Just installed my STi coilovers

[B 4 You]

Well, as some of you may know I ordered the Ceika coilovers. All was going well, but there were some delays due to the people that made the top mounts and it was taking longer than expected. I'm moving in a month so waiting wasn't an option. I went and bought a set of 05-07 STi coilovers from Raceland. Go ahead and judge me. Install took me about 10 hours. The hardest part was getting the strut knuckle bolts off. I had to use a 4 foot breaker bar several times. Anyway, I'm pretty much a beginner at all of this stuff, and if I could do it, surely you can. The fronts were not bad to get on, just time consuming.









Do you guys like my redneck garage?



Take your STi top plates, and measure where you need to drill. The holes were pretty tiny, and it didn't seem to mess with the structural integrity at all. After all, all the force goes against the top plate, not those little bolts. The bottom knuckles were the exact same width, but the holes were spaced out a little farther. I extended the bottom holes up about a quarter of an inch, and it all slipped on after that. I still haven't connected my sway bar up front, but I plan on doing that this week. It still drives great, though.

The rears didn't take as long but were tedious, and might stray some people away. The knuckles are too skinny, and they must either be bent out or shaved, or shave your SVX (which I won't do). I couldn't find a torch so I just put the damn thing in the flame of the stove until it got pretty hot. I have this old tire changing machine with a leverage bar, and I used that to bent them out to the perfect amount. It took quite a bit of bending/testing/bending, but it worked. I had to wiggle and hammer them on, but they're on and they can come off easily with a hammer. The holes were in the exact same spot, so that made things nice. For the top plates, I had fixed ones, but you'd probably need to drill 3 new holes if you want your camber plates to go straight out, because it sits at a slight angle. For fixed plates, you just need to drill one hole. I was off a little bit so I had to make the other holes slightly bigger, but it worked.

That's LITERALLY it. Even the brackets on the front ones are good to use for the brake/abs lines. It takes a bit of redneck engineering and some elbow grease, but it works. If I can do this, you definitely can. Considering there are 2 companies we know of that make an SVX suspension and probably dozens that make STi ones (and will continue to), I think this may become our best option. The coilovers I bought came with 8k/5k (450 ft-lb/281ft-lb) which made me nervous at first because I HATE bouncy rides, but it's smooth as can be. No body roll too, even without the sway bar up front. I'm completely satisfied. Oh, did I mention it's low?







^ I literally couldn't even pull out of my stupid driveway at this height. When I finally did, it rubbed the crap out of my fenders whenever I turned, so I raised it up a bit.



^ This is the ride height that is perfect. No rubbing at all, even when going fast on bumpy back roads. I would like to have it a little lower, and if I roll my fenders I could go much lower. it still had plenty of clearance on the inside, just not the edge. I may try it with some camber as well. I still have almost 3 inches left to go on the coilovers, and that doesn't include taking the locking nuts off.

I must say I'm pretty impressed with myself, considering 2 days ago I looked up "how to adjust coilovers" on youtube.

Seriously guys, just do it. It's such a good option.