I got a 96 legacy L sedan with OB struts back in april. It was on 14's and really low to the ground, so i decided to try the forester strut swap to give me a couple inches for winter. I put a set of winter tires on 205/65/16s. Now it sits WAY up. I mean 11inches at the rear dif! Now im worried ill be chewing threw ball joints and tires constantly. Any advice on how to prevent destroying my front end and tires? Im switching to heavy duty CVs this weekend.  

Get a good alignment.  

Ok will do. I usually do that kind of thing myself. Do you know if the sway bar effects tire wear? Or how? Im planning to go rite threw the front end ASAP.

It was low with outback struts? You're sure they were outback struts? It sounds like they were stock L struts.

5 hours ago, laegion said:

It was low with outback struts? You're sure they were outback struts? It sounds like they were stock L struts.

maybe still on the stock 14" wheels/tires? but yeah, should be some lift w/the OB's.

The rear was definitely outback struts. But all 4 were toasted and squatting as is. The guy i bought it from had no idea... The forester struts have it way up. The back squats abit but nothing a spacer cant fix. Its my daily so want it to ride well.

205/65/16 are only slightly taller than the stock OB/Forester 205/70R15 or 215/60R16 stock tires of that era. I wouldn't be 'too' concerned about it. 

Edited December 7, 20214 yr by wtdash

Ok thanks for the insight. When i first put them in i started getting nervous thinking it was too much. Dont want to break the thing, just dont want to be stuck in a snow drift at 3am ha

Also, ive heard of people using forester sway bar brackets to drop their sway bar alittle to comp for the lift abit. Does anyone know if this is worth doing? I currently have the stock sway bar setup but feel like theres ALOT of pressure on it.

On 12/7/2021 at 3:37 PM, Liftedlego96 said:

The rear was definitely outback struts. But all 4 were toasted and squatting as is. The guy i bought it from had no idea... The forester struts have it way up. The back squats abit but nothing a spacer cant fix. Its my daily so want it to ride well.

I dunno, if it is that big of a difference going to forester struts then it probably didn't have outback struts on it. From what I've read the '04 forester struts give about a 1-1.5" lift over the outback struts.

Also, if it had outback struts in the rear and legacy struts in the front...I don't think it would be safe to drive. There's about 1.5" difference in height between the two.

If that's the case I'd recommend going to outback struts if you don't want to be replacing axles and ball joints frequently.

I have a '95 Legacy L on Outback struts and even with that much lift the axles and ball joints are kinda on the edge of a bad angle, and the brake lines are about at their limit.

Also, you probably want to swap on some outback rear trailing arm brackets to make your rear wheels sit center in the wheel well.

You could also get all of the subframe, etc. spacers from an outback to fix the angles.

Also, if you want to level the rear you can make or purchase spacers and longer bolts for the top rear strut mounts. One can cut them from a high density plastic cutting board. I did 1/4" spacers in the rear of my '96 when I swapped in the Outback struts to help level the car, (mostly because the roof basket and trailer hitch receiver caused a little sag). However I'm sure a good quality kit is probably better.

Oh ok. I really didnt want to buy and put in another set of struts but if im going to have a spoob ton of issues with ball joints and camber ect. then i may very well need too. Half the time im headed to work before the plow trucks can hit most roads so i dont want to drop it too much. But at the same time i dont want to need to replace parts every weekend. How about the heavy duty cv axels they sell? Will they hold up to the extra angle i have on them? 

i did 98 Forester struts on a 95 Legacy and had 0 problems with it.. Drove it that way for several years.
the trailing arm thing is strictly cosmetic, there are no problems by not doing it (i didn't)

Ok thats good to know. I think the 04 forester struts might be a touch taller then 1st gen forester struts though. I guess ill do what i can and probably pick up a camber tool. I have a set of adjustable legacy struts with the top hats that can be used to adjust camber. Couldnt i just rob the hats and put them on my forester struts and nail the camber that way? They are abit thinner then the stock forester hats but dropping an inch isnt gona hurt. I gotta put a spacer in the back to fix the sag anyway...

not necessarily - bolt pattern of the top hats does vary a little between yrs & models.. if you can verify the bolt pattern will work, then by all means, have at it

and yeah, i am driving an 04 Foz right now, and it does seem a tad taller than the first gen.. but been awhile, so maybe my old brain is playing tricks on me? lol

definitely has bigger wheels.. the earlier models used 15" wheels, the 04 has 16" so makes sense that there would be some minor changes to accommodate the larger tire/wheel combo

Edited December 9, 20214 yr by heartless

Yah that does make sence. Im assuming the bolt pattern on the hats on the lego struts are the same only because the 04 Foz struts lined rite up when i installed them. I was worried id have to steal the old hats off the OB struts i pulled out but there was no need. I got lucky. Might be a couple weeks before i get to it. Ill line it up as best i can tomorrow night when i do the tie rods and sway links and hold out on the hat swap but ill post my results.

The 1st Gen Vs. 2nd Gen. Fozzies actually used the same tire size 215/60R16  - on the 'S' models for  Gen1. And most versions of Gen 2; bumped to a 17" wheel but same height/diameter.

 The struts of the Gen2 had a higher spring perch so they'll fit bigger tires. I'm running 215/70R16 under mine (on a '98 Foz). 

All '95-'99 Legacy, '98-2008 Foz, '02-'07 Impreza used the same front and rear strut top (top hats) bolt patterns. 

13 hours ago, wtdash said:

The 1st Gen Vs. 2nd Gen. Fozzies actually used the same tire size 215/60R16  - on the 'S' models for  Gen1. And most versions of Gen 2; bumped to a 17" wheel but same height/diameter.

the 98 i had here, and the 2002 both wore 15" wheels (yes, even the alloys), with the 2004 i now have wearing 16s... but all of these have been base models, not higher end.