I recently put 2006 wrx brake calipers all around on my 1991 legacy turbo using kartboys adapter brackets in the rear. Things are well with the brakes!

Once it got cold I ordered some offset wheels and snow tires(205/55 16). They are great! Then one day I heard an awful noise from the right rear. It only happens when I turn left or hit a bump. It sounded like metal on metal but I thought there was a bunch of ice in my wheel well. Once it thawed I noticed that there was no ice in there but I was still hearing the noise on both sides in the back now. I first was blaming the bolts on the kartboy brackets as I had read here that someone had problems with the bolts actually touching the rotors around corners. I even convinced myself that I could see a mark on the rotor. Now I am realizing that the snow tires are rubbing the wheel wells in the back. But they weren't for the first few weeks.

So I ask "are my kyb agx blown again?" or does someone have a better answer before I disassemble my struts?

 

Thanks for reading my long question. I just thought that I would put out as much info as possible to cut out the "what about this? what about that?"

But if you have a question like that to help me narrow it down please do so!

 

Thanks again

isleymerl

as far as I am aware, the WRX rear brakes are a downgrade to the vented 91 turbo rear brakes......

sounds like something with the struts good luck will check back in on the thread..

wait, you just put the calipers on the backs....that means you stayed with the turbo brake rotors, which is probably too big for the wrx caliper.

that would be true with 02-05 wrx rears. but 06-07 use a 290mm (compared to 266 for wrx and tleg) rear vented rotor and 2pot caliper. definitely an upgrade in every way, and definitely not re-using the old rotors, as they're 24mm smaller!

 

what kind of springs are you running? only on the one side? other signs of blown strut (poor handling, bumpy, etc.....heck, go out and bounce that corner of the car by hand, and see how much it continues to bounce).

Thanks for clearing that up Numchux! No offense to bheinen74(and thanks for the reply!)but of course I bought the bigger vented rotors and stainless lines.

 

So the springs were brand new(stock springs) when I bought the kyb's 6yrs ago as well as the towers. It is happening on both sides but started on the passenger side and is still worse on that side. I have bounced the corners in the back and couldn't tell right off. I keep them set at 7 so I still need to go out and set them down to 1 and see if there is a difference. 1.5yrs ago I switched cars so I decided to take apart all of my struts against some of my friends advice who think that I worry too much. I found that the back ones were both blown! After 4+yrs of street driving?! When I returned them to superupair Boulder they asked "what are you doing, jumping it?" which we had a good laugh about. I will set them down to 1 today and see what I think.

 

Don't they put these struts on the older rally cars?

 

Numchux, is it hard to put a ej22 in a gl/loyale?

I'm not sure about your eaxact problem but I will say that I used KYB AGX's on my old 97 Impreza and they were blown in 6 months! I will never use them again! I wasn't jumping my car. I went KYB GR2's and they lasted a lot longer!

Not surprised about the agx's. I just hope that a lifetime guarantee would mean that they could last more than a few months. So do you feel that you sacrificed the stiffness of the agx for a longer lasting softer gr2? Or did you not turn your agx's up? I run mine at 4 front 7 rear.

 

Someone has suggested that I roll a baseball bat between the tire and fender to roll the lip in though there isn't much room and I would like a non-customizing answer(like I'm going to get it).lol I would hate to ruin my rear fenders though I would go slow and carefully.

I used to run my AGX's on the middle setting, and no I did not notice much of a difference when I went to the GR2's.

yep, I've done the old baseball-bat fender rolling trick. pretty easy, just have to be careful (also better to do in warmer weather to help prevent paint cracking. but careful use of a heat gun can do this too).

 

 

 

running the AGXs that stiff on stock springs is definitely working them harder than just regular street driving on stock struts. I've known many people to have great luck with AGXs, but all are running a well-balanced setup with stiffer springs.

 

 

 

you're next project is to figure out where it's rubbing. try backing that corner up onto a ramp, or jacking it up from the suspension to compress just the one corner. and see where it touches first.

 

 

 

as for the EJ22 swap. short answer, yes, it's quite easy. But there is a ton of other info here about it. no need to hijack this thread to get into it.

I have wondered about the eibach 1"-1.5" lowering springs but there are a lot of rocks in the road where I live. What else might be good for this set up?

 

the baseball Bat procedure could be my answer. I realized that the side that rubs more is the one that still has the rubber lining on the fender. I did set the struts down to 1 and the seemed softer enough.

 

I think I can see where it is rubbing already but I will look further.

 

I will look at other threads for swapping the ej22. I am just curious at the moment and had heard that it was hard.

 

Well hopefully I have time in the next few days to check it out.

 

Thanks