Hey guys,

Was just driving through the parking lot and drove over a small speed bump at 5 mph, hear a loud pop moments later and see something shoot out to the left of my car. I thought I just drove over something and it bounced out of my inner fender well... Driving home I start hearing a clunk clunk noise every time I hit a bump. Get home, start searching around under the car and don't see anything wrong. After about 3 minutes of starring the problem looks me right back in the face. The upper strut bolt sheered off and the strut is just sitting inside the coil.

So now I am stuck and cant really go too far.


My 4runner has a 3 inch body lift and the toytec OME lift up front with the Tokico struts/shocks. I am very suprised this broke so fast, only had about 15k miles on the lift. Anyways, I wasn't all that impressed with the ride quality of the front setup anyways.

What do you guys think about the toytec coil over setup? I am thinking this will be a better ride if I go with the softer spring rate. Also will not have to deal with compressing the springs which can be a real bitch.

The next problem is that I am at school and 350 miles away from my home and garage. I do have a 200 piece tool kit in my trunk. The coil overs would be much easier to install in the parking lot if I can get my hands on a jack and jack stand. I'd rather not take it anywhere but if it comes down to it I guess I will have to do that.

What do you guys think? If not the coil overs, what are some better brand shocks and where can I get a spring compressor that will fit in between the coils?

 

If those were Tokico Trekmasters, I bet they are under recall. There was a big problem with them doing that.

 

ive got a set of bilstien coilovers off the front of a 96 taco, i thought they were stock, but i'll sell them if your interested

 

Seems like I remember that as well from somewhere. Might be worth checking out.

 

Yes they are the green trekmasters. Very interesting, I will have to check that out.

 

When I went back to the scene of the crime I found the stud that sheered off and the washer.

Pics-








Any info on this recall? I can't find anything.

 

The recall was on the top nuts not being the proper nut for the threads on the top shock stud, thus it ripped off. Never saw anything on the top stud shearing off.

Might run it by Toytech and see what they can do if anything. I alerted them to your thread so maybe they will chime in.

 

Yea I also emailed them.

Thanks for the help.

 

I like the part: "I was driving over a speed bump".... heh.

Wow, that really is no good. I am sorry to hear that. Hope you get everything back together quickly.

 

yea... strut breaks while mall crawling a 4 inch speed bump at walking speed, go figure...

 

Same thing happened to me, and you are right, wabbit, the recall was for the top nut.

On mine, I re-tapped the threads to fit a new nut, since I realized that the one that came with it was the wrong size when I was installing them. A year and several trail rides later, the strut did exactly what yours did when I hit a pothole in town. Not a huge bump, but apparently enough to break the final straw, so to speak.

 

Well... based on your pictures, the shock shaft was obviously worn halfway through before it actually broke, so it was moving around and rubbing for a while before it actually broke. What shape was the bushing in? Was the top nut torqued to spec when you did the install?

 

I have Trekmasters too... so what was recalled here? The included nut for the front strut was too big? And the people installing them could not feel that it was loose?

 

I had to have a shop build my struts at the time because I couldn't find a spring compressor that would fit between the coils. They may have not put one of the bushings in and caused it to move around, not sure.

I went ahead and got a replacement strut from Steve at Sonoran Steel.

 

Check the other side and see if you bushings are there. If not get hold of the shop that did the job. btw, a pair of regular spring compressors worked for me.