[JorisR]

Well, I finished installing the whole lot onto the car. It is pretty easy when you don’t mind getting your hands dirty. It is all bolt on basicly.
Pro tip: I used the google app which contains google glass. You use your phone camera and point it towards the Japanese written guidelines. It translates it on the spot in your mother tongue. Easy!

Result:

my car has all the plastic undercovers, which is standard in Europe. I am not sure if this goes for every part of the world.
If you look closely, you can see a cutout I made in one of the covers to make room for the rear draw stiffener. Wasn’t hard with a rotating cutter, but be aware the cover won’t fit otherwise.

so, do I like it? In short: Yes I do! For reference: my car chassis is completely stock except these parts. (Tires are Michelin Pilot S4).

• flexible tower strut bar (SG517FG101)
• support front kit (ST20106ZR000)
• flexible low stiffener (ST20118ZR000)
• flexible support rear (ST20156ZR000)
• flexible draw stiffener rear (ST20168ZR000)

Comfort has increased, the road ‘feels’ smoother when hitting bumps and potholes. Some of the roads I drive daily now feel smoother for sure.

Turn in has increased a lot, the whole car seems sharper. You can place the car on the road where you want it, very nice. Long bends give more confidence, short turns can be achieved at higher speed. The car will understeer like before, but you feel it introducing itself better now.

and then the party piece: accelerating out of a corner (or roundabout). I found that I can hit the throttle a LOT sooner and then it just gooeesss. Entertainment! It surely is one of the reasons the S206 laptimes are so good.

STi did a class job with this stuff. To bad it is so expensive, otherwise it should come as standard in my opinion.

now I do wish for the lateral links, longer subframe bolts and rigid collars. Oh, and some nice 19” wheels with pilot super sports. But first: some more driving to get used to the new limits.

 

[dlheman]

Well, I finished installing the whole lot onto the car. It is pretty easy when you don’t mind getting your hands dirty. It is all bolt on basicly.
Pro tip: I used the google app which contains google glass. You use your phone camera and point it towards the Japanese written guidelines. It translates it on the spot in your mother tongue. Easy!

Result:

my car has all the plastic undercovers, which is standard in Europe. I am not sure if this goes for every part of the world.
If you look closely, you can see a cutout I made in one of the covers to make room for the rear draw stiffener. Wasn’t hard with a rotating cutter, but be aware the cover won’t fit otherwise.

so, do I like it? In short: Yes I do! For reference: my car chassis is completely stock except these parts. (Tires are Michelin Pilot S4).

• flexible tower strut bar (SG517FG101)
• support front kit (ST20106ZR000)
• flexible low stiffener (ST20118ZR000)
• flexible support rear (ST20156ZR000)
• flexible draw stiffener rear (ST20168ZR000)

Comfort has increased, the road ‘feels’ smoother when hitting bumps and potholes. Some of the roads I drive daily now feel smoother for sure.

Turn in has increased a lot, the whole car seems sharper. You can place the car on the road where you want it, very nice. Long bends give more confidence, short turns can be achieved at higher speed. The car will understeer like before, but you feel it introducing itself better now.

and then the party piece: accelerating out of a corner (or roundabout). I found that I can hit the throttle a LOT sooner and then it just gooeesss. Entertainment! It surely is one of the reasons the S206 laptimes are so good.

STi did a class job with this stuff. To bad it is so expensive, otherwise it should come as standard in my opinion.

now I do wish for the lateral links, longer subframe bolts and rigid collars. Oh, and some nice 19” wheels with pilot super sports. But first: some more driving to get used to the new limits.

I am glad that you like it!

And yes I agree that the should have come standard with the kit. Everything you described is as exactly how I felt about my car; comfortable and yet sharp and precise. It makes an enjoyable car to fang around the bend. I rather spend on these kits than coilover and/or swaybar if budget is limited.

The rear end will be better again once you added the rear lateral link. More feel as to what is going on back there hence more predictable when carrying speed.

The Rigid Collar and the S206 bolts will further improve the comfort and road holding especially during bump. It makes the chassis feels ‘boxed’ together.

Don’t forget the AVO adjustable endlinks. They will improve the comfort again and added better steering balance similar to corner weighing via coilover. Better suspension movement especially the rear as it removes unnecessary stiffness due to swaybar pre-loading.

Have fun!

 

[JorisR]

he AVO endlinks are also on the wishlist, I will have to see what to buy in which order. I am already loving this setup, it will be amazing to see it improve further.

the best thing now is I am driving a great handling car with a pretty high level of comfort. I understand the people stiffening up the whole car (I did this for years), but now that I am a bit older I am really appreciative of the comfort factor.

Thank you for sharing all of your experience with this system, even after a few years it helped me a lot in making a decision about my setup. Much appreciated! To be continued.

 

[dlheman]

If I have to choose which to get next, I will choose the AVO adjustable endlinks.

The way the OEM rear endlink is fitted is as if it is deliberately design to have pre-load. You will know this if you see the car up on alignment bed and see that the rear endlink is actually angled towards the front of the car, meaning, the hole on the swaybar is actually a bit further forward than the control arm. It is this that caused the majority of the stiffness at the back and it will be severe if you upgrade to bigger swaybar.

And as I have mentioned before, by removing that swaybar pre-load you can now (or rather have to) increase the rear tire pressure from standard 27psi all the way to 31psi - and it is still more comfortable than standard as now the rear suspension can act more independently, while the front provides equal steering balance between left and right. Obviously it needs to be correctly installed but I am sure you can do it

Enjoy!

 

[JorisR]

Installing won’t be the problem. For the first time I promised myself I would just take the STi to the dealership for maintenance. And that would be it.
But here I am, modding again haha.

I found these numbers for the AVO endlinks:

• S2C07G1HUBO1J (front)
• S2B03G1GUB55J (rear)

Are these the ones you recommended? They do look promising. This topic is horrible for my wallet.

 

[dlheman]

Installing won’t be the problem. For the first time I promised myself I would just take the STi to the dealership for maintenance. And that would be it.
But here I am, modding again haha.

I found these numbers for the AVO endlinks:

• S2C07G1HUBO1J (front)
• S2B03G1GUB55J (rear)

Are these the ones you recommended? They do look promising. This topic is horrible for my wallet.

Actually on AVO Turbo Japan website:

S2C07G1HUBO1J is for the rear (85mm to 95mm center to center adjustment).

S2B03G1GUB55J is for the front (55mm to 65mm center to center adjustment).

Those are the sets which I have on my car. They work flawlessly (believe me I have other brands that do not work as well or just don’t work at all).

Note: while the rear pillowball mount allows articulations up to 30 degrees, they will not reach Superpro rear swaybar on soft setting. I don’t know if it will work on other rear swaybars which offers three settings, so please view the AVO rear endlinks to work on oem rear swaybar or on medium setting on rear swaybars which offers three settings.

 

[JorisR]

I made a mistake naming the front/rear I see, but the numbers are fortunately correct! Thanks for confirming.

I am planning on keeping the OEM sways, I believe they fit the same bars on the real S206. So, I will keep it the way it was designed. No problems to expect then

Still loving the ride, this is great!

 

[dlheman]

Yeap.

I am still on standard swaybar also. Works perfectly fine.

 

[dlheman]

Since I got my car serviced today, I took a couple of photos from underneath the car to show you what I meant by the rear endlink tilted towards the front of the car.

 

[JorisR]

Thanks, very clear indeed! I have been looking into several competitors on the market, but I have to agree the AVO endlinks look like the best option.

I did have kartboy endlinks before on the wrx. I know about whiteline and all, but AVO was new for me. Removing the preload and having a pillowball that can take the angle involved must be good. I will surely post my findings when they are installed.

On the chassis parts: I found that when I am really pushing in corners you will still understeer the car. The thing is, you feel it coming now. This is great, the limit is much clearer now it seems. You can really play with the limits of grip.

PS. That underbody is just as clean as my car I see.

 

[dlheman]

Yeap the bottom mount needs to be able to allow the endlink to tilt following the movement of the control arm (this is why the oem rear endlink bushing is soft). And that is not possible when using a strong polyurethane bushing as its movement is very limited, if at all; which caused unnecessary stiffness and makes the rear end unpredictable and very nervous when bigger bar is used.

So if your idea of swaybar is to only work during cornering - you want a rear endlink with double balljoint.

Ahaha yeah I need to wash the underbody of the car.

 

[dlheman]

Just more tips to install adjust the adjustable endlink on standard height car to maintain the swaybar angle as OEM intended.

Note that this can only work for as long as the adjustable endlink is at safe operating range (see manual).

1. Leave one side with the oem endlink as reference.

2. Install the adjustable endlink and adjust the height to free the pre-load.*

3. Replaced the reference oem endlink with the other adjustable endlink and set the height so the balljoint enters the swaybar without force.*

* For AVO type you simply turn the balljoint, but for Whiteline type you adjust from the turnbuckle (be sure top and bottom threads are equal).

If the car is lowered and the endlink is shorter, I first identify which side is reference and which side is adjusted. The reference side is set to be as short as possible (allows maximum strength of the endlink). When using the AVO leave some room so I can insert a wrench to tighten the locking nut.

I also like to account for driver in the car and half tank of fuel when adjusting the endlinks. But you can decide on this on your own.

And please Make sure the balljoint is dead center.

 

[JorisR]

I hope to receive the AVO endlinks end of this year, thank you for all the extra info and tips! You are a great help with this.

Today I used too much throttle (on purpose) in a tight corner in the wet. The car wanted to break out but regained it’s traction towards where I was pointing the wheels. The control has increased so much, I am really getting more enthusiastic with the hour I am driving the car.

 

[dlheman]

Yeah the handling of the car becomes easy to predict eh? And the limit is communicated well before, which makes it more playful to drive than standard.

The understeer is still there at the limit of course, but setting up the car for that initial turn in is easier and yes throttle can be applied sooner as result for corner exit blast out. The use of Auto minus on differential control makes it even better and help minimize the understeer.

 

[JorisR]

Yeah, the setup is definitely made for understeer. For non-Hamilton’s like us it is much preferred over snap oversteer, no shame in that. My previous car was much more neutral, but also more unpredictable because of that. I found myself making a 180 on a highway exit once, scary. The back had just a fraction of grip loss which resulted in snap oversteer.

The traction makes it great, you just pull the car into the track you want. Like you said before somewhere in this topic: point and shoot. It gives loads of confidence.

 

[dlheman]

Wow, 180 spin on highway is a big danger.

And that is why to me a car should not be edgy to drive as it is unsafe and puts unnecessary stress to the driver. Understeer at limit is definitely preferred but that limit should not be reached too soon.

What tire pressure are you on right now?

 

[JorisR]

That was definitely a scary moment, luckily I could catch it before I hit a barrier. But I was facing the wrong way on a long exit road. Due to some local water and going too fast the car responded with oversteer. All ended well, lesson learned.

Currently I am on stock wheels with Michelin pilot sport 4 tires (245/40R18) with the recommended pressures as on the placard on the car. Although I check the pressure every month... I have more cars, not 100% sure what it is now that you ask me.

i will check it to be sure.

 

[dlheman]

Ah yes. Pilot Sport 4 tires.

I drove a friend's STI which is stock with Pilot Sport 4. While it is comfortable, I don't think that is the right tire for the car as it feels like the tire is too soft vs the shocks/spring. To me it does not feel like the tire is in-tune with the chassis and suspension. The OEM Dunlop is stiffer and that is the kind of tire that is correct for the suspension with the recommended OEM tire pressure.

Can you please let me know what is the recommended tire pressure? My UK Type is 2.3bar front and 1.9bar rear, which I can confirm is the same with the JPN model. US model runs 2.3bar all around I think, but for sure not 1.9bar rear and if the suspension is the same then no doubt that makes the car feels too stiff.

Speaking about tire pressure, when I was observing the STI's suspension I did some maths based on the tire load index and the STI's weight. If my memory serves me right, 1.9bar is the minimum the tire can take. To me that is too good to be coincidence and in my thinking Subaru have to go with the lowest pressure the rear can take in order to bring back some comfort to the ride.

Long story short, this is why you will appreciate the AVO rear adjustable endlink and I look forward to hear about your observation and experience with it on your car.

 

[JorisR]

This is the placard in the car. You are right: 2.3 front and 1.9 rear and 2.4 all around when “fully loaded with family and boxes”

I think I have put the back tires on 2.0, front 2.3. Does the wall percentage make a difference in pressure? 18” has 40% and 19” has 35% wall when driving with 245 rubber.

The current tires feel good to me, but I came from a pretty harsh setup with Potenza S001’s. That was great fun, but too much really. I replaced those tires with the Eagle F1 asymmetric 3, that helped a lot. But still... this is driving a Bentley compared to the previous setup.

I bought this car with these (almost new) tires, but am planning on a pilot super sports when I am going for 19x8,5j wheels. The OEM set will become the winter set.

When the endlinks are delivered I will update no doubt.

 

[eaglehunter]

Forgive me if this is something you already addressed earlier in this thread. I did read all of it but it was a long time ago and I cannot remember. Was the evo endlinks the reason you moved back from the 22mm superpro rear swaybar to stock again?