Necessary to replace front springs?

[Patmac]

OK Folks, I'm a 60 year old noob with a question. Just bought my first 4Runner(A 1998 Limited with 93K miles). It is in excellent shape, however, I want to replace the shocks/struts. Is it necessary to replace the front springs with new ones or can I reuse the old springs? The vehicle isn't sagging. I'm looking at using Bilstein 4600 on all 4 corners. Your thoughts. Thanks for the help.

 

[CenCalifoothill15]

Hello & welcome to the forum! Congrats on aquiring a 3rd gen.

Is it necessary to replace the stock front springs? The answer is no, you can reuse your springs no problem. Being that your 4Runner still has "low miles" you should be fine, if in the future your rear starts to sag you may want to consider replacing your springs.

Definitely a good idea to swap out the old struts/shocks for sure.

-if you can post up a photo of your truck, that would be great.

Cheers!

 

[the great him]

With springs its not always the amount of miles on them, its the amount of time on them... Remember they are constantly holding that load. Although yes driving more will put more pressure on the springs, a vehicle that has only 100k mi might have been use a lot on rough roads ect where a vehicle with say 200k could of had primarily fwy/hwy its whole life and have less use on the springs.

But no you do not have to replace springs, but depending on what you want or are trying to achieve it might be a good idea

 

[98OzarksRunner]

Your springs are probably fine but changing the front strut/shock can be tricky. Some guys use spring compressors, which can be dangerous (I did it once that way). The safest way is probably to pull the whole assembly out and do it on a hydraulic press (I did a set that way once). You can do it using the weight of the truck to compress them but it's a little tricky to do. It's actually easier and quicker to do it that way, if you know the tricks. It should be fairly easy with stock springs (no lift).

Here's a post about doing it without a spring compressor. http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-gen-t4rs/100697-anyone-tried-shock-disassembly-method.html

I would guess a lot of people (and maybe shops) buy the spring and strut/shock as an assembly to avoid the hassle.

 

[nevada]

Your springs are probably fine but changing the front strut/shock can be tricky. Some guys use spring compressors, which can be dangerous (I did it once that way). The safest way is probably to pull the whole assembly out and do it on a hydraulic press (I did a set that way once). You can do it using the weight of the truck to compress them but it's a little tricky to do. It's actually easier and quicker to do it that way, if you know the tricks. There are probably some posts, maybe a video about doing it, somewhere on here.

I would guess a lot of people (and maybe shops) buy the spring and strut/shock as an assembly to avoid the hassle.

using a wall mounted strut compressor makes it easy.

yes, for some vehicles we will buy loaded struts. but most of the time we reuse the old spring.