Looking for help with my front 5100 bilsten struts / bottoming out

Hey everyone. I am having problems with my new 5100 adjustable stirs. They are set at the factory stock notch in which the tuff country lift says to use a stock length strut and I can not drive over any bumps or even off road through dirt roads without them bottoming the strut out. I only have around 1,000 miles on them. My old struts didn't bottom out but there were squishy . Can you help me out? I have all new lower control arm bushings pre loaded, tie rod ends sway bar links all my ball joints are right.

 

You have a tough country spacer lift, factory coil, and 5100 shock correct?

 

Yes I do.

 

Tuff country told me that when replacing the front struts to use a factory length strut. So I went down to a lift shop and they ordered me the 5100s and said that on the lowest setting they would be at stock length the truck is a little stiff on normal driving conditioned but when I hit holes or gravel roads it slams
I'll post a quick stop and go video

 

Spacer I would reckon is causing the problem.

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NX2LbYkLwvM

 

The struts before that came with the lifer are oem replacements and it calls out for stock struts with this lift. So the bilsten's say that at the lowest setting would be stock length

 

Wait I'm lost. You bought height adjustable shocks only to put a spacer on?

 

When I had my 03 TRD the springs sucked. As you can see at the top of the coil the progressive coils are collapsed. That being said I would get a lift coil or a replacement coil and utilize the 5100 shock and ditch the spacer.

 

No I bought a 2002 Tacoma trd auto tranny that came with a " 5 inch tuff country lift system . The lift is a db lift the front does use a 5 inch space that mounts to the top of the strut mount. So after buying the truck within a couple months the rear shocks went out and started leaking. So I called up dunks performance out of Springfield Oregon and I told them I wanted some 5100s they ordered them and installed them for me. They only installed them cause they forget to have the correct bushing ordered for mounting. So they offered to install them for free and just drill out the bushing. So that all went good. I explained to them that I want to replace the front struts with the 5100s as well . So being that the truck was already lifted with that top 5 inch spacer there wasn't any bilsten's with the right lengths compressed or extended . ( cause the lift calls for installing factory length struts. Retaining the old factory ones of replacing new one was the options ). So dunks said that adjustable 5100s ones can be set at stock length to get the right lengths. Even the bilsten video talks about how they can be set at stock hight. So I took them and had them installed by a professional who I use for all other major work.

 

From what I have gathered there is not a spring that is going to be long enough to go with a adjustable shop that only lifts 2 and a half inches , when you have a 5 inch lift and you got a longer spring them the shock would be to short . I don't have the money to keep dumping into it. I replaced them has I was told it would work. And now five shops have not a clue what to do. I got told it was the lower control arm bushings so I replaced them and torqued them to oem . Pre loaded them before . I also installed outer tie rod ends one was getting bad so I just replaced both with moog . I also replaced the sway bar links. All my ball joints are money and I had it aligned .I had Toyota OEM seals and front wheelbearings put in it. The front only has 5000 miles on the front brakes and rotors.

 

For the recorded I have owned a 1983 hiked all my life so this ifs and spacer lift stuff makes no sense. And it seems shops are stumped to . Should I just get a set of oem Toyota springs for 265? Tuff country says retain old struts. I mean that's a no brainer.

 

old struts tough country?

 

The spring you have is the factory TRD progressive rate spring. You can see that the spring is sagged quite a bit. You can get a set of Moog 460# non TRD coils from Rock auto for less than a $75. That's what I did and it improved the ride considerably.

 

From video I'd say you ran out of coil , the Bilstein doesn't appear to be bottoming out, the coil in vid looks extremely tired, I'd dump the spacer & get some other after market coil (Eibach/toytec or OME) get lift from that..

 

Dropping the spacer would mean new longer struts as well as a spring . That's what I have been told. And they don't make a spring that's going to lift the truck 5 inches . If there was one them the strut I have would not me long enough. Correct??? The ski stable length on them is on 2.5 total

 

What if I replace them with oem tacoma springs? I know they cost more than the price your talking about with the moogs...
Also why didn't it do this when I had the ols stirs in there? It way worse now

 

Well, if spacers don't bother you, why not just do the 5100's w/eibach or OME coils & a body lift ?? It'd give you the 5" you want I'd think....

 

You need to adjust your bump stops to compensate for the 5" lift. You may have tired springs, but you definitely have bump stops that are 5" too short

 

The lift did not need bump stops they told me. I agree with you... But what's going to keep them from hitting hard all day long on a back road hitting slamming on bump stops. Like I said the the stirs that came with the truck didn't bottom out . They were squishy but did not slam all the time .