Just thought i'd share some pics and info of my car since i've done all the alterations to the suspension. I was a newby, and still am, so I'll go through what i've done. I'm not mechanicly minded, so i do a lot of investigating to see the real benefits from alterations I've made.
If you are looking to get a bit more height out of your Forry, and not sure where to start, this is the progression I did.
This is what my Forester 2005 XT looked like when I bought her. Standard 2005 Forester XT with 50,000km on her.
Firstly, to gain a bit of height without alternating the cars suspension, I put new off road tyres on it. The car came standard with 17" alloys, but I wanted to run 16" Steelies, so I didn't care if I dented the rims, and so I had a set of road wheels for everyday use. Also, running 16" rims meant that I could get a bit more hight to the tyre. This instantly gave me an inch lift and made the car look mean. I put on BF Goodrich AT 215/70 16. I found that if you go the 215/75 16, the tyre will rub on the spring base, and will also rub lots in the wheel arch. My tyres only rub at 3/4 lock. This is by far the cheapest and easiest way to lift any car.
Gap between tyre and spring base. There is about a 15mm gap.
A few months later I fitted some King Springs and KYB shocks. This was an expensive exercise, however, the ride improvement and handling was well worth the money. You don't realise how bad your car drives until you fit new springs and struts. WOW. It rides much flatter, and controlled than before. This gave me another 1".
Finally, after being undecided for a long time, I bit the bullet and purchased some Subtle Solutions 1" body lift blocks. These were fairly inexpensive and I installed them with a mate (see above thread). I say undecided because I wasn't really sure if I really needed them. But after landing on my side skirts a few times, I knew I wanted them. This lifted the body another inch. It also improved my approach and departure angles too, but that was pretty good already thanks to the Subaxtreme bars.
Putting the lift blocks on the rear moved the rear wheel forward in the arch. You can see from the below pics the angle of the strut and how close the wheel is to the front side of the wheel arch. No probs though. You can get an arm that re-centres the wheel, but am a little hesitant with doing that and the moment.
The original ride height was 200mm, now it is almost 300mm. Just over 3" lift.
Any higher and you really start to play with CV Boot probs and other things like Brake Hose length, camber and other techy stuff I don't know about. Also, ride quality. I can still drive my can on road comfortably.
So, as you can see from the below pics, the car is pretty well setup.
Cheers!!
