New Member over here but have been on TTORA for 3 years or so now. I drive a 95.5 xcab taco and recently purchased a 97 4Runner for my wife and need some help with some suspension stuff for the 97 runner, so I will ask the same thing I did on the ttora forum, thanks for any help you guys can give.

I recently bought a 97 4runner for my wife and recently drove from Montana to Vegas and back with 4 people plus the back filled with crap. I am used to the feel of my taco with a slightly upgraded suspension and am dire need of doing something to improve the soft suspension(more so in the rear) of this 97 runner.

I am not really looking to lift it but would be willing to go up 1 inch max if that is what is needed to get the proper suspension components to firm the ride of this thing up, also some heavier duty coils in the rear are a must.

I have researched about the tundra 2wd setup for the front but that will give more lift than this thing needs for daily driving. Have also researched about OME but have not been able to confirm if they have what I need to upgrade the suspension and also keeping it between stock and 1inch of lift. I do know I could go with coilovers in the front to get the front to handle better but that would be overkill on my wifes daily driver.

So if you guys could point me in the right direction for rear coils that are stiffer than the soft stock ones/and matching shocks to keep me at the stock to 1 inch lift height, and also any panhard bar issues there may be. Along with front setups(not coliovers) that could improve the front handling keeping in mind I am looking for stock height to 1inch lift. Any direction you guys could provide would be much appreciated, I am not up to speed on the rear of these 4runners and the options as I am on the taco stuff. Thanks for the help guys.

 

You are going through exactly the same thing I did when my 4runner's rear sagged more than I could tolerate. After alot research the 2 best options for me were either use new springs in the rear and a set of airbags or go with a mild OME lift.....which is the choice I eventually took (you can see pics in my sig). If you really do want to keep it bone stock height, I'd use a set of new rear springs (because yours have probably already settled.....a set of used 99 rear coils might work well too) and run some airbags in the rear (they are usually under $100). The 4runner rear springs are nice when there is no load on them but when you do have anyone in the back it sags like crazy. So if you use the airbags too you can adjust for having more weight and prevent the springs from sagging prematurely.

 

Hey thanks for the reply. I checked out your Sig link and it looks good after the OME stuff went on. It looks like that setup was about 2inches of lift, is that about what it ended up being? I may just end up going to OME route.

 

i'd do some 1.5" downey or 1" PP (performance products, and are more like 1.5-1.75") springs in the rear with some air bags. you could also do some 99 rear coils (1" taller than your 97 springs), a trim packer (10mm = ~1/2") and some bags in the rear.

i've had the TRD air bags (nice, and made by firestone) and sold them on the rig and regretted it. now i have some Air Lift bags (still made by firestone) and love them for long rides w/ lots of weight in the rear. simply pushing a button to adjust the ride from the driver's seat is NICE. i have more here on YT (search "air lift 1000" and on http://4rnr.net)

the front TRD's are nice progressive coils, and they are definitley a nice feel over the stock fronts. the coils by themselves only lift about 1.75" on a stock runner, so it's not THAT noticeable. another option is to just get a set of PP coils front and rear (lift about 1.5-1.75" all around).