Harsh ride

[zekeedwards]

I just bought a 2004 sr5 4wd 4runner with 108K miles and all stock. Test drove it and noticed the ride was harsher than other 4runners I had driven. I was a little hesitant to buy it. But the rest of the truck checked out great so I bought thinking I would spend some money on some oem toyota struts/shocks and new tire as the old tire were close to retirement. After new toyota oem struts/shocks and ltx m/s2 tire the ride is still harsh. Scratching my head and wondering what Im missing. Only thing I can think of is the springs have gone bad........ they are not rusted just 10 years old. Didn't think springs would lose there rebound but I could be wrong. Could the sway bars be the problem? Any imput would be great. thanks!

 

[kevinpt]

I just bought a 2004 sr5 4wd 4runner with 108K miles and all stock. Test drove it and noticed the ride was harsher than other 4runners I had driven. I was a little hesitant to buy it. But the rest of the truck checked out great so I bought thinking I would spend some money on some oem toyota struts/shocks and new tire as the old tire were close to retirement. After new toyota oem struts/shocks and ltx m/s2 tire the ride is still harsh. Scratching my head and wondering what Im missing. Only thing I can think of is the springs have gone bad........ they are not rusted just 10 years old. Didn't think springs would lose there rebound but I could be wrong. Could the sway bars be the problem? Any imput would be great. thanks!

did the others that you tested have xreas? it would explain the difference

 

[46runner]

Have you considered replacing your bushings?

 

[zekeedwards]

I have driven a sport and limited and other sr5's. father has a 2011 sr5, uncle has a 2008 sport, and brother has a 2013 sr5 and my mom has a lexus gx460 and used to have a 470. Driven them all. Definitely not normal. I think I pin pointed it to the front suspension, jumped on the front and rear bumpers and the rear had plenty of rebound, front had barley any. does anyone know how much travel the front suspension should have. Looks like lower control arm bump stops have only a inch of gap before it bottoms out. Bushings might be the problem. would a leveling kit give it anymore travel?

 

[RPS13]

I put Bilstein 5100's on mine and put the fronts on the 0.85" perch with stock springs all around. The ride definitely improved compared to my dead XREAS shocks (at ~80k miles). I too only had about 1" between the bumpstop and the FLCA, which gives maybe 2" of wheel travel before hitting the stop. After the 5100 install, I had more like 2.5" between the bumpstop and the FLCA, so now it pretty much never hits it in normal driving.

I think a lot of the ride quality improvement was getting some usable travel up front and letting the suspension soak up more bumps.

Case in point, there was some really bad undulating pavement on the interstate by me. With the dead XREAS it got the 4Runner bucking almost perfectly at its natural frequency with dead shocks to where it'd actually use all the travel in the front, and the ride was super rough as a result. Now I can drive the same stretch at the same speed and just feel the slightest movement.

 

[zekeedwards]

Thanks for that info. Was thinking I should do a front leveling kit just to get the lower control arm more distance from the stop. I know the spring and shock won't travel more but in theory the bump stop will be have more distance. Or try the FJ springs up front. Some day might go bisten but just bought Toyota oem struts and need to wear those out first.