Friend's coilover strut broke-how bad is it?

After you called it out I went back and looked - DAYUM You are right. Also, look at that bottom shock bushing and what is that looming in the back? Part of a Sway Bar Link? Maybe? Some steering component?
More evidence of Bad Lift + Full Send = Catastrophe.

 

good point…

 

Hey, where did you find the video of @BartMaster1234? I thought he had it removed from this site.

 

Its everywhere

 

Wait - Someone here actually did that?

 

OP -

Just to clarify, in case you haven't figured it out by now, that coilover is completely broken at the bottom.

You should not drive it anywhere. OK if you limped home a couple miles, and hopefully it has remain parked since then. But that really should not be on the road. You will cause more damage and make it worse.

I have annotated your picture with a couple of suggestions you need to look at very closely when this is disassembled.

1) The biggest concern of mine is the potential crack I highlighted with 3 yellow arrows. I hope I am wrong and that is not a crack. Maybe just an optical illusion. But you better look real real real close.

2) The circled item below is the end of your sway bar. Which is pretty much just hanging out and along for the ride, because there is no sway bar end link attached. Presumably the other side is also missing the sway bar end link also.

To run or not to run a front sway bar with a lift is a decision you can make. Sway bars can limit full articulation of the suspension when doing crazy off road things. Like jumping into barn houses. See above spectacular video. Savvy enthusiasts leave their sway bar attached with end links connected when they are primarily tooting back and forth to work and stuff. And then remove the end links when they go off road for the weekend. Not sure if that is the case here. But - if you are not going to run sway bar end links on the street - take the damn sway bar off. If nothing else, it removes 20-25 lbs of dead weight.

3) Plan on replacing the upper control arm ball joint when you get around to repairing this truck. Single yellow arrow pointing to it in the upper left below.

Final thoughts which are meant to be constructive:

* Hopefully, you got luck here and the only "real" damage is the broken coilover. If that turns out to be a crack on the frame, get it welded. Hopefully, not though.

* You will need to replace that coilover. And the one on the other side. No, no, no, no, and no a thousand times more - you cannot just replace the coilover on one side. You have to replace both front coilovers. If you think otherwise, you will hopefully be defeated by having to order two anyway because they come in pairs.

* This is work that needs to be done with your truck on jackstands or preferably racked on a lift. Thankfully, these suspensions are very easy to work on. BUT if this is not your cup of tea - then FINE. Just take it (tow it) to a local shop and have them replace both front coilovers, remove the front sway bar (or re-install the sway bar links), perform a complete visual inspection, and then have an alignment done.

* In all seriousness, if you are lucky, and I think you might be, you are looking at two coilovers ($600?) and 4 hours of shop labor max ($400). Burn another Benjamin for the alignment.

* In further seriousness, whoever made that coilover should ideally have it sent to them for a forensic type of metallurgy analysis. That is a catastrophic failure and no bueno. Not good for their reputation - especially in today's social media world - and more importantly anyone thinking about buying them. If I may ask of you, please contact them. Once you get the broken part in your hand - send it to them. Better yet, call their Tech Hotline and explain this all up front. Can y'all send me a prepaid box? And..... drum roll.... depending on their receptiveness and honesty and customer appreciation approach plus your own demeanor, you might even be offered some swag or a store credit or a serious discount or best yet a new pair of coilovers.

The manufacturer *should* take this failure seriously. Whatever crazy chit you or your friend were doing, it darn sure wasn't racing in the Baja 1000 in the street / stock class. That spectacle doesn't occur until November.

You have absolutely nothing to lose and much good to gain. Who knows? Maybe they'll throw a Baja 400 sponsorship at ya for the Baja 400 in September. Like a complete fresh full travel suspension. Tune up. Graphics / logos / paint job. Spare tire & carrier. Toolbox. Tune. Tools. ASK THEM! I damn sure would if I was you!

I

I hope that was helpful and fun to read.
Andy

 

Ya'll overreacting, that's Baja ready.

 

At this point we have had good feedback, great feedback, lots of good humor at the expense of the OP and / or his friend, and even some good ol'fashioned fuddly feedback (you kids stop jumping on the bed).

I'm going to have to insist on an OP Update at this point.

@TacomaFloppa - What's The Sitch, Mitch! What's the Story, Rory? What's the Word, Thunderbird? Got an update for us? Shop look at it yet? Is Bigfoot Real? Rolling total? Easily fixable?
Inquiring Minds Want to Know!

 

Ha!!

 

My bad, I don't check TacomaWorld at all.

This is in fact NOT my truck, thankfully. I've posted my truck before in my posts if you don't believe me.

What ended up happening was that I drove my friend 6 hours to pickup new crappy coilovers, I don't even know the brand but they were about 2-3 inches of lift because he's running 33's. They suck and have a spacer in them but they get him places, just on road. He's running 33's because his 31's got fucked. Nail in the sidewall, couldn't be repaired. Couldn't afford new tires. My Step dad ended up gifting him new rims and tires. He rubs a little bit but at least he can drive.

My friend emailed toytec about the situation but nothing happened. He can't post about it because he's the 3rd owner and didn't install any of the hardware, we're not sure how old the coilovers are.

Also the only reason I asked in the first place was because my friend was DEAD broke, to the point where if it wasn't super dangerous, he'd probably drive on it still.

My friend hasn't touched the lift so anything that exists, is part of the previous owners doing. My friend did get in a crash with a concrete barrier this december so that crack in the frame is very possible.

 

Shop hasn't looked at it and probably wont for awhile. Took it in for an alignment and it passed, thankfully.

 

At this point in time, we have 0 fucking clue on how the coilover broke. Me and him beat our trucks up more than we should've over the months and years for him. My friend hasn't jumped his truck at all besides one time by accident. We don't think the coilover broke then because we would've noticed it by then. My best guess is that the abuse finally just fucking killed the coilover, thankfully he noticed it. He's especially lucky because I know for sure he drove about 50-100 miles with a broken coilover, that was another reason why I asked if it was actually that bad. Some people are guess luckier than others I guess. He's the same guy who's had his LBJ fail right as he pulled into a parking spot, rather than the highway.

 

I appreciate all the jokes/comments/helpful replies and I hope you guys did too. I'll check this in the morning if there isn't a reply in the next 10-20 minutes or so

 

Also after a 3 minute search. There seems to be a TON of fb posts, TW posts, etc. about toytec coilovers sucking and breaking. I've seen a couple where the shaft broke. Once my friend get's some paper up, he'll be buying some fox 2.5's. With this new information it might be smarter to buy a worse coilover like fox 2.0's or something out of the 2100-2500 range. Take the money saved and buy actual bump stops, some tri flow, and parts that need fixing.