New to me runner - weird stance

Thanks for allowing me to join. I have an 04 sport edition, purchased a couple weeks ago.

trying to figure out the stance situation. It appears someone installed newer coil overs, and definitely sits higher, especially in the front.

The PO told me the suspension came out of a '22 Tacoma. Maybe? could be?

my question is: can the top most black aluminum block be removed from the coil to drop the height a bit?

if not removed altogether, does it get replaced with a shorter variant?
Any idea on how much it would drop?

thx in advance

 

Just for information purposes, they are not struts. They more resemble coil overs, both visually and functionally. They are otherwise just shocks with the coils being over them.

The PO appears to have installed lift blocks on the front to increase the lift height. Not really a recommended way to lift the vehicle as they have problems. Travel is not increased and in fact it is reduced, which can be very problematic if you do any type of offroading.

The blocks can 100% be removed and not used at all. It will require taking the front suspension apart as you will need to remove the front shocks to remove the spacers. You should also carefully inspect the rear suspension and see if anything was changed there. I have a feeling only the fronts were done in an attempt to level the stance.

 

Thank you. Yes... I thought the same on the strut vs. coil over.... but the local "tire guy" kept using strut. None the less...makes total sense. No off-roading planned, but do want them to function well, and stance to be more normal. the ride is incredibly smooth for a 20 yr old rig.
Will be interesting to see how much lift these blocks are providing.

 

Definitely possible. I had suspension components from a 2015 and later a 2020 Tacoma so I know they're plug and play on 4th Gens at least through 2020. You should definitely be able to remove the spacer (black block) and end up close to level. Here's a pic of mine with the 2015 Tacoma gear and the suspension post linked in my sig has tons more info if it would be helpful. Feel free to message me directly if you have specific questions and I'll do my best to help.

 

Thank you! Very helpful.

 

The front shocks are definitely Bilsteins off a newer Tacoma. These were 2019 Tacoma Bilsteins that I had installed on mine after I first got it. I've since moved to true coil overs on the front.



And this is how it sat after I finished installing them. I swapped those in to replace the failed XREAS that my 4Runner had when I bought it.

 

Those look identical, aside from the spacer mine includes. Thanks for posting. Your stance looks like what I need

 

Motion ratio is about 1:2. If you remove the spacer, ride height would drop by twice the thickness of the spacer.