pooooobaru Posted March 22, 2017 Share Posted March 22, 2017 (edited) Hi y'all, I've done a lot of searching on this subject, and I was led to believe Forester struts are a direct swap onto a 98 Legacy (non-Outback), to give a little lift. I bought a set of FCS complete strut assemblies (for an 05 Forester) and brought them to a local shop for install on my 98 Legacy. They say they will not bolt on. What am I missing? Did I get the wrong year Forester struts, or do I need to swap out top hats or something? Maybe I should've just gone with '98 Outback struts/springs? Thanks so much for the help! :) Edited March 22, 2017 by pooooobaru Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreaseMonkey03 Posted March 22, 2017 Share Posted March 22, 2017 Outback struts would be your best bet. You can swap strut tops if they are different but the brake lines attach differently. You can work with what you have though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pooooobaru Posted March 22, 2017 Author Share Posted March 22, 2017 Outback struts would be your best bet. You can swap strut tops if they are different but the brake lines attach differently. You can work with what you have though. Thanks for the reply. Should both Legacy (non-Outback) and Outback from this generation have the same strut tops? Maybe I can go with KYB struts for a '98 Outback and just re-use my existing springs. Wondering if anyone else has done Forester struts onto a Legacy (non-Outback), and if top hats needed to be swapped? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdventureSubaru Posted March 23, 2017 Share Posted March 23, 2017 05 Forester will bolt right in. The exception may be that the rear tophats from your legacy may need to be swapped onto the rear struts like an Impreza. But I don't think so. 1998-2008 Forester struts are all the same essentially. 04+ is slightly taller I think. This is easy as a DIY job. Just make sure to disconnect the swaybars. Or if you're sure you need a shop to do it, find another shop. I have a 98 Legacy sitting on Forester suspension in my driveway right now. It was all a direct bolt in affair. Took me 2 hours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pooooobaru Posted March 23, 2017 Author Share Posted March 23, 2017 05 Forester will bolt right in. The exception may be that the rear tophats from your legacy may need to be swapped onto the rear struts like an Impreza. But I don't think so. 1998-2008 Forester struts are all the same essentially. 04+ is slightly taller I think. This is easy as a DIY job. Just make sure to disconnect the swaybars. Or if you're sure you need a shop to do it, find another shop. I have a 98 Legacy sitting on Forester suspension in my driveway right now. It was all a direct bolt in affair. Took me 2 hours. Cool, thanks very much for the reply. This is encouraging. Not sure what the shop's deal is. Maybe I was sent the wrong parts. Guess I'll check it out when the car is back home and try to do the swap myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
86BRATMAN Posted March 23, 2017 Share Posted March 23, 2017 Maybe post some pics of the strut assemblies when you get them back. We're pretty good around here, we'll be able to tell if you got the wrong parts. Having lifted a couple 2nd generation legacys I can tell you that forester all 98-08 forester struts are a direct bolt in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pooooobaru Posted March 23, 2017 Author Share Posted March 23, 2017 Maybe post some pics of the strut assemblies when you get them back. We're pretty good around here, we'll be able to tell if you got the wrong parts. Having lifted a couple 2nd generation legacys I can tell you that forester all 98-08 forester struts are a direct bolt in. Cool, I will do that! Thanks for the reply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted March 23, 2017 Share Posted March 23, 2017 Forester is impreza based and the rear top hat has a bolt pattern that matches the 90-94 Legacy bolt pattern would be my guess. The struts will swap but the top hats will not (in the rear). GD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
86BRATMAN Posted March 23, 2017 Share Posted March 23, 2017 (edited) All of the 98-08 foresters use the 95-99 legacy/02-07 impreza top hat pattern. Only the 90-94 legacy and 93-01 impreza use the smaller rear pattern. Edited March 23, 2017 by 86BRATMAN 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtdash Posted March 23, 2017 Share Posted March 23, 2017 (edited) Why wouldn't they fit? What did the shop tell you?.Or just..find another shop... There should be P/N's on the strut portion, which will tell you what they are were 'sposed to fit. But if struts are USED it doesn't mean the top hats are matching, though. Yup - bolt-in. You'll need to get a long pry bar to lever down the control arm, etc to fit them in, and may want a helper. And, YES, it'll still align fine. If you do it yourself, read up on the front TOP strut bolt (where it attaches to knuckle). It's used for Camber adj....mark the bolt head before removal, put it back where you found it, and usually your alignment is really close (assuming it was good b4). . Edited March 25, 2017 by wtdash Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pooooobaru Posted March 24, 2017 Author Share Posted March 24, 2017 (edited) Why wouldn't they fit? What did the shop tell you?.Or just..find another shop... There should be P/N's on the strut portion, which will tell you what they are were 'sposed to fit. But doesn't mean the top hats are matching, though. Yup - bolt-in. You'll need to get a long pry bar to lever down the control arm, etc to fit them in, and may want a helper. And, YES, it'll still align fine. If you do it yourself, read up on the front TOP strut bolt (where it attaches to knuckle). It's used for Camber adj....mark the bolt head before removal, put it back where you found it, and usually your alignment is really close (assuming it was good b4). Guy at shop said top hat was different. But I get home and turns out he didn't even open up the box that the fronts were in. :/ Sooo... I'm sure I could do this myself if the parts are correct. I bought fully loaded strut assemblies (price wasn't much more than struts alone) as I didn't want to mess around with a spring compressor if I were to do the install myself. FCS part numbers 1331583L, 1331583R, 1331747L, 1331747R—everywhere I look these fit an 05 Forester (and other years as mentioned). Here are some pics, as requested above. Do these look right? Tomorrow I'll take a look and see if these fit. Front: Rear: Thanks for the help everyone, really appreciate it. Edited March 24, 2017 by pooooobaru Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
86BRATMAN Posted March 24, 2017 Share Posted March 24, 2017 Those look 100% correct. The only side note I can give on installation that hasn't been mentioned is that your brake lines won't mount like they do from the factory. The newer lines bolt to the strut instead of being held with a clip, I've used zip ties in the past to hold the brake line to the strut when fitting newer struts to older cars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdventureSubaru Posted March 24, 2017 Share Posted March 24, 2017 Looks great. I second the zip ties. Put them in yourself and save some $$$. You have to use a little muscle and creativity when bolting the spindle in. I used a steel pipe as a pry bar and knelt on it to slowly move the control arm where I needed it to go last time. Your stock tires will look little afterwards. I put 225 70 15s under my legacy and they work great. had that size on my old lifted impreza. Put AT 215 75 15s under another legacy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtdash Posted March 24, 2017 Share Posted March 24, 2017 (edited) BTW, you'll likely need to cut the bracket around the brake line.DO NOT bother w/removing the brake lines...you'll then you have to bleeeeeeed the brakes...PITA and totally unnecessary. Remove the clips, Get a hacksaw, cut a slit, bend the slits opposite and slide out the line - hold it out of the way while you're swapping and see above to Zip it back....No Prob. Edited April 29, 2017 by wtdash Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pooooobaru Posted March 25, 2017 Author Share Posted March 25, 2017 Thanks everyone for the help and input. Install took a couple hours—was pretty easy. Carefully cut the mount holding the brake lines. The new struts had clips so no zip ties were necessary for me (although we do have plenty of zip ties elsewhere on the car!) Disconnecting the sway bars helped a lot. Found some Outback wheels at a local junkyard and threw them on, and made a slight modification to the front bumper. Here's a before and after: Before After Gonna throw a skid plate on it and some General Grabbers and take this thing off road! Thanks again! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olnick Posted March 25, 2017 Share Posted March 25, 2017 Love your before & after pix--looks great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdventureSubaru Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 Looks great. Well done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pooooobaru Posted March 27, 2017 Author Share Posted March 27, 2017 Looks great. Well done. Thanks y'all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pooooobaru Posted May 2, 2017 Author Share Posted May 2, 2017 (edited) Thought I'd just add an update to this post. Here is a newer pic of our ol' battlewagon, and a little video I put together on the car! Thanks again for the help here. Video: Looking back it's pretty dumb that we were going to have a shop do the install since it was so easy! They did a fine job on a bunch of other work they did but apparently don't know anything about lifting Subarus Edited May 2, 2017 by pooooobaru 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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