There are some great vendors out there with outstanding customer service

Back about the middle of September I got my OME lift installed that I purchased from Toytec. Between that time and now I’ve had an ongoing problem with a clunk in the left front of the truck. I searched here, and elsewhere, and came up with a lot of possible solutions, none of which were the answer. The clunk only happens when I hit a sharp bump or hole. It never does it when crawling slow up in the hills and can't be duplicated in any way while the truck is stationary.

I’ve spent countless hours going over the truck and have had the shop that did the lift installation work on it 3 times. During this time we found the bushings for the steering rack were worn and replaced all of them. They also found that the inner tie rod end on the driver’s side was worn so I had both inner and outer tie rod ends on both sides replaced plus a front end alignment and the clunk was still there. All of the UCA and LCA bushings were checked as well as the ball joints and everything was tight as new. Pretty much every nut and bolt on the front half of the truck has been checked and every possible thing that could have been making the clunk was checked and eliminated.

I had a lot of suggestions about possible solutions and when I thought I’d hit the end of my rope I thought I’d contact Toytec and ask them if they had ever had a problem that produced the clunk I was having. Since the only moving thing on the front of the truck that hadn’t been fixed or eliminated was the shock, I asked them if they had ever had a problem with the shock/valving that could be causing the clunk. The answer I got was not what I’d have expected to hear from someone talking to a customer even though I was only looking for their help in finding a solution to my problem. I was told that they didn’t have the shock in front of them so they couldn’t determine anything and that NO, the shock could not be making the clunk.

I chalked it up to a vendor not having great customer service and decided to contact ARB, again just looking for help as to whether they had any experience that might lead me in the right direction. At no time did I try to say that their product was the problem, I was just looking for help.

The help I got from ARB was immediate and they had no problem talking with me about the clunk and the OME suspension components. The guy that I talked with simply wanted to know what my truck was and what all I had installed on the front. I told him I had a 2000 Tacoma, V6, 5 speed 4wd with their ARB bumper with Warn XD9000 winch w/steel cable and that the kit I got from Toytec included 882 coils. He informed the that ARB hadn’t recommended 882 coils for my application since the ‘90s.

He asked me to take some measurements with the truck sitting on the ground normally and then with the truck raised up and both front wheels/tires clearing the ground at full droop. He gave me a measurement of 60mm that he said I should have as a minimum difference between the two measurements and I had 38.1mm which is just over half of what he considered minimum for my application. He then said he believed the shock was bottoming out internally because the valving couldn’t react quite quick enough due to the 882 coils having everything stretched out so much.

He said he would like for me to try and work it out with Toytec but that if that didn’t help then he (ARB) would make it right for me. He said that he had contacted Toytec’s sales manager and told him about our conversation. Almost immediately I was contacted by Toytec and was told that they were sorry for how I’d been treated and that they wanted to make sure my problem was resolved. He (Toytec) asked me to take a measurement from the wheel well/flare down to the hub center and upon receiving that he said that he totally agreed with ARB and that he also felt that it was the shock making the noise and for the same reason that ARB had stated.

I have no idea why only one side makes the noise nor do they (ARB and Toytec) but I do know that the combo I have, with 882 coils, gave me almost 4” of lift in the front which only settled very slightly in the time since installation. Maybe I just got a set of coils stiffer than normal.

Long Story Short…..Toytec shipped out two new shocks today, no charge, with new 883 coils installed via FedEx and they included extra packaging material for me to return the 882/coil units I have and Toytec is including return shipping labels for the return shipping.

Once I got past what was probably an isolated instance with my initial contact with Toytec, both ARB and Toytec were willing to do whatever it took to make sure that their customer was treated right. I don’t think they could have done more to make that happen unless they shipped someone here to do the installation of the new units just shipped. As a side not about ARB's customer service.....during hunting season I had a branch get wedged in the right front turn signal lens and break one end right around the screw hole. When I contacted them they said they only sell the complete units in pairs. I told him that's too bad since all I needed was a new lens and he said no problem, they would ship me a new lens at no charge. I had it the next day.

I should have the new units here and installed by Monday or Tuesday so I'll see what happens with the new shocks/coils.

 

Isn't 4 inches of lift in the front too much?

Edit: I see now, you're swapping the coils soon to fix this.

 

Wow 4" from 882s?? What shocks??

Glad it got fixed though!!

 

You got me curious. What do they recommend the 882s for?

 

The shocks are OME 90004 front Sport shocks.

 

I guess if you have an ARB bumper, Warn 25,000# winch w/steel cable, 15ea. 8" lights and a couple of sumo wrestlers sitting on the front end then they'd recommend the 882s.

When I ordered the lift there was an option to order the 882s but I looked at their site just now and there are only the 881s and 883s listed and the 883s are shown as HD for 200+ lbs. additional front weight. Maybe this brought it to their attention about the 882s.

If you look at ARB's application guide they don't even show the 882s and I didn't ask ARB what the 882s would be used for.

 

Hmmm, I got a pair of 882s sitting in the garage in prep for mounting an Elite bumper when it rolls in. Guess I'll have to mount everything and see how the front end sits. Too late to send them back.

Glad to hear ARB got the problem fixed.

 

During hunting season I tried an experiment with a stump and took these pics. With the 882s installed the front hardly tucked or flexed but the back sure did. The truck does not have a sway bar installed. It was removed when the lift was installed.

 

He says no sway bar Ben haha read haha

That's crazy man..never heard of this with 882s. Talk about no flex

 

Yea I'm curious if the spring plate was mounted wrong or something. Seems maybe there was some how some precompression

 

Don't know for sure about the shocks but like I said above, they are sending two new shocks with 883 coils pre-assembled so I'll see how the new setup works.

 

OP, you have a pic of the suspension? I currious if the shop installed the bottome coil plate upside down.

This^


With 4" and a stock UCA, the clunk could be the arm banging against the coils (any marks on the coil?).
Why only on one side? Not sure, probably how one side is aligned vs the other

 

These are the 882s as new when I took them out of the box.









This is a shot of them assembled but with the wheel off when looking for the problem.

 

The coils/shocks came assembled from Toytec. No marks on the coils. The clunk sound is definite and solid.

 

My understanding from talking with ARB and Toytec is that the noise doesn't come when the suspension goes up but happens when it goes down. The springs has the truck lifted so much that I'm running on the bottom of the shock's travel. When I hit a sharp bump they are saying that the shock is so close to full travel that the valving can't react quick enough and that the shock is bottoming out internally.

 

In the second pic it looks like there is something keeping the bottom coil plate from being all the way down

Do you still have them??

 

If you're talking the brass colored spacer, that's the spacer OME sells to take care of the Taco driver side lean. I may have an extra one laying around if you could use one. Let me know and I'll dig around in the garage.

 

They are still on the truck. The new ones won't be here till Friday or Monday.

 

Could you take a pic of the lower part of the coil??

 

I don't see a pic??