REVIEW 3rd gen suspension on 2nd gen

I ended up getting trd front suspension from a 2nd gen. No change in ride height from those. From everything I’ve read the stock 3rd gens ride about an inch higher overall. Also learned that 4cyl are a cast iron block and 6cyl and alloy block so they aren’t that far apart in weight. Sorry can’t weigh in on the need for ECGS bushing. That question mark was a large part of the reason why I went with second gen take offs

 

Glad you found a good solution with 2nd gen's. I will let you know what happens... unless I hear definitively that it will cause problems that are too costly or difficult to fix, I will install them and see what happens.

 

Best of luck! I think feedback would be helpful for other 4cyl folk considering the swap. If you live anywhere that uses road salt/brine or where things rust I highly recommend pre-treating bolts, especially the 3 that hold the top of the front assembly in. I did with pb blaster but not for long enough in advance and had to cut some off. A lot of people on here seem to recommend a 50/50 mix of acetone and atf fluid for rusted fasteners, but I haven’t tried it myself

 

I will keep posted, probably will be waiting till spring when things are a bit warmer and I can give a good power wash before using PB or Liquid Wrench. I will spray for a week or two to really saturate as the top bolts are pretty rusted after 10 NE winters. Makes all the difference in the world!

 

So I finally installed these bad boys!
2020 TRD Sport Hitachi coil-overs and shocks.
Initial impressions, I could NOT be more pleased with the results. My Original 2013 Toyota Bilstein TRD Sport coil-overs were still tight and had plenty of life. I do not off road for shits and gigs, not a flame to those that do, I just prefer hiking and taking a stroll in the wilderness to driving in it. As far as my Tacoma is concerned, what I do love to do in it, is to drive the frek out of it. I like driving fast (safely), cornering (in control), and feeling one with the road. These hitachis are fantastic, for my purposes... The truck feels more grounded, less play, I feel more confident taking on-ramp corners and gunning it (within reason...). For anyone considering the swap to third gen coil-overs and shocks I highly recommend it. Oh, and the lift!
I gained an inch up front and a little less than a 1/4’ in the rear. I love the look, it’s just right, for me. Definitely looks more level.
Included 1/4’ spacer on driverside front. The front driver and passenger side both gained an inch and are dead even!
Before

After


I know the after picture doesn’t do much justice, but it’s obvious to me whenever I look in person. Especially the driver side front. It’s not all compressed and pathetic looking. Cheers

 

Was 1/4 driver side spacer needed? Is it cuz 2nd thing? The 3rd gen OR front shocks (green dot) are side specific which compensates for the lean but Hitachi fronts both same color dot unless you marked which side it came off from.

 

Yes the 1/4’ spacer is needed on the driver side. Hitachis are not side specific. They come with green and blue dots or blue and orange-ish dots. I’ve seen individuals with both colors, two blue and green, or two blue and orange (I have two blue and orange).

and some who have one of each, like this guy.

It doesn’t matter if you receive them marked of not, the driver-side will lean without a 1/4’ spacer. They were not designed to compensate for taco-lean.
Cheers!

 

Looks great, and thanks for the updates. I spoke to an suspension and alignment shop and they said to ask if there were any specs that people have found for putting a 3rd gen suspension on the 2nd gen, since it would be different than the factory specs for alignment.

I have been postponing doing the project but still gearing up.

 

I had the alignment done at Firestone immediately after install. Didn’t mention a thing other than the replacing of the front and rear shocks with new OEM components. Truck rides as it should. No complaints. This isn’t as if you’re installing an aftermarket 2’, 3’, 6’...., lift. You’re netting 1’ in the front, and a hair in the rear, I wouldn’t worry about it.

 

Somebody explain this to me.. Why the hell Toyota did fit the crappy stock suspension settings for so much years? I have a 2015 DC sport 4x4 and the thing wobbles like retard at every corner just at 43k miles. It makes the truck feel heavier and sloppier when maneuvering, and plain makes emergency braking very dangerous, as the front suspension dives a lot and the rear loses traction.
Then, loading lightly the bed, bottoms out frequently.
My take is that toyota just plain did a very lousy job tuning the motions and ended up fitting bilsteins to control that mess of suspension, with a dubious result.
Please somebody explain.

 

Thats great!! I haven't seen or heard any reports of anyone doing the sport suspension! Thank you for the review!!

 

My pleasure!

 

What’s a good price for a pair of 2016 TRD Off Road assembled coil overs (Coils and shocks) with under 20,000 miles on them?

thanks

 

Maybe $100 for all 4 corners. My $0.02.

 

I cry about going to work

 

Something isn't quite right. My 2015 Sport and 2012 OR don't have any of those symptoms......

 

Can we talk about 3rd gen leaf springs for a sec?

I've read that the 3rd gen leafs are "identical" to the 2nd gen (TSB) leafs. I knew this wasn't technically true because they are a different part number. But, figured they may be functionally identical or maybe just "identical" in the amount of lift they provide. If anyone has any better info about this I'd love to hear it.

I received the leafs along with my 3rd gen shocks but didn't bother installing because my TSB leafs are only months old and figured it wasn't worth my time to do the install. Just recently I noticed that the stock 3rd gen leafs have tapered shims in them:


I know that tapered shims are often used when lifting so I thought it was very interesting that Toyota decided to use them on a stock TRD OR. Coming from sports cars I'm still very new to trucks and wanted to see what y'all thought. Would it be worth the time swapping these into my truck? Is there a worthwhile benefit to having this shim? My truck currently has a 1" steel block in the rear so I'd need to confirm that I could even run both but wanted to get this info out there as I hadn't seen anyone post about this shim on the 3rd gen leafs.

 

Has anyone put a 2019 TRD Pro suspension on a 2nd gen? I was able to grab the suspension cheap locally and plan on putting it on my 2005 Prerunner OR. Current suspension has 228K miles, so its about due to be replaced. haha
Any help or insights would be great, I plan on tackling this tomorrow.

 

It’s gonna net you an 1” or maybe 1.5” in the front.

you should take pics and center of hub -> bottom of fender measurements before & after and post them.

 

Got a set of 2020 TRDOR shocks/coils with less than 100mi on em. Installed with 1/4in toytec spacer on driver side and deaver add-a-leaf in the rear. Top pic is before, bottom after. Net lift was 1.25'' in the front and 1.875'' in the rear with the truck now sitting perfectly level side to side (no more taco lean). Might be a little too much rake for some but I'm very happy with how it turned out. Ride is much, much better and it wont be riding the bump stops hauling a 40lb bag of mulch.


Before:
Driver front - 33.75''
Pass front - 34.25
Driver rear - 35.5''
Pass rear - 36.0''

After:
Driver front - 35.5
Pass front - 35.5
Driver rear - 37.875
Pass rear - 37.875