Do I need an alignment after new front shocks?

I intend to replace my front shocks. According to official Toyota instructions, I need to remove the ball joint. After putting everything back together, will I need to get an alignment done? I trying the cost difference of having someone else do it or doing it myself. Thanks.

 

Yes

 

yes

 

Maybe things are different on a 2010. What official Toyota instructions are you referring to?

 

Yes you do!

If it's like the 3rd gen, you need to remove the lower ball joint (or ball joint bracket) in order to push the lower control arm down to make room to remove the strut assembly. In order to push the control arm down, you need to loosen the control arm bolts (Do not remove them).

When you play with all that stuff, it's always HIGHLY recommended to do an alignment. It's a well invested 75$ that can save your tires.

 

So I'm at work and don't have my same browser bookmarks as at home. A while back someone posted the factory Toyota Manual link and I know it's on this site somewhere. (Maybe someone will post it again before I get home tonight). I've been unsuccessful hunting it down. I was worried it would disappear due to copyright issues and so I installed the Firefox add-on, Downloadthemall!, https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/downthemall/, and pulled every PDF to my HD. I then copied the main index html page to my HD and did a global change to all links pointing them to my HD files instead of the online PDF. Now I have a directory on my HD with a html link that points me to hundreds of PDF files out of the manual. I just print the one I am working on and take it to my garage when needed. I'll post the link tonight if someone doesn't beat me to it.

 

Here's the link:

http://www.customtacos.com/tech.old/files/05FSM/repair.html

I'll have to read it again I suppose. I missed the part about having to pull control arms/ball joints.

UPDATE - never mind "Remove front suspension upper arm"

 

Yes. I just installed new coilovers and UCA's. Although the truck drives straight, I will still be getting an alignment as soon as I get this squeak from my UCA sorted out.

 

You don't need to remove the BJ to swap out springs/shocks. Look in the suspension section, it's all stickied. You unbolt the coilover, pry down the LCA and maneuver it out.

You also won't need an alignment most likely if you leave it at stock height, although most do it just to dbl chk.

 

Great, you had the link I was talking about. I was a little off. It's the Tie Rod Assembly that I was referring to. That is mentioned in step 8 on this page and is shown on this page.

So it sounds like it would be best to get an alignment. Probably so since I have only 5K miles on my Michelin AT2 tires.

Thanks.