Shock and struts whole set

Please talk to any shop you might deal with some will not install customer supplied parts. **Which means parts you bought .

Always make sure before buying anything you can`t install yourself.

 

ok got it thx

 

I like using Toytech to order shocks. Check them out

 

It's all a learning process

 

so useful information thank you ill give a shot

 

Before you go all in on new suspension- I know you've mentioned that you have bad ball joints, and I would like to strongly suggest that you take care of any issues with those before you consider suspension upgrades. Doesn't matter what shocks you get if your wheels break off.

 

How do you know that ball join up arms are in bad condition

 

Basically, if you don't know when the last time the lowers have been replaced, they need to be replaced with OEM only parts. The uppers are slightly less critical- check them for movement with a pry bar.

The lower ball joints fail without warning- just search these forums, there are countless threads with aftermath photos.

 

There must be some sort of warning for the LBJ

Snapping sound?
Crunching?
Grinding?

 

Nope. Unless those sounds are related to the aftermath of the failure.

 

If you live to tell of the sound, consider it a lucky day. I can't locate it but there is a thread posted by someone that had a dash cam running and though he never said, comments speculate an LBJ let loose, went off the road, into a tree, the carnage is downright scary. From what I can tell it's hit or miss, they can last forever or snap in a week, there's no rhyme or reason, it's not always hard offroad bashing. In the video he posted he was just cruising down the highway when it let go.

Special thanks to @Andy01DblCabTacoma and @Kwikvette for their input in this thread, I'm in the same boat, looking to replace shocks/coilovers. I'm sure I can handle compressing the springs and just replacing the shocks but a preassembled set would be so much easier and it's good to know there are some worthy non-OEM options out there.

 

Here's the thing: It's not hit or miss. It's a hit every time. They are a wear item, and they need to be replaced. If you don't replace them, they fail.

People don't like to replace things unless they are physically broken (there are still folks driving around on OEM shocks and springs swearing that they are still OK- they aren't), or showing signs of breakage.

Bilstiens + OME 88x coilovers have been the goto option for 20+ years.

 

The hit or miss refers to when. 5 years? 10, 20? That's what I meant. I did the ball joint test on my '03 and there was zero play with a 36" crow bar. I almost didn't do the job, but put in new ones anyway. Could have been 10 more years, could have been tomorrow.

 

I can't find a definitive reference anywhere (easily), but if I recall correctly, the replacement schedule for the ball joints is something like every 75K. My '01 was part of the ball join recall, and I've replaced them twice since.

 

How about mileage?
That's gotta be a factor!
75k seems shorttime is all

 

They are a known weak link. 75k is low is IMO.

 

This is for aftermarket LBJ or the OEM yota LBJ?

 

Thank you guys for the great information, so I really appreciate willing to check it soon. LBJ

 

OEM. Dont even think about non-OEM lower ball joints. There is another thread detailing some of the internal differences between the OEM and aftermarket parts, and the aftermarket ones are complete junk. Non-OEM change interval is more like 30k or every other year if you're lucky.

 

When I changed mine they were still tight.

Around 150,000 miles

That is what bothers me the when ? Why some fail and others last forever.

If your not a hard core Toyota person so many things you never hear of. Your average Tacoma owner has no idea of the poor ball joint design.

In our State safety inspection as long as they are tight there good to go.