violation
Member
I have a Toytec lift kit I purchased back in March 2017 and installed soon thereafter. Within a few weeks of one another, one front shock failed and then a rear shock failed. Let me start off by saying Toytec Lifts doesn’t believe the front shock failure is their fault. I don’t have any reason to doubt what they say about that. The rear shock, however, is a different situation. In both cases, I'm out of warranty so it's not like they owe me a legal obligation.
The Toytec kit has just over 20,000 miles on it in over two years. I don’t drive the 4Runner often, so a lot of those miles are highway miles (to get to camp sites or trails) and a lot of off-road miles. The first post of my build thread has a pretty good summary of the trips I’ve taken in the 4Runner.
Right before Christmas, I wanted to take a trip out to the desert with a few friends, in part as a final systems check before heading for a 10 day trip through Baja California. Running along a seemingly harmless dirt trail, the driver’s front corner suddenly pops and drops. The trail had no major obstacles, just some random rocks. I may have rolled over one of those rocks but it would not have been more than a few inches tall.
This was what I found when I got out of the truck.
Well, a few hours and several hundred dollars later a local mobile auto repair guy shows up with a new front shock assembly and installs it for me. Luckily I was able to find someone who was able to hit up an Autozone before they closed that afternoon; unluckily for me it cost me a pretty penny.
I talked with Toytec about this failure and they said it looks like I set the collars on the shock body too high, which then caused it to wear prematurely. Then that caused the shock to break as it did. After reviewing the installation instructions, I’m not entirely certain I installed things incorrectly, but am also not entirely certain the installation didn’t set things up too high. So I’ll chalk this up as a learning experience. Read the instructions, friends, even if you think you know what you are doing. I bought a new shock as a replacement from Toytec and made sure that everything was installed in accordance with the instructions.
While in Baja in late January 2019, the rear shock busted. We were doing the Baja XL Rally. At a gas station, while inspecting the truck for damage (due to previous issue with the front shock and CV boots tearing up, we tried being vigilant for any issues… plus we’re in Mexico so we want to be careful) we found that the inside of the rear driver-side tire appeared to be coming apart. Upon closer inspection I noticed a lot of what looked like curb rash on the inside rim of the wheel. My first thought was that the drum brake was somehow causing this damage, but then I noticed a shiny metal rod sticking out of the shock boot. This made me think we somehow ran over something that then rammed itself into the shock body but a second set of eyes made me aware of the obvious – the shock rod broke off and was protruding from the shock boot. Then whenever we accelerated, the rear end squatted down and the end of the rod grinded the tire and rim. We were luck in that the shock rod did not pierce the tire (and potentially cause a flip-over).
We pulled into an Autozone and bought two OEM-spec replacement shocks and did the replacement there in the parking lot.
After getting back home a few days later, I emailed Toytec, who admitted it is a frustrating situation but that’s about all they did. They asked why I was using Land Cruiser rear coils, which may have caused the shocks to become compromised. I told them that the entire set up, including the Land Cruiser coils, were recommended to me by the Toytec sales representative I was dealing with when I initially bought the kit (I was originally told someone at Toytec runs this exact set up which is why it was recommended to me). After that it was pretty much radio silence. Now I’m out the money I paid for two new rear shocks that are only temporary fixes, had to take it easy on the back end of my Baja trip since I was running Autozone shocks, and still have to figure out what to do about my entire suspension set up.
So what is the lesson I learned? For critical parts like the suspension, I think the lesson is to only buy what has been proven. [MENTION=44448]ToyTec Lifts[/MENTION] is a Colorado based company that has been around for enough years that their products must be pretty good, otherwise they would’ve been run out of business. But perhaps their stuff isn’t rated for the rigors of Baja? Or maybe the original sales rep didn’t know what he was talking about and led me down the wrong path? In any case, what I am considering is to only go with products that have been proven in Baja or in the Australian Outback. Other 4Runners in the Baja XL rally ran Solo Motorsports (with King shocks), Old Man Emu, and Sonoran Steel without issue. I don’t know much about the “proven-ness” of Sonoran Steel (though I use their diff drop kit) but due to my experience with Toytec, I’m unlikely to go with their kit (mostly due to my own ignorance, I am not saying anything about Sonoran Steel’s quality or lack thereof). King shocks and Old Man Emu, to me, are the proven quantities here. I’m sure there are others. But that’s the stuff I’ll be looking at from now on.
My experiences probably don't reflect most of Toytec customer's experiences. But it's just food (and another few thou's of dollars) for thought.
UPDATE 1
Toytec has responded to my last email (of 7 days ago) within a day of posting this thread. Coincidence? I will let you decide. But the sales rep says they still want me to be a satisfied customer and I'm guessing communication will continue, which is nice.
I should also say at this point that I've always been happy with Toytec's customer service and their quick responses, from initial purchase when I had a billion questions for them, through the front shock failure and up until now, with the exception of the recent radio silence.
UPDATE 2
After the initial email in Update 1, and a response by me on the same day (I think), I've heard nothing back. At first, I figured they might be busy with KOH. But it's been a while now.
The Toytec kit has just over 20,000 miles on it in over two years. I don’t drive the 4Runner often, so a lot of those miles are highway miles (to get to camp sites or trails) and a lot of off-road miles. The first post of my build thread has a pretty good summary of the trips I’ve taken in the 4Runner.
Right before Christmas, I wanted to take a trip out to the desert with a few friends, in part as a final systems check before heading for a 10 day trip through Baja California. Running along a seemingly harmless dirt trail, the driver’s front corner suddenly pops and drops. The trail had no major obstacles, just some random rocks. I may have rolled over one of those rocks but it would not have been more than a few inches tall.
This was what I found when I got out of the truck.
Well, a few hours and several hundred dollars later a local mobile auto repair guy shows up with a new front shock assembly and installs it for me. Luckily I was able to find someone who was able to hit up an Autozone before they closed that afternoon; unluckily for me it cost me a pretty penny.
I talked with Toytec about this failure and they said it looks like I set the collars on the shock body too high, which then caused it to wear prematurely. Then that caused the shock to break as it did. After reviewing the installation instructions, I’m not entirely certain I installed things incorrectly, but am also not entirely certain the installation didn’t set things up too high. So I’ll chalk this up as a learning experience. Read the instructions, friends, even if you think you know what you are doing. I bought a new shock as a replacement from Toytec and made sure that everything was installed in accordance with the instructions.
While in Baja in late January 2019, the rear shock busted. We were doing the Baja XL Rally. At a gas station, while inspecting the truck for damage (due to previous issue with the front shock and CV boots tearing up, we tried being vigilant for any issues… plus we’re in Mexico so we want to be careful) we found that the inside of the rear driver-side tire appeared to be coming apart. Upon closer inspection I noticed a lot of what looked like curb rash on the inside rim of the wheel. My first thought was that the drum brake was somehow causing this damage, but then I noticed a shiny metal rod sticking out of the shock boot. This made me think we somehow ran over something that then rammed itself into the shock body but a second set of eyes made me aware of the obvious – the shock rod broke off and was protruding from the shock boot. Then whenever we accelerated, the rear end squatted down and the end of the rod grinded the tire and rim. We were luck in that the shock rod did not pierce the tire (and potentially cause a flip-over).
We pulled into an Autozone and bought two OEM-spec replacement shocks and did the replacement there in the parking lot.
After getting back home a few days later, I emailed Toytec, who admitted it is a frustrating situation but that’s about all they did. They asked why I was using Land Cruiser rear coils, which may have caused the shocks to become compromised. I told them that the entire set up, including the Land Cruiser coils, were recommended to me by the Toytec sales representative I was dealing with when I initially bought the kit (I was originally told someone at Toytec runs this exact set up which is why it was recommended to me). After that it was pretty much radio silence. Now I’m out the money I paid for two new rear shocks that are only temporary fixes, had to take it easy on the back end of my Baja trip since I was running Autozone shocks, and still have to figure out what to do about my entire suspension set up.
So what is the lesson I learned? For critical parts like the suspension, I think the lesson is to only buy what has been proven. [MENTION=44448]ToyTec Lifts[/MENTION] is a Colorado based company that has been around for enough years that their products must be pretty good, otherwise they would’ve been run out of business. But perhaps their stuff isn’t rated for the rigors of Baja? Or maybe the original sales rep didn’t know what he was talking about and led me down the wrong path? In any case, what I am considering is to only go with products that have been proven in Baja or in the Australian Outback. Other 4Runners in the Baja XL rally ran Solo Motorsports (with King shocks), Old Man Emu, and Sonoran Steel without issue. I don’t know much about the “proven-ness” of Sonoran Steel (though I use their diff drop kit) but due to my experience with Toytec, I’m unlikely to go with their kit (mostly due to my own ignorance, I am not saying anything about Sonoran Steel’s quality or lack thereof). King shocks and Old Man Emu, to me, are the proven quantities here. I’m sure there are others. But that’s the stuff I’ll be looking at from now on.
My experiences probably don't reflect most of Toytec customer's experiences. But it's just food (and another few thou's of dollars) for thought.
UPDATE 1
Toytec has responded to my last email (of 7 days ago) within a day of posting this thread. Coincidence? I will let you decide. But the sales rep says they still want me to be a satisfied customer and I'm guessing communication will continue, which is nice.
I should also say at this point that I've always been happy with Toytec's customer service and their quick responses, from initial purchase when I had a billion questions for them, through the front shock failure and up until now, with the exception of the recent radio silence.
UPDATE 2
After the initial email in Update 1, and a response by me on the same day (I think), I've heard nothing back. At first, I figured they might be busy with KOH. But it's been a while now.
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