Bilstein 6112 Problem

Any genuine advise would be greatly appreciated. I have reached out to Bilstein, and I am waiting for a reply. As soon as they contact me, I will post their recommendations.

I just installed the Bilstein 6112 Strut with spring & Rear B8 5160 Reservoir Shocks Set on my 2019 Toyota Tacoma 4x4 Off-Road 4-door.

I installed them as instructed for a 2" Lift. Driver side circlip location #11 / PAX side circlip location #9.

The rear shocks and passenger side shock with spring work perfectly.

However, (on the driver side) there is a gap/slack in between the lower side tophat and upper portion of the piston rod.

As a temporary solution, I installed a few washer between the hydraulic piston rod and wide-body washer which is installed underneath the tophat. Now, there is no jarring clamping noise. But I would like a better solution to my problem.

Other than my temporary repair, what are your recommendations for helping me fix this problem

 

You are missing the lower rubber bushing. Its glued to the top hat but sometimes falls off when you take your old shocks off. Its not sold seperately from what i recall and you will need a new top mount.

 

Thank you sir for your response.

I've made this post on many Tacoma forms across the internet and many say the same as you. Looks like I'll be purchasing a couple of new tophats.

Best regards!

 

So... I'm curious as to what Bilstein told you.
I have the exact same issue on both sides, and I was not missing the lower bushing in either instance.
I replaced both tophats (bushings and washers included, of course), and I still have the same problem. The nuts are bottomed out on the threads on the shaft and won't go any farther.

 

The 6112's come with a spacer that sits on top of the shaft before the larger metal bushing keeper. If that is not installed then it will also look like the picture above.

The order of assembly should be - Taller Metal spacer - large diameter metal washer that keeps the rubber bushing in place - rubber bushing - top hat - rubber bushing - the other larger diameter bushing that is a little thicker - nut.

 

Thanks for this. Turns out that metal spacer is what's missing, so I'll be fixing it this weekend and hopefully everything will finally be smooth(er) sailing from there.

 

Aaannnnddd.... got it all torn down and put together. Correctly! No more awful squeak.
Thanks, everybody! This forum is so helpful for all things Taco.