To the drawing board

Greetings everyone,

I spoke with a stealership yesterday to verify the particulars on my warranty. I can add any 33" tire and any lift up to 4" as long as a Toyota dealer does the install. This also applies to anything and everything else I intended to bolt on myself.

They of course insisted that I buy one of their available lifts. However, I'm so soured by dealing with these shysters and their lack of ethics that I refuse to give them an extra red cent on principle.

This leaves me in a sort of quandary. I can't get advise from 3rd party shops because they won't be doing the work and the dealer outright refused to offer advise because they are more than upset I plan on bringing them a trailer full of parts to assemble.

I'm buying 285/75/17 or 33"x12.50" tires and to accommodate these tires I've gathered I need a lift. Based on the advise of members of this community I'm deciding between Eibach or Kings. I'm shooting for 2.75" Front and 1.5" in the back. *These are arbitrary numbers*

I'm confused as to the extent of parts I need. Toytec sells a complete kit with UCA (I just learned this acronym) and other parts I have no idea what they do. Eibach parts everything out individually and I'd have to know what I even need. Through cursory searches I seems when you lift and put larger tired you of course stress other parts through geometry changes and weight increase.

I will tow a dirtbike (225lb) regularly, have a roof rack *ordering* (60lb) , and *down the road* add a front aluminum bumper (~80LB) , add rock sliders (120lb)

I'd like to remain reliable and bite the bullet once, not revisit this down the road.

On the advise of a very helpful member I'm ordering heavy parts so that when this all comes in and is installed hopefully I can get it all dialed in by a shop on the side in the TX area.

 

Best of luck with your build. Find a good shop and stick with them.

 

Unfortunately I can't used a 3rd party shop due to warranty. I will definitely keep the build updated on here though!

 

Warranty is a touchy subject. If you don’t want anything to hinder warranty work, leave it stock. Realistically, lifting the vehicle and adding large tires could void the warranty if anything failed. Modifying the vehicle in any way it wasn’t intended to work in usually falls outside of the warranty. It all depends on how willing the dealer wants to work with you. Unless they’re giving you a signed document that your 3 year/36k mile warranty or 5 year/60k power train warranty won’t be affected, then maybe. Otherwise their word means squat. I’m not an expert, just my opinion and thoughts.

Good luck!

 

At signing I purchased 125k bumper to bumper and free oil changes along with 4" lift and 33" tires that will not void my warranty.

My issue is I may as well be ordering ingredients to cook a stew in another language. The dealership doing the work simply won't help me because I'm not buying THEIR lift.

 

So in your warranty agreements from Toyota, it states that your lift will not void the warranty? Or is this a third party warranty? At 4” of lift your CVS will have awful angles, and might need to cut the cross member to correct the angle which at that point the warranty would be voided. Out of curiosity, what kind of lift are they selling that yields 4” on the 4Runner?

 

The tire and lift is a 3rd party warranty and to be honest I didn't think a 3rd party warranty would conflict with the Toyota warranty.

I was stating the warranty restrictions and do not intend on going to 4" and neither did the dealer offer me a 4" lift. He basically said he didn't have eibach or toytec and I said ok but would they be covered and he said yes up to 4".

On second thought I feel this 3rd party warranty is sketchy now and I just may call the finance manager and request it off if the fee isn't too high.

As far as the lift and suspension I'm currently sifting through old threads to see if I can find get a grasp on what I need and why.

 

I’m not an expert in this area, but I definitely would ditch a 3rd party warranty if I was in your position. From what I hear is they’re a lot harder to deal with when something does go wrong, and with your new vehicle you’d be better off buying an extended warranty through Toyota. Make sure whatever you were told is in writing. I personally have never seen anyone warranty/guarantee a lift on warranty papers. And you’re off to a good start! Plenty of cool builds here and helpful threads/individuals.

 

Thinking out loud here. 3rd party warranters and their willingness to pay(in my experience)depends greatly on how the claimants dealer represents them. It's almost like a secret language. Presented the right way, they approve. Presented the wrong way, they deny the claim. I could give several examples of both, but won't bother you with the minutia. fwiw

Edit: Requests for pictures by the warranter is common practice these day too.