BUYER BEWARE – 100% FAILURE OF 4RUNNER LIMITED X-REAS SUSPENSION UNDER 50,000 MILES. CONTACTED TOYOTA CEC. TOYOTA ACKNOWLEDGING FAILURES ONLY OFFERING $500 TOWARD $3866 REPAIR CLAIMING $500 COVERS COST OF BASE SYSTEM SUSPENSION, FURTHER CLAIMING NO DIFFERENCE IN RIDE BETWEEN BASE SUSPENSION SYSTEM AND X-REAS.
To begin, I don’t off-road! This is all City and Highway driving. I have a 2013 4Runner Limited and my wife has a 2015 Rav4. My 2013 4Runner Limited has just over 47100 miles, with suspension failure diagnostics at under 47000 miles. Diagnosis came during an early December 2018 alignment check when all 4 shocks were noted as “leaking”. This is additionally after a 10-11-2018, 45912 mile, regularly scheduled maintenance check at Mountain States Toyota (Colorado) which included Toyota’s “complimentary multi-point inspection” in which no suspension issues or concerns were noted.
Based on the above, Toyota wants me to believe that ALL 4 shocks, 100% of the system, failed simultaneously within 1000 miles. They further want me (and you) to believe that these X-REAS systems are reliable, lasting up to and through 150K miles, yet facts show differently. The X-REAS systems can only be considered reliable up to 50K miles at most. If you get more, consider yourself lucky.
To formally price out repair costs, I contacted Stevenson Toyota West (Colorado). Stevenson Toyota West asked me to bring it in, confirmed 100% failure, and recommending I contact Toyota’s CEC (Customer Experience Center). Ultimately, Toyota CEC’s representative acknowledges that these failures are far more common than Toyota cares for you to know stating, “For all of the customers that have this issue, the majority end up replacing with the standard base model suspension system”. So, while Toyota recognizes the cost to replace their proprietary system, and recognizes that failures are far more common than they would like you to believe, when the X-REAS systems do fail, Toyota expects you to downgrade your system from what you purchased and the ride you expect, to something very sub-standard. If you question this, just take vehicles with both suspensions for a test drive. The rides are completely different. In the end, the only reason that Toyota is saying this is because customers are forced into a situation where customers simply DO NOT HAVE THE MONEY TO REPLACE WITH LIKE. CUSTOMERS ARE FORCED TO SETTLE FOR SUB-STANDARD SUSPENSIONS.
But don’t worry, Toyota cares and is there for you (Sarcasm). Since you can’t afford the $3866 price tag to replace the X-REAS system with like, they will help you out, offering you $500 off the system replacement. Toyota CEC’s representative explained where that number came from. See, shocks for Toyota’s sub-standard base model suspension system only cost $500 (For all 4). BTW, the full cost of the sub-standard base model suspension system, furnish and install, is $1280. Now, by offering you $500, aren’t they generous?
Toyota is minimally skewing facts if not outright lying to customers. They tout their X-REAS suspension system as some revolutionary thing yet it is unreliable and will cost you dearly in the end. The only part you can rely on is it will fail and, when it does, Toyota will be happy to bend you over in one way or another. For note, I declined the $500. It is a complete slap in the face and now I can freely speak out.
Toyota … If you’re reading this, your response was a joke. Reference case number 1812132362. It’s time you stand behind your products. If such failures are so rare, as you wish people to believe, you should provide longer warrantees and, for these systems when they fail so early, replace them at your cost.

Remove XREAS and install a badass lift.

Problem solved.

@tkmarch2 , do not buy an sr5/ trail/ ORP suspension... especially not from a dealer. you can get all the components here from free to around $100.

XREAS are hit an miss setups. My Dad sitll has the original xreas on his 2006 sport with out issue. If I were you, pick up billstein 5100's, all 4 corners fro around $400 and pay a member a case of beer to help you install them. They will ride way better than stock and without the extra lines. If you were in Jersey, I'd help you out myself.

Also, if you were ever considering a lift, now is the time to do it.

Yea just ditch that crap. Why would you want it replaced with more crap?

I have stock suspension sitting in my garage free to a good home, as do many other people.

Are you capable of doing your own work? My first thought was this would be a problem only if you didn't work on your own vehicle.

Just joined the forum?? Welcome.

Stuff breaks sometimes.

No machine will last forever.

Should not expect a recall for everything.

Take off suspension pieces are all over the place.

This is really bad if toyota is not standing behind its product but when you state toyota reps acknowledge xreas is going out with more frequency for other customers. Did they tell you that? If there are enough customers complaining to toyota and toyota knowingly sells a defective product to customers and refuses to rectify the issue they are leaving them selves open to a class action lawsuit.

To the OP:

don't post when you are angry......

Here is something to make you feel less angry:

One more point, we're talking about a 6 year old vehicle as the 19s are already out. While 47K is ridiculous mileage to be worrying about a suspension, road salt could be a factor depending on where you live. I believe toyota does full replacements for vehicles with in the warranty period and yeah, we've hear quite a bit about the XREAS suspensions failing.

with after market options, you will get better handling over pot holes and rough terrain but will loose some cornering stability. to get that stability back, wheel spacers or rims with less offset than -6 should do the trick with out the hassles of hoses and interconnection shocks.

I put 100k on my xreas. I only took it off to do a complete lift instead of spacers. For 500 you can get a decent suspension.

Sent from my SM-G960U1 using Tapatalk

I dont think the OP is willing to spend any money on anything, let alone 500 dollas......

I would be happy to take 500 dollars though for a vehicle out of warrantee

Water is wet

This^

Or just flick that Limited booger and buy a more capable rig like the Pro or OR!

Buy them on eBay or Norwalk Toyota website for a cheaper price. If I were you I would just buy the shocks and take it to a shop to install them or take it to sears auto to install them. Dealer charge to install them is overpriced. These shocks will have lifetime warranty if you buy the parts only.

Also, the dealer is charging too much because it has lifetime warranty with Labor.
For example my 3rd gen 4Runner had Egr problem parts cost $120 and labor cost me $587. That’s over priced.

Today I have 2 4Runners a 3rd gen and 5th gen 2011 limited with more 110,000 miles and I have no issues

I don’t recommend after market Xreas

is the best option to have

Part numbers
48510-80499
48520-80232
48540-39865
48530-80557

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Toyota-4Run...MAAOSwSlBYwA1Z

https://parts.norwalktoyota.com

Whaaaaaaaaaaaat

this thread has potential.

My XREAS went out at around 60k, which is kind of what I expect of any suspension. It starts to degrade slowly and you don't even notice it, but when you replace it you get the "wow, this is nice" feeling. XREAS are crosslinked shocks, so when when something starts leaking, the whole things needs to be replaced (not just one shock). The dealers will treat it like wear and tear items.

The not so bad is that once you remove the XREAS lines\components, your Limited becomes similar to any other 4Runner and you can install any suspension you like (5100 Bilstein, Toytec, Kings, whatever). Even though I liked the XREAS ride, I would not replace it with another XREAS - it costs too much to install and there are better options. I would not install the SR5/OR OEM shocks either (maybe a TRD Pro take off with low miles.) Search around the site and you will find plenty of threads regarding XREAS replacement options. Stevinson West will install anything on the Toytec site. If they can take $500 of the install of a complete aftermarket lift, that would not be so bad. Labor would be ~6-8 hrs at their $140\hr rate.