Maybe somebody could help… Bent my OEM Bilstein shocks on a light-medium trail

Hello Tacoma community,

I have the “4600 stock bilstein shocks”. I took them on a light-medium trail and went 15-30 didn’t go crazy, and ruined my rear shocks. Nothing looked wrong with them, but the shock absorption was all gone. I then got them fixed and returned to the trail like a madman. This time I made sure to take it real easy, didn’t go over 20-25 and somehow bent my rear shock. 1 I was frustrated because the trail wasn’t very harsh at all, and 2 because of the performance of these shocks on an “OffRoad Vehicle” couldn’t hold up. I don’t understand people with the same truck have done worse than that trail and come out clean, am I doing something wrong? I was clueless. So I went ahead and got them replaced AGAIN.

With that being said I’m looking for shocks that are reliable and won’t break unless I take it off a 20 foot jump. lol I am trying to find something not too crazy expensive but not afraid to spend a little to get something that will last.

Anything that y’all recommend?

 

OP at least your out there banging trails with a stock set. Shit happens period. About suspension lots to choose from. Research is key. Find out what kind of ride you want and go from there. Definitely lots of knowledge on here from members. Good luck

 

The factory OR shocks (not actually 4600s) are underwhelming IMO. They're overly soft to make the ride better off-road, but can't handle even mild speed off-road due to the small diameter. This is made significantly worse by dealerships filling the tires to 35+ PSI.

Edmunds has a video review that covers this pretty well - I think they melt the shocks in about 10 miles. That mirrors my experience - total failure in just a few miles of washboards at speed.

You can pull 10-20psi from the tires and see a significant improvement. But long term you need bigger shocks. I installed some emergency 5100s in a parking lot (very easy) and have been impressed for the price. So impressed I will probably upgrade to 6112/5160 when supply rebounds.

 

When u say they got bent, bent where? The shaft?

 

Part of the justification of having external reservoir shocks is for the heat (or cooling).


Front Pro 6112 Bilstein vs stock TRD Bilstein

 

Geez dude learn your and the truck's limits.
Let me tell you what will happen....
You will upgrade shocks and not break them.
So you go faster and break your upgrade shocks.
Then you really upgrade and can't break your shocks but you break your springs.
You keep going until you sell that piece of shit for something else, like a sports car.

Go slow. You still get there. I have had 4600's on horrible bumps for miles and miles and amazingly, I went slow and had zero problems.

 

I've really put my 5100s through the ringer. Speed wise and bump wise. Surprisingly have held up well for the last 43k miles.

They're a cheap option if you don't wanna spend a lot of money.

 

First time is an accident.
Second time is coincidence.
Third time is on him.

 

I went through two sets of stock shocks in the rear…luckily covered under warranty…then went aftermarket.

I broke my icons as well. Have tried a couple of brands. Choose wisely.

 

This is the Edmunds video I referred to above: https://youtu.be/CWYqEinNGUM

The rear shocks are a weak point on an otherwise capable truck. Spend a couple hundred bucks and enjoy the improvement.

 

How did you get them fixed? Bent shaft is usually caused from either bottoming out the shock (that wouldn’t happen on an OEM shock and OEM height), a bad shock that’s not compressing correctly, or a bad installation. So seems lightly that the “fix” you got was the problem. Also interested is how the OEM OR shock was fixed, since it’s pretty much a throw away / non serviceable item.

 

damn dude this ain't the baja 1000

 

is this what the trail looked like?

 

LOL, if it did I would feel a lot better about those shocks breaking. It was not a bad trail at all. Here is a video of the trail;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_M...2o2t5xy0jacjwf5l3qgdw03c010c.1627946605926767

 

Hehehe, I truly was not goin crazy on the trails! I wish I could though!

 

I did and spent 15 minutes looking for the picture before posting this but could not find it.. It did not look pretty I can tell you that lol

 

What do you mean by bent? Sounds to me like the new shocks might have been too long.

 

Couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it. The top of the shock completely came off of the mount, the shock was kinda hanging to the side, and all you see is the rod coming out of the top of the shock and bent at a 90 degree angle.... Completely disconnected.

I took it to the dealer and said it must've been a bad install because I did NOT do anything crazy with the truck, this was my second time on the trail and I took it easier than the first ride. Didn't even hear the sound of whatever the hell happened to the shock, I had realized it few hours after while inspecting the truck. Craziest thing I ever seen, I posted a video of the trail above.

 

Yeah that smells of the wrong shock. Or a lack of bump stops maybe. That should never happen if everything is correctly put together with the right parts.


When I finished my work last fall I threw on some cheap shocks to make sure everything was hunky dory before putting on good shocks. I gave the parts store the part numbers I needed, and then put on the shocks I received. One of them was too short and was constantly hitting the end of its extension - rode like shit too. Sure enough, even though the boxes were labeled correctly one of the shocks was an inch short.

 

As I stated earlier my friend, I blew out two rear shocks on my OR....and take my word for it that I wasn't doing anything crazy. At first the dealer balked at fixing them and stated that my usage wasn't typical.

I called Toyota Corporate and they asked me to take a video of what type of use may have led to it...I sent them clips of my wife driving the truck down the road that goes to our property (it's a BLM road). It's dirt, it's washboarded and it can get rutted, but we don't fly down it. While they were reviewing my case I put on a set of icons and promptly blew out my left rear shock.

While I was arguing with the douches at Icon, Toyota called back and said they would replace my rear shocks. When those failed they replaced them again without question. Toyota haters take note: Toyota bought two sets of shocks for my truck under warranty for failure under acceptable use. Icon refused to honor any sort of warranty. I had to rebuild the damaged shock and then sell the entire set on Craigslist.