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Outback '01 2'' lift . am i getting most of it ?


scalman
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so its subaru outback 2001 , 2.5 , 4EAT, VDC, rear LSD. installed 2'' strut spacers. only those , nothing else. 

front shocks normal OEM , rear self levelling OEM. nothing else modified or changed. rear sway bar disconnected.

so question is am i getting most of this lift ,can i get something more if i change some things or modify ? 

people say removing front sway bar gives more flex . but drive without sway bars its kinda risky no ?

just wondering is this most i could get from this gen outback . like people do 1'' lift with spacers and 1'' lift with king springs or other harder ones. but they loosing some in offroad with harder spring and i understand. or others do only spring lift. 

then for me lift you do strust spacers higher but you need lower diffs. i dont think i need more lift . i have enough for where i go and how i drive. 

long travel shocks are best as i understand but they cost a lot too. and there is none other shocks that fits us i think. 

 

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you could just disconnect the sway bar end links and see how you like it. 

 

it depends what kind of daily driving you're doing.  if you're doing in town, low mileage, straight easy driving that's probably easier to get away without a sway bar than high speed interstate traveling on twisty mountain roads.

 

some older generation subaru's didn't come with rear sway bars and they performed fine. and newer generation sway bar end links commonly fail and need replaced but give no major symptoms.  so you could roll with no sway bars easily depending on driving conditions and your personal preference. 

 

i haven't heard of anyone doing this but could you try and get good at just removing the end links before and after you off road?

 

 

i prefer spacers like you have over king springs as the strut spacers give more options and never need replaced or swapped or whatever like springs.  although i did get the slightly stiffer baja turbo rear springs for the same exact vehicle as you for a little extra stiffness/height but I tow and carry a lot of weight and needed to replace the springs anyway. 

 

with spacers you can remove them, swap to another vehicle, do whatever you want with struts springs and it's all easy.  

springs are more limiting, harder to remove, swap, move to another vehicle, etc.

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yh i like how car handles without rear sway bar . i mean i left it here just disconnected. and zipped it in place. its fine. not sure about front sway bar. i read that it needs to be removed , cant just be disconnected because it then touches stuff there and can make more problems or brake something if left there.

things happened that i didn't liked for look of car that wheels went inside car. meaning that track of wheels become smaller at about 2cm at least front. and it looks weird that your wheel so much inside car now. it even touches little when i turn front wheels fully tire just little rubs frame. not sure how other handled that , changed rims to diff offset ones or put wheel spacers. don't see other option here. 

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I hasve no front or rear swy bar on my lifted 84.

 

31" tires and it still drives fine.  Handles better than a stock jeep wrangler lol

 

Never hads a worry about rolling or spinning out.  Just a bit bouncy on rolling roads.

maybe your suspension is different or shocks better or custom made. tho i remember when one of front sway bar links was broken and i drove car didnt even noticed that something is bad. well you no drive car at 120km/h or faster do you ?

 

of course best thing is just to test it on the go. i might try it some time

Edited by scalman
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I drive at least or faster than 120k regularly.  Just did a 500 mile road trip with lots of highway driving..  And I have 8 inches of lift, much more top heavy than your Outback.

 

You would have to be cornering massively hard back and forth transition to even come close to upsetting the car to teh point of danger with no swaybars.

 

Just remove the links.  Leave the bars and ziptie up the ends.

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so i should not think about that it can become dangerous at higher speeds ? its what i reed in other forum from couple people

 

opinions from those that have not done it most likely.

 

Seriously, unless you are hard core drift racing, you don't need the swaybars.

 

The car will have slightly more body roll but not much, and it will soak up uneven roads better so for most driving it will feel much better.

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opinions from those that have not done it most likely.

 

Seriously, unless you are hard core drift racing, you don't need the swaybars.

 

The car will have slightly more body roll but not much, and it will soak up uneven roads better so for most driving it will feel much better.

well no it was at least from one guy in australia who have 2nd gen obw and removed both sway bars. 

it was talked here

http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/97-offroad-tech/17810-removing-sway-bars-suspension-travel.html

im just concerned about those comments about changing lanes on highway at high speed.

Edited by scalman
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  • 6 months later...

so removed front sway bars at last and its perfectly ok driving with oem struts. some more flex to front and i noticed it right away.

UJMkIlK.jpg

now new thing appearing. shocks maxing out if going too fast and catching some holes in sand and such. must be careful  there i guess. but VDC works even better as it gets some more flex now. finds grip better 

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  • 2 weeks later...

what about when you remove sway bars and your struts now have too much travel and they maxing out and you here that loud metal bang sound everytime. is it supose to be because too much travel freedom they have or thats because they already wear off and need to be changed ?  i understand by logic that if i go faster and  suddenly wheel have lots drop down it will drop and reach its limits and with that it will hit that bang soung. its very loud and bad sound. seems like something broke there. but its not. 

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On 7/4/2018 at 12:18 PM, scalman said:

what about when you remove sway bars and your struts now have too much travel and they maxing out and you here that loud metal bang sound everytime. is it supose to be because too much travel freedom they have or thats because they already wear off and need to be changed ?  i understand by logic that if i go faster and  suddenly wheel have lots drop down it will drop and reach its limits and with that it will hit that bang soung. its very loud and bad sound. seems like something broke there. but its not. 

road racers often want struts with adjustable rebound - it helps the car 'hunker down' as cornering becomes more intense.

 

But, not sure if it's worth the expense of trying it out on your car - or even if such struts are available. I THINK Tokico may have some units for some other cars, and maybe a Koni insert of sometype ???? That involes drilling-out/modifying stock struts for an adjustable insert.

Motorpsorts guys might know, I have only read a tiny amount - I think 'most' adjustable struts do no adjust the rebound - just compression ???

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Sounds like you need new struts to me. 

Any signs of weeping from the struts (where the rod/shaft slides)? This is an early indicator that they need replacing - for a road going vehicle they'll still be fine for a long time to come.  Off-roading works the suspension more so issues like these are more apparent.

Cheers

Bennie

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didint saw any oil weep or something there. cant be sure though. the way i see it maybe im wrong but thats how i think there so sway bars keep struts in their working lenght and no more. lift makes them work harder still not maxing . and no sway bars just let them travel so much more that they hit limit ... maybe im wrong , but long travel struts dont have any bang sounds. 

had some fun in subaru meeting. not bad articulation for stock struts

zjOEPNC.jpg

 

 

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