Strut

Well it's been some time since posting anything hopefully everyone is doing well.

The other day while going up my driveway from hell in my like new condition 2009 I heard a loud bang !!! from the LF.

Thinking it was probably a large rock that got slammed into the lower control arm I headed to work. Noticing something was not right the truck felt weird after some investigation i discovered that the strut had sheared off at the at the lower mount.

I am a firm believer in OEM the Engineers that designed the Tacoma know a heck of allot more than the kid behind the counter pushing Chinese garbage or most of us. That being said $200.00 for just the strut is highway robbery!!!!!!!!!! so off to NAPA I went I have had very few issues with them over the decades and yes I am a Mechanic by trade so $190.00 for the whole Strut assy. sounded more reasonable.

Here is what I did not expect the Napa strut was far better constructed than the EOM especially where the fail point was being several mm's larger in dia. and just being a heavier built assy. over all. I plan on replacing the other side as soon as time and weather permit if one goes the other is not far behind and it balances out the suspension load.

I wish I could find my damn spring compressor it just up and disappeared but getting the sway bar out makes things much easier!!

 

Let’s us know if the Napa coilover lasts 15yrs then you can say it’s better than OE. ( I’m assuming the one that broke was the original). Also why the spring compressor thought you bought an entire assembly including coil?.

 

We have so many freaking problems with quick struts of all brands. They buy the cheapest components and slap them together.

I actually refuse to install them now unless mounts are back ordered.

Tacoma's dont have strut mounts just cushions so so really the only benefit to a quick strut is the new spring.

The best alternatives to oem is bilstien 4600, I bought mine for 150$ CAD each, so likely 100$ USD. Same quality, little bigger.

Lastly the Napa is likely a Twin Tube, compared to the monotube stock Toyota.

Twin tubes look bigger but are lower grade.

 

4600 and 5100 is thin. Factory is even thinner than that. A shock is considered worn at 10/100. If not earlier.

if you want something bigger and stronger (among other things), the next step up with a noticeable difference is 6112 or anything comparable to that.

I haven’t done it this way yet. Gonna try. But supposedly you can compress and uncompress the spring by using a floor jack underneath the LCA to change the shock while on the truck.

 

Valid point regarding the life span of the strut package as well as the build quality. The idea behind the spring compressor was just to make it easier to remove that's all.

Either way it's just a daily driver it just so happens that the driveway to my shop sucks. All valid points and I appreciate the feedback.