Lot's of newbie questions lately. I replaced shocks and struts back in '15 when I bought the truck. Then I started towing, and blew out one rear, so I replaced the rears and the rear leaf springs a couple years ago. The fronts are still the struts from '15, and my ride is pretty rough lately.

I know the stock front coils aren't great. Is there a good option for close to stock (TRD) coil/strut combos? I see a ton of cheapies out there, then I see upgraded wheeler style for a thousand dollars. I'm getting ready to do front lower control arm bushings, stabilizer bushings, lower balljoint. Might as well do the struts while I'm there, so now I'm mulling over whether to do the springs, too. I know I can rent a spring compressor, but a pre-assembled unit would be nice.

 

For the 4Runner the best combo for dollar I've run is the 4R bilstein 5100 + 99 4R tall coils front, 2906 OME coils and 4R Bilstein in the back. For you, you might consider OME up front on 5100's spec'd for your truck all around and inspect the leafs. 5100's have lifetime warranty if you don't damage them upon install/removal, mind you the logistics of removing the bad shock and waiting on warranty approval puts you in a position of having to buy a new shock while you wait.. And then there is Dobinsons, I've heard good things, or mixing up new Taco/4R coils on 5100's. Sonoran Steel might have something for you aswell. Maybe search Tacoma world for Taco specific opinions.

 

I like my 5100s, they are height/lift adjustable too. I just set them to 1 slot higher than stock to preload my springs and turn back the time on some of the 20 years of sag instead of getting new coils. In the rear I bought 1” donut blocks from Daystar to even the rake.

obviously you’ll have leafs in your rear versus coils, depending on the sag have you looked into the Zuk mod? You get helper coils instead of an add-a-leaf and install it in a channel you cut in the bump stop. (Granted that was a big deal on my ‘94 I’m not sure if your Taco would still accommodate that type of mod).

With the 5100s, she drives very mild mannered even while pulling my trailer across the scales loaded to 8000# total vehicle weight.

 

Alright, thanks. I currently have 5100s. On the back, I've got HD leaf springs and airbags, so sag is not an issue. Because of the leaf springs and air bags, I expect the rear to ride rough, but the front starting to ride almost like there's no suspension bothers me. I guess I could just stick with 5100s all around, but crank the fronts higher like fierohink. I've had mine on the lowest setting.

At this point...I'm not looking to do mods and search around for used parts from different model/years and all that stuff. I may get over that at some point, but up till now, one of things I've loved about this truck, compared to my 83, is the fact that I can just buy new parts from Toyota and install them. No searching junkyards, no studying different mods for hours, etc. For now, I just notice my ride in front is pretty rough, and since I'm going to be doing work up there, I might as well refresh the suspension.

 

Down South Motorsports has OME 2880 and 2881, the 81s being the heavy duty. They appear to be the same price...One is for "light loads", the other for "110-220lb loads". I assume that's taking into consideration a rear installation. These are obviously for the front of my Tacoma. I'm sure the regular 2880 is totally adequate, but if they're really the same price...any thoughts? Is it going to be really stiff up front if I get the 2881s? I mean, 1-200lbs of extra load capacity isn't that much.

Also I see on Low Range Offroad that both the 2880 and 2881 can only be installed with OME shocks and coil seats, but I see many people talk about OME coil, Bilstein strut combos. Can I install OME coils and 5100 Bilsteins? Without any modifications?

 

Well it looks like I'd need to install OME front shocks in order for the OME coils to work, and the OME shocks are $100 more than Bilstein...so maybe I'll just save money, keep my old, worn spring coils and just replace the front shocks with Bilsteins.

 

I can't seem to let this go, even though no one cares anymore.

I see a ton of threads about the 5100/OME coil combo, but all seem to be for later gen Tacomas. Is that the issue? For our year trucks, the OMEs don't work unless you use OME shocks also? Or maybe there's a way, with modifications, to make them work?

Anyone have experience with the OME shocks? If I go OME shocks and coils, I'm looking at $531 from Downsouth. More than I wanted to spend, but if I plan to keep my truck for a while longer, it seems like replacing the coils is a good idea. Thoughts on running 20+ year-old nearly 300,000 mile coils? I see fierohink is good with it. Anyone with experience or insight? I know my front suspension needs help, but not sure how much difference the coils make. I mean on all my previous Toyota pickups, there were no coils in the front, just shocks. So how much difference does it make? I believe it makes a difference, but I'm not at all educated on this.

I really see no Toyota reviews of the OME shocks.

 

I used my stock coils with new 5100s. My question would be: If OMEs can work with stock struts, and 5100s can work with stock springs, then shouldn’t OMEs work with 5100s?

I don’t have OME springs, so I don’t know if they’ll work with factory shocks or not. But I CAN tell you the 5100s worked just fine and fit with my stock springs.

 

Thanks. Low Range Offroad says OME springs need to be used with OME shocks on the site. DownSouth doesn't say on the site, but when I called, they said yes, OME coils need to be installed with OME shocks. And yeah I agree, the 5100s fit the stock coils, since that's the setup I've currently got.

You're happy with the handling of your old coils then?

 

I am, mostly. I got the truck with 83k miles and now it has 161k. Nearly all of my miles are highway, or about 1000 miles pulling a heavy trailer. I’ve only had the 5100s a few Ks, but I’m happy so far. No more diving under braking, more solid on the road, less sway. Now as I stated before, I went up a collar ring from stock to compensate for any sag from 20 year old coils. I also did all poly in the whole front end when I did the 5100s. So it was a big improvement from a lot of updated hardware.

 

I haven't tried OME on front 5100's just OME on rear 5100's, but lots of 4R's are running 881 on 5100's. The 99 tall coils work well after 20 years, I'm on the 3rd notch 4R 5100's, if they are not rusty reuse them and adjust as you need.

 

Alright, thanks. Well, my truck is pushing 300,000 miles, has seen a lot of offroad, and I think it's ready for coils. I replaced my leaf springs, shouldn't surprise me that the coils are ready, too. Rather than all this indecision, I just ordered the OME set. OME front shocks, OME 880 coils. I don't need extra weight capacity or lift in the front, though I'm guessing I'll get a little with the setup I ordered.

All this will wait until I've got all the parts for lower control arm bushing show up, but I'll report back then. Like fierohink, I'll be upgrading quite a bit. New, poly lower control arm bushings, poly stabilizer bar bushings, lower balljoints, shocks & coils. Should be a very noticeable change. Parts are starting to ship, but I'm not positive how long before they all show up, and my housing situation is about to change, so a few things will need to align before I can take a weekend and get this all done.

 

Shocks and coils are on. So far, they feel great. Not harsh, but they definitely take bumps. I got about an inch lift out of them, which will hopefully settle a little. Hard to compare without a before photo, but the front is definitely significantly higher than it was before. The front tire was all the way into the wheel well before.