archemitis Posted October 15, 2004 Share Posted October 15, 2004 well, i just drove an xt6 for the first time, and it seems totaly different than any ea81 or 82 car. it doesnt wobble around on the road, or jitter, at certain speeds, goes straight =]. i know my cars, and the cars im refering to weretn in the best of condition, but they seem like night and day. my question is, if i put the 5 lug conversion on to my ea81 hatch, will it handle like this xt6? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WJM Posted October 15, 2004 Share Posted October 15, 2004 well, i just drove an xt6 for the first time, and it seems totaly different than any ea81 or 82 car. it doesnt wobble around on the road, or jitter, at certain speeds, goes straight =]. i know my cars, and the cars im refering to weretn in the best of condition, but they seem like night and day. my question is, if i put the 5 lug conversion on to my ea81 hatch, will it handle like this xt6? The XT6 has different suspension geomety vs EA81 car...but its not much different at all compared to an EA82 car...so a 5 lug would help the car some...but I dont think it would be an EA81+XT6 handling car... I know my GL-10 is t3h handling machine...but then again, its got all kinds of things done to it...it is toed OUT in the front..and IN on the rear...so the car is TOO stable... :-\ Really, the things that will help a car the MOST is a good set of tires, brakes all being equal, alignment set good, wheels in balance, and making sure that you've not got anything bent involving suspension parts...another thing is WORN out parts...like bushings, rod ends, ball joint and stuff...there really makes a car REALLY jittery......I know those things cost $ to get done, but when you are done, you will be very pleased. Sometime before the suby challenge I am going to toe the rear WAY out and set the front back to zero...should be rather tail happy then! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archemitis Posted October 15, 2004 Author Share Posted October 15, 2004 ya, i have new ball joints, tie rod ends, no axles up front to wobble, its as good as i can get it alighned, it just seems like all of the older subies hobble at certain speeds. i used to think it was just the crappy little 13 inch rims, but now i have 15 inchers, and its better, but not super duper cool, like i want it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gravelRX Posted October 15, 2004 Share Posted October 15, 2004 On the hatch the wheelbase is shorter so in the switchbacks and harder corners it may be a bit twitchy with the taunter suspension. My hatch had stiffer suspension and a bigger rear swaybar. Only part of driving it that gave me any pause was the long fast sweepers because it wanted to oversteer sharply. Mucho commitment to drift a bigger sweeping corner because the car would try to swap ends. If I had it to do over again I would try to balance the F and R swaybars better, But how it was set up was fun at any speed. I say do it and then get the balance to your liking. Regards, Jay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WJM Posted October 15, 2004 Share Posted October 15, 2004 ya, i have new ball joints, tie rod ends, no axles up front to wobble, its as good as i can get it alighned, it just seems like all of the older subies hobble at certain speeds. i used to think it was just the crappy little 13 inch rims, but now i have 15 inchers, and its better, but not super duper cool, like i want it. the only reason mine vibrates at all is the tires are slightly out of balance....but its really stable and smooth at 120MPH.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archemitis Posted October 15, 2004 Author Share Posted October 15, 2004 ya, my hatch with the aluminum pug 15s is good at 100, but down around 55-60 it vibrates, seems like the same deal with my ea82 wagon. i reely should just wait till one of these kids with an sti, or wrx wrecks this winter... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorganM Posted October 15, 2004 Share Posted October 15, 2004 the only reason mine vibrates at all is the tires are slightly out of balance....but its really stable and smooth at 120MPH.... Wheel balance really does help. I've had several vehicles have funny vibrations souly from wheel balance. My GL wagon when mud gets up in the rims; throws off teh balance and I can totaly tell. Gotta get them semi cleaned out before I hit the highway. My wife's Buick threw off the weights on one wheel; man it was terrible! Went through it on my Legacy too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danbob99 Posted October 15, 2004 Share Posted October 15, 2004 ohy, xt6 has the electronic power steering, continualy adjusting, stiffens at higher speeds, more power at very slow speeds etc. to keep the wheel from doing that jittering you speek of. I have the xt-6 stuff on my car, no huge handling imporvments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted October 15, 2004 Share Posted October 15, 2004 one of your rims could be bent or you could have a bad tire. next time you have anything done ask if their machine can check the wheels for out of roundness or bent spots. check for missing wheel weights, they can fall off. any dirt on inside your tires? mud? i would never do it, except that i have use of a free tire balancing machine. there are balancers that can analyze all 4 tires and all 4 wheels and tell you the best combination and best position of each wheel on which tire to give you the best balance before you even balance. then certain machines can balance the wheel as if it were loaded and running on the road. the one i uses has this function, it's a sweet machine. i haven't actually dont that, so i can't attest to any results. if it's AWD or 4WD, the drive shafts have caused vibration on every 4WD subaru i've owned (all XT6's). i drive alot off road, lock my transmissions transfer clutch often and drive lots of miles, so that's part of it. but the weak link in all of this has been the u joints. i just had my drive shafts rebuilt with replaceable/greasable ujoints after replacing 3 times with used units. i'm glad i did. drive shaft is easy enough to pull out - just some 10mm bolts on the XT6. drop it and i would be VERY surprised if your u joints were free and not lumpy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbone Posted October 15, 2004 Share Posted October 15, 2004 Besides everything else mentioned above, is the fact that the XT6 has massive anti-sway bars front and rear. The lowest center of gravity of all Soobs and the lowest air co-effiency. Not to mention the weight to power ratio Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subaru_styles Posted October 15, 2004 Share Posted October 15, 2004 so when you combine the xt6 and the EA82 you get the best of both worlds:brow: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tappermanor Posted October 15, 2004 Share Posted October 15, 2004 Very good points! Besides everything else mentioned above, is the fact that the XT6 has massive anti-sway bars front and rear. The lowest center of gravity of all Soobs and the lowest air co-effiency. Not to mention the weight to power ratio Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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