Excessive bounce/(body roll?) after going off road

[Rogue-Runner]

Hey everyone, I went off road in Arizona over the weekend with family and had a blast. Everyone else went in side by sides, and I was the only one in a passenger vehicle. I kept up at 30+ mph for the 2-hour ride on the trail, and the 4Rrunner exceeded everyone's expectations (except mine, of course), but I think I might have shifted suspension. There was A LOT of bouncing at those speeds, especially in the rear.

I'm driving a 2016 on TRD Pro Bilstein suspension with CF spacers (1/2 I think but it's been I while since I installed them) and air lift bags.

When I got in the highway back to Utah I noticed immediately that my steering was super sensitive, maybe like excessive body roll. I remembered that I aired down a few pounds on the trail (28 lbs, nothing dramatic) and quickly aired back up. I think the sensitivity was improved but still there. Then I noticed at the slightest bump I felt like my rear wanted to become unglued from the road and it actually made me swerve a tiny bit. This is at about 60 mph.

When I got home, I looked underneath, and nothing stood out as being out of place. I personally installed all the above-mentioned components, so I'm familiar with them, but I wanted to ask the community to see if there's something I should look for. Are there any on road tests I should perform to identify the problem? Thanks in advance.


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[Jakeepoo3]

Hey everyone, I went off road in Arizona over the weekend with family and had a blast. Everyone else went in side by sides, and I was the only one in a passenger vehicle. I kept up at 30+ mph for the 2-hour ride on the trail, and the 4Rrunner exceeded everyone's expectations (except mine, of course), but I think I might have shifted suspension. There was A LOT of bouncing at those speeds, especially in the rear.

I'm driving a 2016 on TRD Pro Bilstein suspension with CF spacers (1/2 I think but it's been I while since I installed them) and air lift bags.

When I got in the highway back to Utah I noticed immediately that my steering was super sensitive, maybe like excessive body roll. I remembered that I aired down a few pounds on the trail (28 lbs, nothing dramatic) and quickly aired back up. I think the sensitivity was improved but still there. Then I noticed at the slightest bump I felt like my rear wanted to become unglued from the road and it actually made me swerve a tiny bit. This is at about 60 mph.

When I got home, I looked underneath, and nothing stood out as being out of place. I personally installed all the above-mentioned components, so I'm familiar with them, but I wanted to ask the community to see if there's something I should look for. Are there any on road tests I should perform to identify the problem? Thanks in advance.


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The sway bars prevent body roll. Check all four end links. Also correct tire pressure is super important especially with an a/t tire and large sidewall profile. The perfect pressure for my 285/70/17 wildpeaks is 41 psi. Lower I can feel that rolling squishy feeling in corners.

 

[Jakeepoo3]

Also I forgot to mention the panhard bar. After a lift the OEM bar may not be the correct length causing your rear end to be out if center causing that crazy back end coming out from underneath you. May need to get an adjustable bar.

 

[mrblah]

Hey everyone, I went off road in Arizona over the weekend with family and had a blast. Everyone else went in side by sides, and I was the only one in a passenger vehicle. I kept up at 30+ mph for the 2-hour ride on the trail, and the 4Rrunner exceeded everyone's expectations (except mine, of course), but I think I might have shifted suspension. There was A LOT of bouncing at those speeds, especially in the rear.

I'm driving a 2016 on TRD Pro Bilstein suspension with CF spacers (1/2 I think but it's been I while since I installed them) and air lift bags.

When I got in the highway back to Utah I noticed immediately that my steering was super sensitive, maybe like excessive body roll. I remembered that I aired down a few pounds on the trail (28 lbs, nothing dramatic) and quickly aired back up. I think the sensitivity was improved but still there. Then I noticed at the slightest bump I felt like my rear wanted to become unglued from the road and it actually made me swerve a tiny bit. This is at about 60 mph.

When I got home, I looked underneath, and nothing stood out as being out of place. I personally installed all the above-mentioned components, so I'm familiar with them, but I wanted to ask the community to see if there's something I should look for. Are there any on road tests I should perform to identify the problem? Thanks in advance.


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Obvious stuff to do after offroading:
1. go get an alignment.
2. check nuts/bolts/bushings of your suspension components.

If it doesn't fix your problems, then I would report back but also include what other suspension upgrades you have done.

Some wheeling advice: slow down if you are blowing through your shock travel and riding the bump stops. You are probably going to heat soak your shocks and then break, bend, or lose something..lol. I wouldn't try to keep up with a SxS, not a good idea.

 

[Jakeepoo3]

Obvious stuff to do after offroading:
1. go get an alignment.
2. check nuts/bolts/bushings of your suspension components.

If it doesn't fix your problems, then I would report back but also include what other suspension upgrades you have done.

Some wheeling advice: slow down if you are blowing through your shock travel and riding the bump stops. You are probably going to heat soak your shocks and then break, bend, or lose something..lol. I wouldn't try to keep up with a SxS, not a good idea.

I off road year round. You don't need an alignment Everytime you off road. If there's a problem you find it and fix it then get an alignment if you don't know how to do it yourself. There's no point in getting an alignment if there's a problem with any related components. Then when you fix it you'll be going back. They won't tell you this obviously. Tip of the day do step 2 Mrblah mentioned and witness mark everything with a welding paint marker especially tie rod to jambo nut and lower control arm alignment tabs, all 8 of them. Get to know your baby intimately and anytime something goes wrong you'll know the cause.

 

[Space King]

My first guess would be that an overheated shock absorber blew a seal.

 

[Jakeepoo3]

My first guess would be that an overheated shock absorber blew a seal.

Maybe running the Baja 1000. That would be unusual.

 

[borfoo3]

Overheated shock can cause this.. but should be temporary symptoms

Worn out shocks cause this too.. what's your mileage on the shocks?

 

[Billy Beansss]

Sway bars are made to reduce body roll, and shocks basically absorb movement and turn it into heat. That includes body roll along with everything else.

With that being said, you said you already had a peek underneath, so if all of you're suspension components and bushings and what not look good, I'd check your shocks.

A non-definitive quick and easy test for shocks would be to stand on the side of the vehicle (steps or something) and jump your weight up and down.

Normal working suspension will absorb the up AND down motion and the car should not bounce. If the car severely/obviously bounced, I would say it's a shock issue.

Take a close look at your shocks. If you have the shock off of the car, say the rears since they aren't coilovers, you can manually compress the shock all the way through it's travel (obviously the fronts would have to have the spring off of the shock to do this). I've been able to try that on every shock that I've had off of a vehicle.
A normal shock should have resistance that's like... I dunno, thick? Like the rod shouldn't be able to just bottom out super easy, there should be some significant resistance you can feel. After the shock is bottomed out, they should slowly push the rod back out (by itself).

Those are the only ways I know how to test out shocks.

 

[honda250xtitan]

Maybe running the Baja 1000. That would be unusual.

youd be surprised. he said 2 hours straight keeping up with UTV's. those bilsteins will overheat if hes going for 2 hours on the UTV trails in arizona

 

[BobsTrail]

IMO - Worn or leaking shocks.

Push down in middle of bumper and see if it rebounds a lot. Should not be much overtravel on the way back up.

If leaking, there will be oil stains on shocks.

 

[Jetboy]

Id mirror most of the comments.

Shocks would be the first place I'd look.

Then check alignment. There's two things that happen infrequently but common enough - first is to just hit hard enough to move the alignment tabs. Those are worth marking or taking a photo of each one to compare later. The other possibility is a bent front spindle. Not common, but can happen. It'll mess with alignment.

Start by just visual check on flat surface - do the front tires visually match the rear in camber? You can also measure with your phone or a level and any straight edge across the wheel top to bottom. Calibrate or "zero" against the rear wheel then compare to the front on flat surface. They should be within 1* of each other with the wheels pointed forward.

Next use a tape measure to check rough toe in. If it's within 1/8" front and rear of the front tires - it probably hasn't moved. If its way out, you know where to investigate.

Shocks are harder to tell which corner is bad. Especially if they're not leaking.

Sway bar in my experience having them on and off is not like "maybe something's wrong" it's like "holy F something is wrong". But a missing or damaged bushing might do it.

Another place to look is the passenger front upper control arm bolt that holds the bushings in place. The long one. Mine has come loose a couple times. And I know another FJ cruiser that has had the same thing. So now I loctite it. Just the nature of the thread direction and the torque on it. But that's only really an issue if you've had them off before. Usually that presents as a slight clunk when braking. But worth a double check if your out of ideas.

One last thought is maybe bent lower rear control arms. I bent one of mine before I gusseted them. In the rocks they don't last very long. Nothing lasts long in the rocks. I've also bent the fixed side rear KDSS shaft by dropping on a rock.


Good luck sorting it out!