What the hell did I do to my truck?

Hey All,

Traded in my 2012 T4R for a 2018 TRD OR on memorial day and finally found the time this weekend to hit some dirt. Went out to sheep's bridge outside of Phoenix and hung out there for a bit. On the way back I started noticing the rear shocks were bottoming out a bit, which didn't happen on the way down. A few miles of washboard road later and I hear a giant pop. I go out see that my rear passenger shock had blown, shock fluid was all over the inside of the wheel well and the boot was down around the bottom of the shock. Made it back with no other issues but I'm sitting here thinking: what the hell happened?

I've never seen this before. I spent the last few days researching to see what could have happened. I didn't hit any rocks, the shock looks like it's in good shape (beyond the boot being shaken loose). I'm not an experienced wheeler by any means, but I don't think I was doing anything crazy. Did the shock bottoming out cause this? Did it overheat? If this was some dumb shit I did, what do I do to not do this again? If this wasn't something I did then what are my next steps?

 

Welcome to TW!
Washboard roads are horrible on shocks. They super heat the oil in the shock causing extreme failure. We're you aired down at all?
Take it a little slower next time and stop for 15 to 20 minutes about every half hour to hour to let the shocks cool down some.
Edit. You experience what is know as "shock fade" as the oil gets heated up it has less of a dampening affect. Causing the shock to bottom out.
Throw on some bilstein 5100's for a slight upgrade.

 

Is there any kind of lift in the rear or is it all stock?

 

Thanks, and thanks for the help! I didn't air down at all, that may have contributed. I'll be honest I wasn't expecting it to be as rutted as it was. It was also 108 on my way back up, so overheating wouldn't surprise me.

Bone Stock

 

Yep, it is heating up out in the desert. You should be covered if you take it to Toyota. I went with the 5100s, on my 17 Sport, because of the wash board type roads out here around Phoenix and Vegas.

 

Shock's oil overheated and the shock blew. Common.

 

I was thinking i would eventually move to those. Did you upgrade anything other than shocks?

That... is spot on. okay, wow, thanks for that man. That'll help me justify better shocks!

 

Having a broken one should justify it anyway. You shouldn't need anything other than the shocks unless you plan on lifting the truck.

 

Not lifting, at least not anytime soon. I'll look into those more. Thanks for the help man, you and everyone made this easy!

 

I went with the OME 2887 front coil springs. and a 3 leaf progressive add a leaf in the rear. You can change the shocks with out upgrading anything else. The rear shocks are super simple, however, the front shocks are inside the coilover assembly and it is more involved. So if you are considering upgrading the coil springs in the future you will have to factor that in.

 

hopefully the dealer will take care of it for you..

 

Washboard is killer on shocks and airing down is the most effective way to help deal with it. I didn't want to lift my truck at all, but still put on a full set of Icon's with resi's just to handle the heat that washboard desert trails generate. You dont have to lift your truck to get good suspension. If you plan on doing more desert exploring with your truck, I would recommend something beefier than the stock suspension. Either that, or slow down.

 

Shock overheated. Time for some good ones!

 

If you like the ride and handling of the truck I'd check that the other 3 are fine and get a replacement. Being that it's relatively new it is likely just a defective shock, it happens. A rough road will expose any flaw promptly.

I've been running the OEM Bilsteins on my 2010 truck since new. 70k miles now, a solid 5k of which have been on very rough maintained FSRs. No issues, still rides and handles well. I go 2-3 hours without stopping and it gets pretty damn hot here in the summer months, never bothered to air down either.