester and outback struts the same size length? Well thats what i thought..

Oh.. ok Brad, I see what you're saying. And yes the bottom part of the spring will stop you going too big. These shocks can be changed for smaller spring size (similar setup to coilover struts) but I think your tyre would rub/scrub on the guards before then.

brad_e10 wrote:Thanks heaps for the help guys. I've been eyeing off the 1' spacers from subtle solutions. These are just the 4 spacers that go ontop of the strut so i'm guessing this fits in the category of suspension lift.

I was planning to install the kit myself so i think this would be the way to go seeing it seems fairly simple to install. I checked out the full body lift from crossbred and it looked like there was a fair bit more to it and probably beyond my capabilities haha.

I'm still a little confused at the bottom of the strut situation. I understand that the lift kit will increase the space between the tyre and wheel arch. But the base of the spring and strut assembly just above the tyre looks like it clears the tyres by about an inch. The lift kit won't affect this distance and it seems as though increasing the tyre size will bring the top of the tyre very close to the base of the strut/spring??

I have these spacers in my 2001 Forester, I also have raised springs. Done almost 40,000km with both in and not a single issue.

I too want to fit bigger tyres (already running bigger than stock but want bigger again) and the spring perch on the strut is in the way.
You can do a bottom sturt lift like this link.

http://www.subaruforester.org/vbulletin ... in-103185/

It is the same as a suspension/strut lift. I will be doing this to mine aswell as my 2" (springs and Subtle Solution spacers) just isn't quite enough

From my research the bottom strut lift seams real easy.

I will add 1.5" to my rear and probably 1" to the front. Total 3.5" strut/suspension in the rear and 3" in the front. Others are running a similar setup and don't have any CV issues. Sure they might last 50,000km less but if you get 100-150,000km from them then im not complaining.
I will be adding tyres to give me 1" over stock too. So 4.5" rear in total and 4" in the front.
I was just going to put bigger blocks in but thatisn't going to help the tyre issue so bottom strut lift it is. And its cheap to make your self.

The rear CV's aren't on such a bad angle compared to the front so more lift is possible.
Im going 0.5-1inch extra in the rear as when the car is loaded up it starts to sag, even with my heavy duty raised springs.

For you though 2" lift should be sufficient. Either strut bottom lift(1-3"), strut top(1") and raised springs(1") or just strut top lift (2" blocks).

Taza

guyph_01 wrote:Arent the forester and outback struts the same size length? Well thats what i thought..

Completely different. Especially between each generation of both.
The fronts are similar though but rears are very different.

El_Freddo wrote:If you want larger tyres than one size over stock, look into outback struts, I'm pretty sure they're longer than stock struts so you can fit larger tyres again.

Or if you're really game, some of the boys over in the US do their lift with an extension on the bottom of the strut between the strut and the hub, this allows a much larger tyre to be used, but in my opinion is not the best option to lift the vehicle. I'm 90% sure the outback struts will do the trick for you, otherwise you need to look into custom built struts...

They won't fit in a 1st gen foz. The setup is very different between Outback and Forester.
The Outback has multilink suspension too...

3rd Gen Outback/Lib is multilink. First and Second are struts the same as the Foz. I have SF Forrie struts in my Lib wagon.

taza wrote:Completely different. Especially between each generation of both.
The fronts are similar though but rears are very different.

taza wrote:They won't fit in a 1st gen foz. The setup is very different between Outback and Forester.
The Outback has multilink suspension too...

Depends on the models. SF (97-01) Foresters use the exactly the same suspension arrangement as the BG (95-99) Outback.

Point wrote:3rd Gen Outback/Lib is multilink. First and Second are struts the same as the Foz. I have SF Forrie struts in my Lib wagon.

BF (89-94) Liberty never came out with the longer suspension struts, as this model used the Pneumatic Strut to control height.

You can put Forester and Outback struts in a Liberty but going the other way is trickier.

ALL this info above, only relates to Non-Turbo Foresters, as Turbo Foresters have standard (low) suspension.

RSR 555 wrote: ALL this info above, only relates to Non-Turbo Foresters, as Turbo Foresters have standard (low) suspension.

What makes that difference? Are the springs (lower) or is there a difference in the shocks too?

guyph_01 wrote:What makes that difference? Are the springs (lower) or is there a difference in the shocks too?

Turbo Foresters use the standard height shocks. Spring size are all the same in the (SF) Forester and (GC) Impreza as these use the same floor plan.

I have these spacers in my 2001 Forester, I also have raised springs. Done almost 40,000km with both in and not a single issue.

I too want to fit bigger tyres (already running bigger than stock but want bigger again) and the spring perch on the strut is in the way.
You can do a bottom sturt lift like this link.

http://www.subaruforester.org/vbulle...eachin-103185/

It is the same as a suspension/strut lift. I will be doing this to mine aswell as my 2" (springs and Subtle Solution spacers) just isn't quite enough

From my research the bottom strut lift seams real easy.

I will add 1.5" to my rear and probably 1" to the front. Total 3.5" strut/suspension in the rear and 3" in the front. Others are running a similar setup and don't have any CV issues. Sure they might last 50,000km less but if you get 100-150,000km from them then im not complaining.
I will be adding tyres to give me 1" over stock too. So 4.5" rear in total and 4" in the front.
I was just going to put bigger blocks in but thatisn't going to help the tyre issue so bottom strut lift it is. And its cheap to make your self.

The rear CV's aren't on such a bad angle compared to the front so more lift is possible.
Im going 0.5-1inch extra in the rear as when the car is loaded up it starts to sag, even with my heavy duty raised springs.

For you though 2" lift should be sufficient. Either strut bottom lift(1-3"), strut top(1") and raised springs(1") or just strut top lift (2" blocks).

Taza

Cheers Taza, I think I'll go with the 1' subtle spacers for starter and up size the tyre to 1 size overstocks if this is the maximum it will allow. Once I have installed the spacers is it just as simple as going to the tyre shop and asking them to replace the tyres for the next size up without having to up size the rim? And any recomendation on good all round tyres?

Cheers

what is the biggest size of tires you can fit on standard 15's on a gen 1 foz? i just have the lifted springs at the moment...
also this tire sized that is asked above can they fit a standard gen 2 forester? from looking i cant see why due to there is a bigger gap between the tire and the bottom of the springs

brad_e10 wrote:Cheers Taza, I think I'll go with the 1' subtle spacers for starter and up size the tyre to 1 size overstocks if this is the maximum it will allow. Once I have installed the spacers is it just as simple as going to the tyre shop and asking them to replace the tyres for the next size up without having to up size the rim? And any recomendation on good all round tyres?

Cheers

Its a good combination with that lift.

Is your 2002 a 2nd gen or 1st gen? Mines a gen 1 in my signature pic..

On a 15" rim on a Foz(gen 1) the biggest you can go is 215/70R15, but then it won't clear the sping perch without modification so forget about that.
You can go 215/70R15 (which is what im running) or 225/70R15. I would recommend either and I run Geolander AT-S tyres. Very very good tyres both on and offroad. Great in the wet on road, sand, mediud mud and excellent on gravel and rocks. Highly recommended, they are abit costly but well worth the money in my opinion.

Gen 2
you can go from the standard 215/60R16 to 215/65R15 which I would say are a good increase in size. You can also get 215/70R16 which are quite alot bigger but going this big will cause a noticable losse in power and economy. You can get both sizes in Geolander AT-S which I would recommend.

Taza

thunder039 wrote:what is the biggest size of tires you can fit on standard 15's on a gen 1 foz? i just have the lifted springs at the moment...
also this tire sized that is asked above can they fit a standard gen 2 forester? from looking i cant see why due to there is a bigger gap between the tire and the bottom of the springs

225/70R15, these will just clear the spring perch but you can't get them in Geolander AT-S General grabbers do them.

taza wrote:225/70R15, these will just clear the spring perch but you can't get them in Geolander AT-S General grabbers do them.

What about 215/75/15 Geo AT-s...I think thats what Dulagarl has...
Will they fit or does he have the gen2 rear struts?