Are you pretty happy with the lift and tire combo? How high is the lift itself? Looking at either blocks and tires on my 06 Impreza wagon, or going whole hog and Forester suspension, but kind of like the ride as is. The wife might find a bigger lift and softer springs "odd" while driving. We mostly explore backroads with Outbacks and Forester, and use it to camp, canoe, mountain bike, etc. That said, I wish the suspension could handle increased weight better, and wonder if the Forester setup is better, considering it's probably cheaper than King or similar springs, and I can do all the work myself with my current tools. Either way, some lift, some rubber, and some armour are in order.
I too have an 06' Impreza and figured I'd offer my $.02 to save you some headaches and money. My current setup is Forester Xt struts with King Impreza lift springs in front and OEM FXT springs in the rear, along with an Outback rear trailing arm bracket I picked up from the dealer. This combined with my General Grabbers (215/65R16) give me right at 10" of clearance at the rear diff, and slightly less at the exhaust. I'm happy with the stance but once you go above 2" of lift on this chassis, it is my impression that things change dramatically and that no matter how you approach it, it is an expensive endeavor and will nickel and dime you over time, if you try to save money on the initial install. I originally had FXT front springs but ripped both axle boots within a months time forcing me to search for alternatives, which was either subframe spacers, which I didn't want because I wanted to maintain as much clearance as possible, or the King lift springs. For 2 springs, $250 was expensive, but there really weren't many other options out there that I could consider so I bit the bullet and installed the springs at the same time as I put my new axles in and so far so good. The additional benefit of having the king springs in the front and FXT springs in the rear is that it eliminates the need for saggy butt spacers and evens the front and rear body to tire gap. I also bought Kartboy rear STI endlinks for the front as they are 3/4" longer than the OEM endlinks, but was unable to use them because they wouldn't fit into the slot on my control arm. I'm thinking this mod may only be applicable for sedan control arms as the sedan and wagon control arms and even STI control arms for that matter are different.
Over time I've noticed my front end develop considerable bumpsteer, a few odd and rather disconcerting clunks, and the tendency to wander. To combat this (fingers crossed), I picked up a whiteline anti lift kit, which uses a transverse link design identical to the foresters but with a firmer bushing which when combined with a spacer will get my control arm closer to where it was originally and provide additional caster which I believe I lost whenever I put the lift on. I also got some Poly steering rack bushings that I understand make a big difference if you have a higher mileage car. I have about 116k hard miles on mine that include sand, mud and the generally horrible streets that plague NYC so I'm interested in seeing how blasted my current rack bushings are. I just bought this stuff yesterday so I'll report back my findings post-install.
It is my understanding the WMDunkin has a slightly smaller tire (215/60) than I do (215/65) on a turbo engine, so I suspect that he won't notice as big of a hit as some of us NA guys would. However, my experience has been as follows. Lower MPG to the tune of 4-5 mpg, but I also installed these items during winter, which usually brings my mileage down due to the winter blend gas. I also moved from NC to NY and my share of city driving increased considerably, but hwy mileage still has decreased to the tune of 5 mpg. The effect on acceleration is very pronounced and frustrating considering the stop and go traffic I deal with on a daily basis. I find that I rarely use 5th gear on my commute, and that its best left for the highway. Even when offroad, I'll have a tendency to bog down much quicker, which I think is a combination of the bigger tires, and the additional traction the tires provide, but still requires me to ride the clutch more. One fix I've found for this is to install a Forester XT transmission and rear diff which has a final drive ratio of 4.44 vs my current 3.9..This is something I plan on doing during the summer.
I understand this is a bit of information but is something that shouldn't be taken lightly, as there is what seems to be an unstoppable domino effect that follows an initially frugal approach to lifting your car. I hope I helped a bit and if you have any questions feel free to PM me.
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