Total noob here, folks!

Just picked up a 2000 limited with 137K on the clock...I am an old school square body guy, but I spent some time in Kenya earlier this year and gained a mad respect for these Cylon faced sleds...

She's gonna be a daily for the next 6 months or 2, so I am not goin crazy on upgrades just yet...

I'm puttin new bumpy parts on her in the form of Bilstein 4600s...my question is about rear springs....I know, I Know, there are thousands of posts about this, but I specifically want to ask if anyone has used the Duralast (Auto Zone) replacement shocks...

I've seen everyone saying to go with the 99 tall shocks, but 99 and 2000 springs share the same part number, soooooo...I have a set of OME 906s (took a while to figure out the 906s and 2906s are the same thing) but I am concerned about having an 80's, pumped to the max, air shock lookin rake...oh and I'm not changing out the front springs just yet...

Duralast...anybody used them??

Thank ya all...

Fris

 

Nice looking 4Runner.

I can't really help since my rear suspension is different, but my experience with Auto Zone is to avoid experiencing Auto Zone. Sort of like Harbor Freight. If you know for a fact that a certain brand or tool or part they carry is quality, cool. But I would never walk into Auto Zone or Harbor Freight and just buy something off the shelf, expecting it not to be crap.

 

My understanding of ‘99 tall springs, as that applies to the front coil springs. The rear should be the same.

As for “shocks”, that should not effect your ride height. Shocks control and damp the rate at which your springs compress or rebound.

What you’ll notice about cheap is how quickly they degrade. The seals are not as robust and will begin to leak internally or worse externally. This is apparent by the return of jounce and dive. Obviously OME and Bilstein are top shelf and priced as such, ranchero is hit or miss but prices better. If you can afford it, buy better, you’ll appreciate the investment later.

 

Thanks for the quick reply, fellas!

Here's where I'm at right nowI have one set of OME 906s, one set of Duralast direct replacements and 1/2 set of Toyota direct replacement (shame on me for not catching that Toyota sells them in singles...and for a stupid price...did a quick comparison today and they are all the same height...the Duralast and the Toyota look identical, but the Emu is clearly a heavier spring with tighter coil and I am going to guess that's where the 1"-2" lift comes from...

Soooo, we are gonna start with the Emu 1st and see how it sits...worst case is, I hate the rake, we yank em off and put the Duralast on...I will take pics and vid of it all and post em up tomorrow...

Quick note on the Duralast...all of the Duralast brand (NOT the Value-Crap brand) suspension parts are made by Federal-Mogul and so the quality is not to be assumed horrible...however! Federal-Mogul, has manufacturing plants in 18 countries now and the quality, most definitely, varies. Duralast actually has 2 grades of each part with the Duralast...look for the box that says "Enhanced Design" and that part is a MOOG in a Duralast box...oh yeah, Duralast Gold brake pads are made by Bosch...

 

I’ll be interested to see how it turns out. I put HD leaf springs and bilsteins meant for a 1” lift on my truck. It did give me some rake, which I don’t like, but like it more than sag. I tow with my truck so I need a beefed up suspension. So I’m willing to put up with some rake.