Go fast IFS upgrades for road, what is worth the money?

Target vehicle: stock 2002 3.4L 4wd extra cab Tacoma TRD with 31r15 tires(Trail terrain style) I am not original owner. I got it after 200k miles. It is almost to 300k.

Target use: Daily driver that gets sporty driving in 'mountain' roads and a few times a year ice. I'm in hills outside Georgetown, Calif. Roads are curvy and get winter snow/ice. No serious wheeling... I've got other rigs for hitting Rubicon and rocks(FJ55s with 35s to 40s)

Short: what upgrades in the front IFS are worth the money to make it handle better when driving sporty on the road? Upper control arms? Lower control arms? Shocks? Springs? Thicker sway bar? Upgraded rack?

Long: This is to help get answers to red "question". Front end is falling apart and basically needs almost everything up front replaced.

It will not hold an alignment and eats tires; inside edge of both front tires wearing to the cords while outside edge looks new. This hints at toe in/out issue. Alignment was done Jan 1... dead by July without hitting any big pot holes. New alignment shop won't touch due to worn control arm bushings on all arms(not sure how they ID'd in under five minutes)

FWIW, I bought a new 99 non-TRD clone of this and never got an alignment in 144k miles. It NEVER ate tires and was beat up offroad(think of how badly they wheeled in commercials and up it a notch for pinball)

Front shock bushings are dead again; I replaced front stock bushings around Oct 22 with Delphi brand. The bushings are fully collapsed by July. Shocks are still good(no multi rebound with hood push)

I am trying to minimize downtime so I am going to buy new control arms and new shocks. I will wrap in "shop costs" into amount I'll be willing to spend to upgrade parts. This is to say I don't have an unlimited budget but I'm willing to pay for the performance.

Drivetrain will be upgraded a year later to further enhance onroad driving; stock manual trans with push button 4wd going to 4runner awd. 3.4L potentially going to charger... engine is tired and needs refresh.

 

I'm getting ready to buy parts in the next week or so. What is recommended? As noted, I AM buying new parts and not putzing around with pressing in bushings or rod ends, etc in an effort to minimize down time.

 

I'd say new bilstein 5100's with some OME coils that are a little stronger than stock. They sell them as complete assembled sets and very fairly priced at Wheelers Offroad. Super easy to replace if they're already assembled.
Also some upper control arms if you're going with even a small lift. Both will make handling noticeably better.

 

Custom valved ADS coilovers and shocks, or a popular offering like Fox coilovers and shocks from Accutune

This will help your go-fast feel more controlled without going long travel

Skip the Bilsteins mentioned

 

Not disagreeing but it will also empty his bank account. Probably cost more than the truck itself haha. Seems a bit overkill for better on road performance.

Even a simple 5100 upgrade will make a noticeable difference in control, which will translate to a better feel through the corners.

 

True

My suggestion was also based on "other rigs like FJ55's..." etc

Not expensive at all if you have multiple dedicated trail rigs!

My street rigs ran Icons, Fox, and Kings

 

Depends on his budget I guess. I read 300k miles and thought about what I'd do.

$500 for new bilsteins with new coils included.

Around $2k plus or minus a few hundred for ADS, or similar set up.

It's a wear item.

Don't over-think it.

 

Is there a recommended upper control arm? I'm not going to lift the truck.

For the lower control arms, is it just worth going poly upgrade and call it good enough?

I'll bite. What makes going ADS or Fox worth the money?

Keep in mind... road truck and not desert blasting so I'm not really experiencing shock fade. I might benefit from a slightly stiffer spring(400lb???), a stiffer front sway bar, and a rear sway bar more than a super top of the line shock.

My trail rigs are the true money pits. FJ55(snow plow) running 35s no lift... FJ55 running 35s and a lift... FJ55(slow progress) with a bit of a lift to squeeze 43s Too many dead presidents spent on them. FWIW, the middle FJ55 does a pretty good job ripping up the same road with Bilstein 5100s... but it is running a nice stiff Ruffstuff sway bar in the rear. It was my daily driver but doesn't work for current job.

 

I would think any alignment shop worth a flip would recognize bad bushings right off the bat. I went the "putzing around" route and replaced UCA and LCA bushing with energy suspension bushings this past spring. The melt them out and leave the cups route. Also replaced upper and lower ball joints, inner and outer tie rod ends, alignment cams and bolts with OEM parts. 100% improvement in handling. Poly bushings are a little stiffer but no more wandering on a washboard road, tracks straight and immediate recovery, with monroe shocks everyone says are crap. I took my time with it but was done in less than a week working on it in the evenings. Figure I got what I paid for. I priced the OEM UCA and LCAs before deciding the ES bushings were worth a shot, can always go back that way if I decide to. If I could accomplish all that I am pretty sure a pile of other folks can too.

 

You mentioned go fast, that's where my suggestion is aimed to cover.

ADS offers a quality coilover with custom tuning to fit your needs. They also seem to offer the most travel than other 2.5 coilovers offered for 1st Gen Tacoma's. Just a bit more but it's still in mid-travel numbers.

If you went Fox, you can consider King as well. Fox are just more regarded but that's not the discussion we're here for.

Generally speaking, 2.5 coilovers will offer better control due to better heat dissipation and won't fade as quickly when off-road, and have much better valving (as mentioned, either by ADS or Accutune as both of them will tune them) versus off-the-shelf valving.

I've hit different terrain in different vehicles and will say a high-quality 2.5 felt way better than a friend's rig with Bilstein 5100's; the trail would literally kick my ass and exhaust me just a short while in.

Fox 2.5 on the Tacoma



King 2.5 on the 4Runner



Icon 2.0 on the Land Cruiser



If I did it all over again, I'd go ADS or Fox through Accutune

Running new Bilstein 5160 on the GX470 right now and I hate them; they came on the vehicle so...

 

I'm not sure... something is VERY off on the truck.

I had passenger side ball joints replaced back on Jan 1 when passenger side wheel assembly fell off(upper and lower ball joint failure) The shop that replaced all the parts took it to an alignment shop. Neither the shop that did the work nor the alignment shop make a single note of control arm bushing issues. It actually held an alignment for all of six months before eating tires again. I took truck to another alignment shop who failed it immediately. So the "question" is who is the liar? I seriously doubt bushings failed in six months. In that six months, I never hit anything with enough force to cause this kind of failure.

FWIW, I bought a new 99 off the lot and beat it like a step child and it never ate tires in 140k miles with no alignment. Think of the Toyota commercials where the truck is playing pinball in rocks... yup, I was doing that at times. I got better tire mileage out of Swamper radials and Baja Claw tires than I'm getting out of trail terrain tires on my current Tacoma. Yes, I can't even get 15k miles on these tires.

I've got no issues with doing the work. I've already pulled the front shocks off once to press new bushings in... that have failed in less than a year. I just want to get an upgrade for the work to make the truck more suited toward my "go fast" driving style. Thus I'm hoping to find better control arms, shocks, springs, etc that will help with sporty onroad driving that I do.

 

I think the aforementioned advice to revamp the front with all new upper and lower control arm bushings (or all new arms if you prefer to not dick around with pressing in/out bushings) would be the first step.

If your steering rack is original, you probably oughta replace that too. And OEM Toyota parts would be the way to go for all of that. That will fix your eating tires/can't hold allignment issue and probably will make it feel way better for your sporty driving.

At the end of the day, it's still a mid-size pickup and ain't gonna handle like a sports car. Shocks probably ain't gonna make a difference till you take care of that revamp. Sounds like you're probably also due up for new upper and lower ball joints while you're at it.

Edit: to the best of my knowledge there is no better steering rack for these trucks than the OEM one. Same pretty much goes for LCAs and UCAs if you aren't trying to lift the truck.

 

Perhaps the first shop missed some damage from the ball joint failure. If it were my truck I'd have yank and pry to check things and see for myself what was loose. I've had mixed experiences with alignment shops just as others here have had. Some know what they are doing and some sure seemed like they didn't.

 

Also if those LCA bushings are original (and I'm assuming they are), they absolutely could've been "good enough" in January and now be "needing replacement" 10 months later. Those things do eventually wear out, and they were probably worth replacing long ago. Just now they ain't even good enough to hold an allignment

 

I don't see any reason to get aftermarket UCA's if you aren't lifting it. I can rail my OME lifted Tacoma on 33's pretty good, so I just don't see a stock truck on 31's needing much more than something like a Bilstein and maybe a slightly higher spring rate if necessary to make it more controlled in the turns.

 

I am buying new control arms no matter what... I don't want to screw around with pressing bushings or lower control arms fighting me. I do not want extended downtime. Ideal is to pick off an item or two an afternoon... my "weekend" is 36 hours.

So, since I'm buying new control arms, if there is a reasonable upgrade control arm that will improve my onroad performance, I will spend it now rather than buy a stock set then buy an upgrade set... while I love throwing money away, this isn't one of the ways I like to do it

Passenger side ball joints and CV are 9 months old so those are good. At same time, steering rack bushings and sway bar were replaced with OEM rubber replacements along with sway bar links. Driverside ball joints are looking rough; CV joint is less than 3 days new.

Never claimed it would handle like a fully designed sports car. But it can be better tuned toward sporty driving in the process of replacing all the parts in the front. Just like in stock form, it isn't a rock crawler but with some 'tweaking', it can perform better.

New parts and upgrades are the name of my game right now.

To help get that sporty feel, I'm considering 'bigger' front sway bar as well as adding a rear sway bar. I went through similar upgrades on my 'old' 2000 4wd S10; added a rear sway bar, dropped it 2", went with shorter/wider tires(28"x11"??)... it was VERY sporty after that

I thought I've seen Tundra steering rack mentioned as an upgrade. Right now, steering replacement isn't high on list yet but it is on the LONG list.

It sounds like you believe there isn't an upgrade path for LCAs and UCAs with focus on performance driving... except maybe going with maybe pressing in poly bushings. I have no problem going that route. Is there a "best" ball joint to consider?

Right now, I'm trying to keep ahead of potential 'imminent' failures and most noticeable issue is control arms and shocks. Shock lower bushing is FULLY failed but to paraphrase the alignment shop: "you should replace those but it won't impact our ability set alignment."

I'm choosing to spread cost and replacements out over a couple of months rather than dump several thousand all at once. Once I hit control arms and get alignment, I'll replace hub assemblies and shocks to wrap up 'zero mile' front end. I'm still debating what to do with front diff but that is different discussion

 

God help me if they are original

The problem is the alignment is failing more toward toe in/out issue than camber/caster. The inside edge of the tires is burning to the cords before wear is showing on outer edge. I'm not overstating this. I have a set of 'rollers' from this truck that are beyond cords and the three sets since show same wear pattern.

 

To recap, yes indeed no aftermarket upper or lower control arms is going to improve on-road performance at stock height. If lifted, then aftermarket uppers could have a benefit.

Regarding the ball joints, I'd encourage you to ensure that both lowers are OEM. You said a shop recently replaced one side, did they use OEM? If you didn't specify to them to do so, then I doubt they did. If that's the case then I'd replace both now with OEM.

Lastly, it can really only be your LCA bushings + cam adjusters, or your tie rods + rack causing the toe-in problem. If you have someone turn the wheel back and forth with the truck idling, can you detect any movement in the rack looking from underneath? Your rack bushings could be toast, allowing your toe adjustment to get outta whack.

 

Doubt the ball joints are OEM. Worth the added cost? Since I'm buying new control arms(at least new to me), I'm not adverse to replacing them.

I haven't checked rack recently but will check with your instructions. But the rack bushings are brand new rubber as of Jan 1 of this year.

 

Have you even gotten under there and checked to see what is loose? There is a ton of FREE information on this site as well youtube. Study up for more than 5 minutes. You might find most of your questions are already answered in detail somewhere. Go fast. LOL