DerFahrer Posted October 23, 2003 Share Posted October 23, 2003 I am going to the Tampa Subaru Challenge tomorrow. It's an autocross event for Subarus, and only Subarus, of all forms and shapes. I planned on taking my Legacy and XT down there with a friend, but then my Legacy decided to get an attitude with me and start screwing up her wheelstuds (one stripped, one broken)... Anyway, I was washing my XT today to get ready to go down there and I looked at how high up the air suspension was sitting... Then I had a revelation! If I let the air out of all 4 struts and then pull the height control fuse, I could literally slam the car and corner like a go-kart!!! The front struts are easy, but the rears look to be more challengine to get to. What is the quickest way (remove some trim somewhere, I guess) to get to the valve on the top of the rear struts? Sorry for the novel... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TROGDOR! Posted October 23, 2003 Share Posted October 23, 2003 Jack it up, take the rear wheel off. Bingo. But beware... letting all the air out will make the car handle BAD. I drove one with flat air struts and it was bottoming out like crazy. I'm sure it made the handling a lot worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerFahrer Posted October 23, 2003 Author Share Posted October 23, 2003 Huh? Where is the cap that the hose attaches to? The fronts have a cap on top of the strut, just loosen it a little and let the air out... I'm looking for this cap on the rears, I would assume it's on the top as well, but I'm not sure... Trogdor, I probably won't let ALL the air out, just enough to really lower the stance. Furthermore, it will be on a mostly flat parking lot, few bumps. I'm going to drive it down there with air in them, and when I'm done autoX'ing, I'm going to put the fuse back in and let em fill up. This procedure is simply for the track... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
electryc_monk Posted October 24, 2003 Share Posted October 24, 2003 WARNING!!!!! OF rsafety sake DO NOT GO TO ZERO PSI in the rear! even one at zero PSI will result is drasticlally unsafe handling characteristics. Just for kicks I desided to see what an XT6 does with a single airsturt at zero as I know what a wagon handles like with a rear or front on zero. XT6 with air ride and a rear one that won't hold air is VERY hazzardous in corners and stopping. VERY HAZARDOUS. You see the wheel with the zero or absurdly low PSI has a near 100% habit of rising off the ground to near zero friction. this allows it to be the first to lock but as its a rear that raises forcing the "body roll" to the front. This is one wild diving feeling too! It feels like it is dropping even further then normal as the rear is riasing so high. So if your going into a left handed corner (and the left rear is low) then you have a highsiding rear end that points the front opposite corner out of the turn. The reason i say highsiding is its almost like the same feeling as a motorcycle gives as you go into a turn and the rear desides to loose contact with ground. I figurred out that the safeest method of keeping it driven safely on the road was locking the Rear diff and using the handbreak along with the engine braking.... Yes the obvious lowrider slam does occur too... denture removal slamming is nots very good for bumpy turns either... then you get the webble wobble feeling and thats just not fun at all. Experience was about 2 weeks of trying to figure out why the rear would (honestly) randomly loose PSI in one or both struts. Turns out the air lines that go into the solinoids (back side of the solinoids ) needed to be cleaned and the solinoids gasket/ O-ring thingy that goes between the strut mounting surface and the underside of the solinoid. PArt cast me $6 a piece to solve that problem last year. Oh and what ever you do don't lt them sit at full deflation for to long otherwise they will excellerate the wear with cracksnearest the "normal low" standing position and as such will not be long beofre you'll need to replace them. Tangent.. that being said I have been working on a manual override setup for each of the struts with a guage to set them up and that way be able to manually adjust each one - or as a pair to specific PSI for this of for that reason..... current estimation in parts is just over $50 for this project but it looks like it'll be closer to $100 for all the extra stuff. Oh and a side note for the actual Line that goes into the slinoid, the tire once its off covers a metal plate that uses two plstic sorta threaded screws at the top and on 10mm bolt at the bottom below the solinoid. These plastic screws are of the same design that the philips screws are for the door foot trim that clips over the carpet. the threaded washer that splitsout into 3 or 4 spread arms securing the screw in place.... yeah that design. I just twist a few times then end up pulling them out and when i reinstall them i just "push-pin" them back into the plastic washerlike threaded whole filler thingy. I'm eating and brain is focused on food so the name of the part is not coming to me at the moment sorry. (yeah its an excuse but eh) You can clean off the plastic hose once removed from the plug in port on the solinoid you could put a light coating of silicon sealant around the little tiny o-ring on the plastic air line and that also adds an extra layer of sealing protection as it ages and as winter set in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerFahrer Posted October 24, 2003 Author Share Posted October 24, 2003 Monk, warning taken. What I will probably do is before the run, I will deflate all 4 completely, then start it up and let the compressor fill em up for maybe 10 seconds or something like that. I wasn't planning on driving it at 0 psi anyway, because that would only make sense that it would be lowrider-bumpy and for sure cause damage... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
electryc_monk Posted October 24, 2003 Share Posted October 24, 2003 each rear strut has 2 seperate wire plugs..... the 2 pin plug is the activation of the solinoid the 4 pin plug is the multi-relay sensor connector (They tend to be in the little cavity between the metal frame and the plastic internal skin just in front of the rear seat top clippping area) there is enough wire slack to ease them both up and out to the edge of the plastic cabin molding for a "fast disconnect." Dis connect the solinoid first and then the bigger clip. if its not easy enough for you to get at from the back seat area with the seats folded down then crawl in thru the trunk :>) the rubber grommet that seals these wires and airline is VERY easy to reinstall if you end up popping it out of the fenderwell for the dissconnect. just (reasuring grin) don't forget to slip it back in. hehehe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hammer008 Posted August 28, 2004 Share Posted August 28, 2004 each rear strut has 2 seperate wire plugs..... the 2 pin plug is the activation of the solinoid the 4 pin plug is the multi-relay sensor connector just (reasuring grin) don't forget to slip it back in. hehehe Would unplugging the 2pin lock the air in the strut? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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