Coils

I'm going to try and fix up a front end on a 2000 4runner. Don't want or need a lift.

I'm going to buy Bilstein 4600 shocks front and back. Close to stock. I guess.

Coils - this vehicle as 225k miles. I figure replacing coils wouldn't be a bad idea while replace shocks.

Problem - I was going to buy Toyota OEM coils from the dealer. However I can only find the right front - nobody has the left front and they are Discontinued at multiple sites.

Right 48131-35180 SPRING, COIL - In stock.
Left 48131-35100 SPRING, COIL - Not in stock - and discontinued.

NOTICE - there are two part numbers for left & right.

Are the Left & Right all that much different? They have the Right one in stock - but not Left.

So what is a good replacement brand? It seems Moog is sucking these days. Not just coils but other front end parts too. Or are they good enough?

Old Man Emu seems to have a good rep - but everything seems to be for 'lifts' and I just don't do enough off-road to want to do that. Although I'm so dang tired of looking I just might go with the 1.5 lift front and back.

I saw LESJÖFORS on rockauto.com. Supposedly they make parts for Audi so might be decent.

Any suggestions? Or where to buy decent coils? I've prob spent 5 hours looking and am out of energy.

 

I did a 1" lift on mine, spacers on the front and 1" OME springs on the rear, don't think I would lift it more than that, pretty tough to get the front struts in with the spacers

 

Thanks for the reply.

I'd wanted to go OEM (lol not OME) for coils and shocks. I didn't want any lift. However Toyota did not have the front left coil spring. Looked all over. I guess they no longer manufacture them?

So based on reviews I went ahead and bought OME (Old Man Emu) EMU-2906 for the rear (2" lift) and OME 2880 for the front (up to 1.75 lift). Although I didn't want a lift I also didn't want cheap azz coils. So looks like I've go with 1" in front & 2" in rear. Got the adjustable Bilstein 5100s. The front adjustable Bilstein can be set from stock up to 1.75 lift. It'll be a bit stiffer than I want be I've driven trucks all my life so I doubt that'll bother me.

I haven't put everything on yet and I'm still buying parts for the front end. The front end will be rebuilt using Toyota OEM ball joints, tie rods, etc. I did have to go with Moog control arms because the OEM parts are priced out of this world. At least the Moog were made in Taiwan and not China. Screw that.

BTW: How to find out where parts are CURRENTLY made and not buy China crap: Go and buy your parts from https://www.stockwiseauto.com/ - they actually list country of origin on the parts description. And they are reasonably priced. Just a bit higher than rockauto. Not much higher either. Worth giving somebody like that your business and not I'm not affliliated with them. I was just happy to decide what to buy based on where the parts are manufactured.

I'll update my post once it's all put together. Now to find the time one weekend to do this being as I work 6-7 days a week. I have a friend that's going to help as I'm not much of a mechanic.

Question if anybody actually knows an answer - please dont reply if you are just guessing - I see way too much of that on this forum. While I'm not a great mechanic some of the posts I've seen here are way off base.

It seems with the OME rear coil spring I get a 2" rear lift whether I like it or not. Assuming that is correct based on part description. So would it prob look and ride OK by setting the front Bilstein 5100 for a 1" lift? Or should I just go with the max lift of 1.75?

 

I have had my 2002 4runner since new (285k miles now) and the springs are still fine. I actually measured my car from ground to wheel well and the car is still the same all the way around. I did replace all bushings and shocks with OEM. I would have just reused yours.

 

Do you have 15 or 16 inch wheels? The oem spring you posted are for the 15s. The spring for the 16s may be available.

Edit:

For 16" wheels:
48131-35290 LH
48131-35120 RH

 

Finally got enough time to install everything. Although I didn't plan on doing a lift I wanted good parts. And it seems so many things nowadays are subpar. So I went with OME (Old Man Emu) coils since they have a good reputation. And Bilstein 5100s. It's a small lift. Prob 1.5 inch altogether front and back. Kinda glad I did do a small lift. I don't go off road often but when I do it's nice to have a lift. I do live in a rough area.

Coils:
OME 880 Front
OME 906 Rear

On the rear coil - be sure the put the coil labeled 'A' on the driver side. The 'A' coil is maybe .5 inch taller than the passenger side coil. If you don't do that the rear end, looking from the back, won't be level.

Shocks:
Bilstein 5100s. Front shock is adjustable. I set it at the lowest setting. Thankfully. Otherwise the front would be quite a bit higher and would not be even close to level. My understanding is the next setting higher on the shock lifts it much more than you would think.



Almost perfectly level. Ride seems OK but stiffer than before of course.

See pic. The front is on a bit of a hump so kinda throws the pic off. I have no level area whatsoever at my place.

And off subject - I'd bought all Toyota OEM parts for ball joints, tie rod ends, etc, directly from Toyota. However they no longer have most of that. Any parts you may need now or in the future - best to get them now if you can. I'd go to rockauto.com for some things and decide to buy the next day. And gone.

And lol - the rag on the rear view mirror I put there since a roadrunner saw his reflection in the mirror and jumped up to attack it. He put some scratches on the paint so I put a t-shirt on the mirror so he wouldn't have anything to 'fight' with.

 

Shocks have no effect on height.

What sort of an adjustment is there on Bilstein socks that could do anything to height?

 

Evidently these do. There are 4 areas to set the 'rings' that hold the coil in place. The higher up you set the ring the more compression happens on the coil. And the longer in appearance the shock itself is. We did not get a strut assembly but put it together ourselves with the OME coils.

They are called B8 5100 (Ride Height Adjustable) - Suspension Shock Absorber. According to Bilstein you can get from .8 to 2.3 inch lift. I set it at the lowest setting and I'd say it was more like 1.5 inch lift versus the .8 in the documentation.

 

I looked it up and it looks like a setting to just make sure the travel is in the correct range of your ride height.

It doesn't actually change the ride height.

The physics of it don't allow a shock to change ride height. It needs to travel in a range.

 

Very well could be. I'm certainly not an expert thus the questions above. If that's the case then at least I will have more 'travel' since the coils aren't super compressed. I guess off roaders would want less travel?

While you're posting gotta question: Reading the Toyota manual it looks like getting a front end alignment done properly is more involved than I thought. It appears that Firestone & Goodyear shops do computer alignments. You ever had experience with either one? Maybe the Toyota dealship? Due to the crappy work I've seen at so many places nowadays I have no idea where to get a good alignment. And it sure costs a lot more than the last time I had one done. And not just money but time taken off from work. Any suggestions?

 

I got a lifetime alignment back in 2004 and take it in every 2-4 years to a local Firestone shop. I'm slowly putting them out of business. My car has always driven the same as it came from the factory.

I recently replaced my rack myself, eyeballed the tie rods and it drove a little off. After I took it in, it was back to exactly how it should drive. No complaints from Firestone for alignments.

 

Buku Thanks.

Yeah did the rack too. Alignment not real bad but feels squirrely. We've got a Firestone a few towns over. I'll give it a shot. I'm out in the sticks so it's worth a drive.