I just bought a 95 legacy wagon and wanted the struts replaced. I decided to put some 97 legacy outback struts on instead of the stock ones to give it an extra 2 inches of ground clearance or so. However, now that we have one of the new struts installed (with all the bolts in place), the spring and/or strut seems to be up against the surrounding metal plating. Any suggestions on how to fix?

 

Thanks!

Hammer

The rear struts?

I know when I installed O/B struts on my leg, the rears rubbed up against the metal shrouding, I thought oh ************!

However, once you lower it off the jack, the struts will pull out from the metal shrouding, so not to worry - Install them, lower and they will make some noise but then they will never make another noise, even if you jack the car up to swap tyres down the track.

they are the rear struts, yes. and it turns out that's exactly what happened: when we took it off the jack they creaked and haven't made another noise since. there's definitely space where there needs to be some too. thanks!