I bought my truck with 70,000 on it and I'm wondering if the springs are in good shape. The back end does seem to "wave," or "float" when going over larger humps in the road, and it slams sometimes, especially when going over speed bumps. Is this normal and if not, would new shocks help or would just replacing the rear springs with lesser used oem ones be good enough?

 

Shocks are probably toast. if your springs are bad, your rear(truck that is) would be sagging.

 

Normal for a 3rd gen w/ stock setup. The springs in the rear are just crappy, too soft for the weight of the vehicle. You can firm this up a bit but not much w/ some new shocks.

 

i dont have much bounce or sway and as far i as know theyre the original shocks(>100,000) steady up to 100mph and still fun on trails. never carried a heavy load either.

 

Yeah, the 3rd gens are rougher than the 4th gens for sure. That sounds like it about right. I kind of like it. I think that it could use a little better springs though.

 

Agreed regarding the shocks. Although it's my understanding that the classic 4Runner rear spring issue was fixed back in '99. Your springs should be fine.

 

What they did in '99 was add the cone under the spring so it doesn't bottom out as easily. This did not improve the spring characteristics at all. In '99 and '00, they actually put taller springs so you may have more of an issue with bottoming out.

 

Ditto.....I had mine changed (done as a recall to change for 99+ springs and new bump stops) and it really didn't help much at all except it didn't bottom out as hard as before over big bumps. OME stuff I have now is a world of difference over stock.

The shocks are likely needing replacement but the 3rd gen 4runners have always had those characteristics when driving, just not as bad. The springs are the weak part of the design IMHO.

 

Both my 2nd gen ('90) and 3rd gen ('00) ride rough. I have Bilstein's on my '00 and it vastly improved the handling. The suspension is much tighter than with the stock shocks which is how I like it. You really feel the road. My g/f has a Grand Cherokee and she blasts me on how much "nicer" her Cheep drives (when it's not in the shop! ).