Overhaul of our 3rd gen

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shahsmerdis

New member
Overhaul of our 3rd gen being done today, any quick tips?

Hi guys

Just drove our 2002 3rd gen sr5 to our family friend. He is a great mechanic, and I'm sure he will find the issue at hand, but I just wanted to be a little more educated because it is about a 250 mile drive from home. and I wanted to get as many things fixed as possible while I am here. I Do realize a few of these topics may have been covered in google. Just reposting a few clarifications.


Just had rear shocks replaced with factory shocks, except the ride is still terrible. Doing the front struts today. But I am wondering, should i get the rear springs as well? When I push down on the rear it still takes a bounce or two to get settle from moving.

Issue two, more important issue: When I was driving here I noticed excess play in steering wheel. It was excessively loose. maybe quarter inch turn where the steering would not do anything. the steering rack was replaced by toyota few years ago. and only as 10k miles since then. I just saw that only 1 of the outter tire rods were replaced, besides tire rods, and steering wrack bushings. Anything else we should look for ?

brake pedal seems to vibrate idle sometimes, when the car is completely at stop. Brake fluid doesnt seem like it was changed since the factory so hopefully brake replacement help. Any other ideas on what to look for ?

The car was sitting for past 3-6 months. but spark plugs and timing belt were changed 10-20 k miles away. Anything else I should look for? The car is at ~110k miles. I'll also ask him to check if the rear axle seals are leaking because that seems like a common one.
Thanks for your help guys. hopefully this less of a clunker after this trip!
 
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Steering slop seems like inner/outer tie rods. Common. Why was only one side replaced? Me personally, you re-align the rig after doing the components. Especially if a shop does them. I replace one, I replace all of it. All the parts cost about as much as a damn alignment.

I got OEM stuff by fishing at Autozone. Have them order in all the inners or outers you can get. Look for a small green paper tag with a part # and Japan on it. I got all 4 pieces for mine, OEM stuff for about $90-$100, I forget what I had them price match to. Very cheap compared to a dealer.

The bouncing doesn't make sense. The shock should be managing the bouncing. Are you SURE they were replaced? The spring wouldn't cause bouncing if it were tired, the rear would sag and it would have less perkiness to it. At only 110k miles, that doesn't really make sense to me. What shocks specifically are they? If they ride that bad, you might want to wait on the fronts. Grab some Bilstein 5100's for an 00-06 Tundra. Mine rides excellent with them, $240 for all 4 if your thrifty.
 
Rear bouncing is shocks not springs as ^^ stated.

Springs support the weight of the vehicle, shocks are the dampers to control the bounce in the spring when it compresses/extends. If you can easily press the rear of your 4Runner down, your springs are probably tired and could use replacing.

Steering wheel play can be a lot of things. Inner/Outer tie rods, Upper/Lower ball joints, rack bushings, and there is a slip joint in the steering shaft some have tack welded to remove the play in as well. You'd have to troubleshoot to figure that out.

If you are replacing brakes you might as well go to the Tundra brake upgrade and never look back.

External trans cooler would be a good idea if an Auto if you're doing "while you're at it" preventative maintenance to avoid a "pink milkshake" incident.
 
They might have done both tire rods.. but they only put 1 on the history report that they put online. I don't think they did it out of necessity, they did it because they couldn't free the tire rid. I think they were just being lazy. Or trying to up the bill. I'll let him make the judgement call on it. He had an idea of what to look for when I spoke about it, so I'm sure he will find it.

I'm sure they did it as we bought the OEM Shocks and gave it to them. They are pretty terrible mechanics, so who knows if they did it right. (they have messed upa brake job before so yesI can imagine they will f*** this up too) we did it out of necessity because we needed an inspection, and the old one sheered off. so it was making a clunk. He was driving the car for a year probably oneside not having a shock, so I wouldn't be surprised if it caused more problems...I'll ask the good mechanic we are at now now to double check it.

What external cooler do you speak of? Googling it now. I did hear of pink milkshake effect, but I Was just going to have him flush the coolant to prevent that. It was changed 2-3 years ago and only 10-20k miles on it.
 
shahsmerdis said:
They might have done both tire rods.. but they only put 1 on the history report that they put online. I don't think they did it out of necessity, they did it because they couldn't free the tire rid. I think they were just being lazy. Or trying to up the bill. I'll let him make the judgement call on it. He had an idea of what to look for when I spoke about it, so I'm sure he will find it.

I'm sure they did it as we bought the OEM Shocks and gave it to them. They are pretty terrible mechanics, so who knows if they did it right. (they have messed upa brake job before so yesI can imagine they will f*** this up too) we did it out of necessity because we needed an inspection, and the old one sheered off. so it was making a clunk. He was driving the car for a year probably oneside not having a shock, so I wouldn't be surprised if it caused more problems...I'll ask the good mechanic we are at now now to double check it.

What external cooler do you speak of? Googling it now. I did hear of pink milkshake effect, but I Was just going to have him flush the coolant to prevent that. It was changed 2-3 years ago and only 10-20k miles on it.
Click to expand...

Kinda hard to comprehend without looking at it or having hands on it you know?

The rear shocks on these are kind of a ***** with corrosion and space limitations. It's easy to just cut them off, but if someone is shady, they could have just cleaned the bodies on the shocks. The truck should NOT be bouncing noticeably.

What you explain is occurring with what you said has been done, is conflicting. I realize not everyone wants to lay on the cold ass ground and wrench on stuff, but it's maddening to picture paying places $80-$140 an HOUR to fib stuff.
 
99Runnr said:
Kinda hard to comprehend without looking at it or having hands on it you know?

The rear shocks on these are kind of a ***** with corrosion and space limitations. It's easy to just cut them off, but if someone is shady, they could have just cleaned the bodies on the shocks. The truck should NOT be bouncing noticeably.

What you explain is occurring with what you said has been done, is conflicting. I realize not everyone wants to lay on the cold ass ground and wrench on stuff, but it's maddening to picture paying places $80-$140 an HOUR to fib stuff.
Click to expand...
Car is very rusted. So he is reluctant to do more than be has to. Ill see what he says about the rear
He showed us the old part and even did it 10 feet in front of him so there is indeed new shocks in there . the front struts were touching metal because bushings were gone.

Bleeder valves are rusted entraping 13 year old fluid . hopefully he can get that out...

No time to do transmission cooler. Nor do I think he would do it. Googling into more.

Thanks for the replies.
Typing from mobile so excuse the mess of typing
 
have him check all of your bushings and suspension components. in my opinion worn out bushings and ball joints attribute to all of the common complaints about ride quality. after replacing all of ball joints and bushings with poly my truck rides so smooth that i can tell the difference between a single bolt being tight or loose on any of my links or control arms.

if I bought another 3rd gen the first thing i would do is replace all the ball joints tie rod ends and bushings(with poly bushings). it really makes a massive difference in the ride quality and responsiveness of the entire truck. its too bad they dont make a poly set for the rear arms though.
 
Front sabalizer bar bushings and stabilizer links were replaced. Ride is dramatically better in the front, but I still feel excessive vibrations. At idle I feel a vibration while in gear. I assume these vibrations are separate. one of the guards on the bottom of the car is rusted and i think a few mounting points are gone.

The other vibration happens while driving. Before going too crazy, I was going to send my dad to costco check if the tire is balanced. I was getting vibrations at 70-75mph and at 80 mph it seemed way to unstable. Do they need to a force balancer? (Just started reading into this). any other ideas?

the play in the wheel is gone I guess the front struts had to do with that. the lower shock bushings were gone so he said.

driving back home I saw the vibration would come and go. usually started to act up when I was changing lanes. Even on pretty newly paved roads.


Lastly I did notice that the bushing retaining clip on lower mount on the rear shock is backwards. will this cause a huge problem?

I hoping to get more done this weekend, tad disappointed. but we ran out of time.
 
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If it's the front washer, just unthread the bolt and flip it around.

They should "cup" the bushing to prevent frontward and backward movement. Even if it's the rear, it's not hard to just pry the shock off the perch with a flathead screwdriver, spin it around, manually load the shock and slip it back over the perch.

This wouldn't cause the shocks to malfunction as you described they are doing. It could cause bushing wear, the hourglass shaped bushing has 2 support sections on the ends of the shock body. If it slips too far forward or backward, it can slide off the high point of the bushing.

That's how my poly energy suspension bushings are designed, not sure how stock/replacement shock rubber ones work.
 
Using this as a reference

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p590/WoodenPayload/20140718_160652_zpsd39a900a.jpg


from this post http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-g...on-stock-replacement-learn-my-experience.html

my outer retaining clip (the side where the bolt goes in) is the other way around, not how it is in that picture.

I gotta some how go and check the top bushing order. hopefully they did it right.

I'm really hoping its just the springs or unbalanced tires. I started googling, and I started to feel like I was on web MD, over thinking how bad it can be.
 
If tires are old and/or hard from age they will make themselves known on the road. Balance is usually gone too so a new set will tell you exactly where your alignment and balance issues are.

Hopefully wheel bearings aren't an issue either. New grease may tame them but if in doubt, more parts!

You're a brave man to resurrect one of these gems. I hope it all becomes worth it in the end. There is an end, right?
 
Bstrom said:
If tires are old and/or hard from age they will make themselves known on the road. Balance is usually gone too so a new set will tell you exactly where your alignment and balance issues are.

Hopefully wheel bearings aren't an issue either. New grease may tame them but if in doubt, more parts!

You're a brave man to resurrect one of these gems. I hope it all becomes worth it in the end. There is an end, right?
Click to expand...

I'm just curious what the issue is.

I regret paying how much I just did on this car. it drives from point a to be B to lug home depot stuff. doesn't need to be perfect, but if they are quick fixes I don't mind doing it... To me right now as long as the brakes are solid. replaced the rear break system including bell cranks. I'd be pretty pissed if the rear axle decides to give in the next year...

Sounds like this might be one of those complicated ones. I feel like we just let this one go...

I just hate to see this car go because the engine is solid... lots rear vibration posts seem like witch hunts... lets just hope its a simple tire issue.
 
Messing with the upper shock mounts is a pain in the ass if your not overly flexible. It's kind of a blind job. The bolt-side washer, can just be flipped around in a few seconds. That isn't a big deal.

Hope you can get stuff sorted out. Trust me when I say this type of truck, there are much worse vehicles to invest your energy into. Once you get these trucks dialed in, and stay on top of things even reasonably well, they run forever. Mine has 220k and I trust it like a new car.

Maybe before you got rid of it, someone local would lend a hand? I'm not exactly close or I would.
 
shahsmerdis said:
Using this as a reference

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p590/WoodenPayload/20140718_160652_zpsd39a900a.jpg


from this post http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-g...on-stock-replacement-learn-my-experience.html

my outer retaining clip (the side where the bolt goes in) is the other way around, not how it is in that picture.

I gotta some how go and check the top bushing order. hopefully they did it right.

I'm really hoping its just the springs or unbalanced tires. I started googling, and I started to feel like I was on web MD, over thinking how bad it can be.
Click to expand...

The picture of the orientation of the lower shock mount retainers, is how they came from the factory.
 
02SE said:
The picture of the orientation of the lower shock mount retainers, is how they came from the factory.
Click to expand...

the one I posted? Their for mine is backwards. I'll try and take a picture of it on ramp when I am at parents home this weekend.

Ya I know these cars last forever with proper maintenance... this car would be pretty much new if it wasn't in the salt belt... which it really gets me. every year we can get out of it, the better... would be such a waste to get a new car in my opinion.

Once this issue is fixed, and I can flush the brakes, there really isn't too much left to do. except regular oil changes (etc).
 
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shahsmerdis said:
the one I posted?
Click to expand...

Yes, the picture you posted, and I quoted.

This picture.

20140718_160652_zpsd39a900a.jpg~original


That is the orientation of the retainers, from the factory.

It's easy to flip the retainer(s) around, if you're concerned.
 
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