Matt's Levorg (Photo Heavy!)

[dubswagen]

Found some STi shocks to replace the horrible B6 Bilsteins.
Again, these were found cheap-as-chips on Marketplace:

Before/After:

The ride is so much improved over the Bilsteins in every way. Acceleration is smoother, braking doesn't nose-dive the car and entry into corners doesn't feel like you're going about to do a barrel-roll.

I was tossing up between WRX and STi shocks but after hearing reports the WRX shocks still bottomed-out on big bumps, I went for the STi.
Conversely, I had also read that the STi shocks were almost "too" stiff amongst owners of the WRX/STi platform so this was a bit of a gamble but it has worked in my opinion. I can respect that they might not be to everyone's taste for ride quality, they are stiffer of course but far from unbearable.

STI front spring rates 5.8 kg/mm STI rear spring rates 5.3kg/mm.
Again, they're not far off what most coilovers would feel like (Coils usually start around 6kg/mm F & 6kg/mm R and up to 7 or even 8kg/mm), I have Ohlins in my track STi and these are not far off the softer side of those.
It does take some getting used to, coming from the noodles that were in there prior but after deflating the tyre pressures a bit (these were at 39psi!), I've come to really like them.

Car sticks to the road really nicely. I think larger rear sway bar would benefit the car immensely if you wanted to give it a little more attack on cornering. I'm probably at a fork in the road now as far as pushing the Levorg to become a bit more capable on road or try to ease it back for more comfort. Id still like to lower the car with aftermarket springs but don't really want to have to put higher spring rates in there so will keep looking at options there.

RSR make both a 10-15mm lowering kit with 5.42/6.43kg/mm (F/R) RSR and a 5.87/6.43 Ti2000 set while the ever-popular RCE yellows are about 6.5/6.4. The RSR 5.42kg/mm front and 6.43kg rear springs would probably be the sweet spot here for a daily I reckon.

Thanks for the info.
Any idea what the spring rates are for the stock yellow Bilsteins? Can't wait to change them out.

 

[CParker]

I have an iDoing headunit in my hatch and the unit in the Levorg is actually just a cheaper AliExpress unit.
The iDoing equivalent for the Levorg was over $900 and the cheaper AliExpress unit I paid about $450 for.

View attachment 1988
Link: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005634638378.html

I wanted to get a comparison between the two as the price was half that of the iDoing and saved me $450 NZD.

Result : Absolutely happy with the AliExpress unit. I would never go back to iDoing for the money I saved.
Support from the company I bought it from was great. They sent out a replacement faceplate as the one I had wasn't correct for my model and were very quick to help with a couple of troubleshooting issues with reverse camera.

Do you think its worth going for the 8gb over the 4gb given the $200 NZD difference? (Only planning on using apple carplay and maybe the occasional screen mirroring)