Newbie here....but a 18 yr 4 Runner Vet.....1st new car I bought was a 90' 4 Runner......put 225K+ on it...sold it in '03 for $3,500 I think it was & leased an '03 V8 Sport...which I just bought outright afte the lease ended...& bein a 4 Runner....it was worth more on the open mrkt than the residual...was gonna buy it anyways.

OK...here's my question....I only have 53K on it & it appears that my tires are feathering....being worn unevenly Rynck tells me....gotta an oil change the other day there. Anyway....I did put new tries on it approx 5-6K miles ago.....got 40-45K on the original tires & simply put the same tire back on it....maybe not the smartest thing to do but the AT's are a soft ride so I thought OK. So these new tires now seem to not be wearing properly & they (Rynck) are tellin me that it's most likely that I need new shocks (alignment checks out jus fine...always had)...so when I went to go get a quite from Rynck I was quite shocked (pun INtended) w/the 1K quote. Come to learn it's b/c of the X-REAS suspension. & I was told (& have also recently read) by the salesmen back in 03 who I leased the car from (was actually his demo that he drove for the 1st 7K miles) that these shocks should last the lifetime of the car...so of course i'm not a happy camper now.

Admittedly I am mostly a city driver (stay at home dad here) but do go on road trips from time to time...however on this '03 I have averaged approx 10K miles a yr.....so it's still a baby.

I just wanna learn all I can about this suspension before I drop 1K+ on shocks....tphhhfffttt!!!

Thx for any & all help.

Cheers!!

Rob

X-REAS features variable oil pressure in the shocks, with opposite corners connected to each other (like an X) by oil lines to decrease the amount of body roll in turns. Therefore, they're special shocks to replace because of that variable control.

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Thx for the reply.....I guess what I'm lookin for is......why did my shocks go out so soon?...especially when one of the bene's of this suspension is longer lasting (if not lifelong) shocks?

& I dont consider myself to be hard on the car....I brake easy & conservatively....do very lil crub hoping,....& if I do it's at always while my foot is on the brake, never, ever hitting the gas unless I must....& if so, tap the gas pedal as lightly as I possible, etc.

It's seems to me as if I should have gotten at least 100K if not more out of the shocks.....50K is old school wear..surely not 03
X-REAS wear.

Would like to know if others have had to replace their X-REAS shocks at 50K or sooner on this model?

Thx again for your input.

Check this: http://www.toyota-4runner.org/showth...threadid=39971

Thx....dont think any of the 4 are actually leaking.....haven't seen anything in the garage & Rynck, Toyota & or anyone else for that matter who has ever worked on it has ever said so.

Hard to believe they wore out so soon....especially if there's no leak. I'll continue to do so diggen....still not sold on the fact that it is the X-REAS that's causing the feathering of the tires....then again, other than the alignment which checks out fine, what else could be the cause?

& if it is proven to be the X-REAS that went south on me after jus 50K....might be cheaper to do nothing....planning on buying out pops lease on an '07 Acura AWD MDX in early 2010.....w/my type of driving, even w/a faulty X-REAS (which I would never know by the way it handles) my tires should still be OK after another 15-20K from here.

Thx for the link.....sounds like the X-REAS sure ended up being a "winner"....for Toyota service...tphhffftt!!!

I know NOTHING !!! but would not think they would be bad at this point. Ask how they came to that determination.

I have 58k on mine and no problems with the XREAS and no weird tire wear problems. If one or more shocks shit the bed then your handling would suffer. Ever drive a vehicle with bad shocks? It tends to bounce a lot more and for longer times than usual. Look around the shocks and see if you see any wet spots. Also check those hard lines connecting the shocks to one another.
Anything is possible. Maybe they should check the ball joints and various bushing on the front suspension.

I do not think it should have worn out by now, although it eventually does have issues with some people.

If you have to replace it, I would go with a better setup than the stock suspension parts. OME for example is a better ride, as well as cheaper than 1k. I never even noticed a difference when I had my Xreas disconnected, so don't worry too much about not having it, if that is the route you choose to take.

Thx for all the added replies over the last few days....really appreciate it.

Here's where I'm at...good news I believe. I agree w/the comments in that if it were the X-REAS I would be noticing a huge difference in the ride....was thinken that from the get-go....but since the ride is as clean as ever I'm really not thinken there's a problem w/the suspension at all....after all, no leaks are evident either.

Since I last posted I have made trips to both the local Toy dealer (where I bought the car in summer of '03) & back to Rynck. After speakin w/the tech @ Toy service of he said the only way ta truly tell is to put it up on the rack....of course...duhh. But by his eye & touch of the tires, he could not feel or see any evidence of abnormal wear....& I must admit, nor can I. So I then went back to Rynck....the joint that originally told me I may have a suspension issue b/c of the feathering. Well after talkin a lil more in depth w/the tech there, he began to change his tune a bit from what the service writer had told me upon p/up after the oil change & rotation. Now they're tellin me that it looks to be nothin more than normal type of wear...wadda back track. Ya know I've been a regular customer there (w/both our cars) for well over 10 yrs now & you'd think they wouldn't be platyin any games w/me...but then again I only recoginized one person there in the entire shop....looks like the place has pretty much turned over 100% over the last few mos & now they have clue who I am so so perhaps they are testin the waters w/me...wanna see if I'm an easy target......tphhfftt!!

Anyhow it's lookin like perhaps all this X-REAS concern may've been all for not....just a case of a local Rynck outfit tryin ta take me for a 1K+ ride....funny how quickly the story goes from abnormal tire wear to normal wear after I make'em justify their diagnosis & take'em ta task on it......I betcha 50% of the time (or more) they actually do catch their fish

Thx again for all the comments...Falls, HB & Gaslight.

I'll continue to check back here from ta time.

Cheers!!

Just as a side note I have literally pounded my shocks at times and have no problems . If I ever have one blow out I will go OME shocks and coil overs. at 50k miles they have been strong as hell. I hit an unseen hole the other day off road and it dropped hard to my surprise nothing happened it didn't even feel like it bottomed out at all.

I agree with Falls. I ran my XREAS shocks with OME springs for 12 months (not recommended). Washboard roads, rocks, curbs, etc. The shocks were still fine when I replaced them with OME shocks at 95,000 miles. The XREAS shocks seem to be built stout enough.

Thanks for the heads up on scamming shop. Where are you and the shop located?

I had failure of my right rear X-reas shock (leaking) at 26K miles. This is after 20K miles of having the Daystar 1.5 inch lift on the rear. Never off road.

I'm in Nor Cal.....east SF bay...approx 20 miles east of Oakland. The shop is a Rynck (owned by Goodyear) in Pleasanton, CA...& there's actually 2 Ryncks in Pleasanton.....the one I go to is the Rosewood location...the other one (I've been to once but not since that 1st visit back in summer '03) is on the other side of town.

Anyway.....I was thinken that I should go back & play as if I'm seriosuly thinking about replacing'em.....see how far they'd go....wonderin if they really would go thru an unwarranted fix? What am I thinken....I'm pretty sure they would as is the case w/most high volume chains....tphhffftt!!

Anyway.....I should probabally start a new thread...but wtf....for pretty much ever since I've had this 4Runner there's been this rattling noise that seems to be comin from the lower left (drivers side) corner of the windshield. It's not always present however there are times when it does get somewhat annoying. Maybe it's time ta change the windshield & see if that does it? I've had a coupla smallish cracks/chips on this original windshield filled by one of those house call shops....came to my house & filled the cracks (a total of 3 I think it was?) right here on the spot. Anyway...this rattling noise was present prior to this fill job so I know it's not from that.

Just curious if anyone else has experienced the same w/their 4Runner...& again it's a early '03 V8 Sport Edition (silver) w/53K.....& about the only bells 'n whistles that I don't have is leather (don't like leather...gets too hot out here in Cali) & GPS (which I didn't like that 1st generation Toy GPS at the time anyhow). I have the enhanced JBL 6 disc deck w/the extra speakers in the back where the 2 blind spot mirrors would otherwise go if not for the top of line sound system....it's a pretty darn good factory system if I say so myself & am way happier w/the added speakers vs being able ta see the blind spots. I don't know about anyone else but I personally found it a lil strange tryin ta figure out which blind spot I was actually lookin at when lookin in those mirrors (while test driving)....right was left & left was right....& as for me, to this day I still haven't figured out whose on 1st ;)~

oh & also been meanin ta ask....what does "OME" stand for w/re to the suspension thread?

TIA!!

Cheers!!

Rob

QUOTE]Originally posted by Photog3
I agree with Falls. I ran my XREAS shocks with OME springs for 12 months (not recommended). Washboard roads, rocks, curbs, etc. The shocks were still fine when I replaced them with OME shocks at 95,000 miles. The XREAS shocks seem to be built stout enough.

Thanks for the heads up on scamming shop. Where are you and the shop located? [/QUOTE]