Polyurethane Radiator Support Mounts (Cab Also)

Us 2nd gen owners have been long misled about poly cab mount bushings for our trucks and their availability or lack thereof of them. It turns out Energy out of all companies makes a kit for our trucks and it has been known by some members but it has not been very well publicized for the masses to know. If you want all new poly cab mount bushings for your trucks you will need two kits (one is to replace the very soft and prone to tons of flex radiator support mounts) all readily available from tons of places. Amazon, newegg, summit racing, eBay, take your pick.

(Small disclaimer) you receive radiator support bushings with the

$103 8.4109G Body Mount Set-Reg, Access & Dbl Cab

8.4109G BUT they provide less surface area for the body to mount on. They are also much softer then the

$28 9.4101G UNIVERSAL MOUNT

9.4101G bushings which is why I recommend the 9.4101G bushings. Also, I strongly recommend inverting the bushings so you sandwich the thick part of it in between the frame and the body for maximum bumper to fender clearance.

Energy part numbers:
9.4101G (Radiator support cab mount bushings)
8.4109G (Cab mount bushings)

Edit: One more thing, you should be installing the bushings like this to attain the most fender to bumper clearance if you have an offroad bumper and for the max bushing strength. Upside down.



Attached is a link and a how-to on how to do the cab mounts and the rad support bushings. If you would like to see pictures for install aid, this thread is definitely a good one to check out. Shout out to @58 Siesta for making this thread as a follow up to this one!
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/body-mount-bushing-install-now-with-pictures.432885/

Happy modding

EDIT, and UPDATE:

After 22 pages of heated debate over which side to use over the other, I just went out to the old bushings and took some measurements and compared them to the new ones, particularly the larger "puck" style bushings on the 94101.G kit, since this is the way I advised members to run it originally to retain close to stock thickness. Please refer to the bolder and underlined text for the consensus.

Measurements are as follows:
- Stock upper radiator support bushing thickness: .9375" or 15/16"
- Polyurethane kit supplied washers are about 1/8" or .125"
- Polyurethane "puck" bushing WITHOUT supplied washer thickness: .750" or 3/4" (WITH washer = 7/8" (.8750")
- Polyurethane smaller bushing WITHOUT supplied washer thickness .4375" or 7/16" (WITH washer = 9/16 .5625")
Footnote: .5625" is not close enough in thickness using OE as the baseline thickness upper bushing to run as the sandwich bushing between the radiator support and the frame.

- Stock overall bushing assembly height off vehicle: 2 1/8" or 2.125"
- Polyurethane overall bushing assembly height off vehicle WITHOUT washers = 1 1/4" or 1.25" (WITH washers = About 1 7⁄16" or 1.4375")

Thoughts on overall height assembly: The overall height is not as important as the actual height of the sandwich bushing between the radiator support and the frame, the lower one is just there as finishing link to the assembly. Moral of the story is, use the thicker "puck" bushing on the top with the supplied washers.

Final Disclaimer(yet again): If you run the thicker bushing at the top it will give your body front end (firewall and on forward) a lift over the height the OE bushing runs at. Run this bushing assembly as you see fit.

 

If you wheel at all. You may want to strongly consider switching out your radiator support mounts. There is too much stress being applied to the inner sleeve on the rubber bushings causing this, here is mine at 42K:



The replacements:



Installed and much more movement free:

 

Just received these





I find it really funny how I called Energy not too long ago to ask them if they made body mount bushing kits for 05-up Tacoma and their response was no, yet these instructions SPECIFICALLY state they are for 05-13 Tacoma. Well regardless. They look real stout.

 

Thanks for posting this, added to my ever-growing list of things to do. I'm closing in on 100k miles and am slowly working through the truck replacing the wearable parts.


Guess it needs to be LED or bed rack related to get some love around here...

 

How hard was it to switch out the radiator support mounts? Just unbolt and swap, or got to remove the radiator and all the fun stuff?

 

Great thread OP!

I just had a great convo with Daystar, and was curious about their Poly Kits well. You'd be surprised how many "Mystery Pops 'n Clicks" the body and support bushings can cause.

 

You would be surprised how fast these wear out even if you mildly wheel or not and how garbage these bushings are honestly.

A basic unbolt and swap if you have a plate or tube bumper. Very easy to do with basic tools. Even faster if you have a cordless gun and some sockets.

I'm severely disappointed with how junky these front end bushings were. Had I had known that they were this bad from the get go, I'm pretty sure I could had avoided a lot of the damage I have done to my core support now. Thanks for the kudos Ben!

 

Could you give some more details about them, why they suck. I'm surprised, I've never had any bad experiences with Energy Suspension over the years.
Were they too soft? Maybe you could contact them and they can use your info to improve them.

What's your next step? Back to stock, or a more solid compound?

 

I think the pictures make it pretty self explanatory don't you think?

As far as to why they suck, the stock ones are very soft rubber. I noticed they tended to shift around on the radiator support a lot as I would just drive it even in the city. Upon removing them, the pictures above shows what I found. In an effort to more solidly mount the radiator support and keep it from jumping around during any type of driving I replaced them with poly and there is virtually no slack or movement in there now all the while still having something in between the frame and the body to absorb shock. There is no way I would ever use stock bushings for that particular portion of the bushings again. Not after that experience and my findings.

Who are you referring to as far as contacting? Toyota?

EDIT: I caught what you were talking about. I am not referring to energy at all. I am referring to the stock bushings. They suck. Energy bushings is the way to go with these trucks body mount bushings, particularly the radiator support. In all my years of using polyurethane, they have always been great, and this is no exception.

 

I'm on the same page now.
I knew the factory ones were crap. I thought you were saying you already wore through the ES bushings since your response took 4 months.

 

Ah.. Lol. No way. These are awesome!

 

Sub'd

 

I should note that in order to increase bumper to fender clearance I ended up flipping the the bushings on both sides a full 180* so the largest bushing sits above the frame instead of below it (sandwiched between the rad support and the frame). The small bushing sits beneath the frame now.

That IS the largest height you can take it too though, if you go higher then that the fan will rub on the shroud. (Ask me how I know. Lol.)

 

Do you have any pictures of the difference in clearance between the larger one on top and the smaller one on top?

 

Mm... no, but i could go take a picture if you want to see the difference?

 

If it's not too much to ask for it be great. I need to replace mine soon.

 

More like now. Lol. I'll go snap some pics real quick. Give me a bit here.

 

Here is a close up of how I have them mounted now. Provides more fender to bumper clearance. Does not affect the overall integrity or strength of the bushing either.



This is why you need to do this mod. To prevent this bullcrap right here from happening. Notice the large rips.





@Sje1124

 

Geeze that's nuts. How much more clearance do you get? I need some more clearance for my bumper lol.

 

If you space out your bumper from the bottom two tabs that bolt up to the frame at the lowest mounting point of the plate bumper via large thick washers (you can space those I BELIEVE up to 1/4 if not 1/2 without modifying the bumper slots, at least with mine.) You can get an additional 1/4 to 1/2 of spacing between your bumper and the fenders. Good for you if you like to flex when you wheel, which it appears to me as if you do.