Ride height is way off

[VoodooTitan]

Hey guys,

Quick question and some help, I have a 2014 Trail Edition and the ride height in the back is off by a pretty significant amount. It's visually different. On the rear left you can see behind the wheel well and the leaf spring system while on the right, you can't see the leaf spring system. The truck is currently at Toyota and of course they're telling me that while there is a difference in height by a bit more than half an inch, it's "within measurement limits". While i understand the range of limitation, I've never seen another 4Runner sit like this, nor is there a 4Runner on their lot that sits like this. There is also a clunking and creaky spring sound coming from the back of the truck any time i go over a speed hump or imperfections in the road. The back of the truck also bounces independently on each side (if that makes sense?), for example, going over a speed hump evenly the back left and back right bound/rebound independently giving a back-and-forth feeling like if i approached the speed hump at an angle.

Has anyone had this experience with their T4R or have any ideas or input? It's not lifted, everything is stock, and it's always been stock. I really don't feel this is normal or common. I'm supposed to go to toyota at 2:30 to talk to them and do a ride along.

Thanks for any help you can offer

 

[HerT4R]

we have leaf springs?

:faint2:

 

[High_Country]

Lots of intelligent guys here. You'll get better responses than mine, but:
1 - no leaf springs on the 4Runner. It's a rear coil spring and 'track bar' or panhard bar setup.
2 - you say its stock. I assume that means no lift, right? Does it have KDSS? The odd behavior COULD be explained by a broken suspension link but if it's at the dealer, and they are looking, they SHOULD spot that. It could be a blown shock. How many miles?
3 - a half in or so of height difference is no big deal. It's the '4Runner lean' most often described after lifting and with KDSS. I wouldn't worry about the difference too much.

 

[JEMP1003]

Hey guys,

Quick question and some help, I have a 2014 Trail Edition and the ride height in the back is off by a pretty significant amount. It's visually different. On the rear left you can see behind the wheel well and the leaf spring system while on the right, you can't see the leaf spring system. The truck is currently at Toyota and of course they're telling me that while there is a difference in height by a bit more than half an inch, it's "within measurement limits". While i understand the range of limitation, I've never seen another 4Runner sit like this, nor is there a 4Runner on their lot that sits like this. There is also a clunking and creaky spring sound coming from the back of the truck any time i go over a speed hump or imperfections in the road. The back of the truck also bounces independently on each side (if that makes sense?), for example, going over a speed hump evenly the back left and back right bound/rebound independently giving a back-and-forth feeling like if i approached the speed hump at an angle.

Has anyone had this experience with their T4R or have any ideas or input? It's not lifted, everything is stock, and it's always been stock. I really don't feel this is normal or common. I'm supposed to go to toyota at 2:30 to talk to them and do a ride along.

Thanks for any help you can offer

The odd thing is, the "lean" is suppose to be towards the driver side.
could be either a broken link, or a damaged/broken spring maybe? the other thing that can be easily overlooked, tire pressures...

 

[e60ral]

Park on a flat surface and measure from the frame to the ground in the same location on each side. What is that difference?

.

 

[VoodooTitan]

Lots of intelligent guys here. You'll get better responses than mine, but:
1 - no leaf springs on the 4Runner. It's a rear coil spring and 'track bar' or panhard bar setup.
2 - you say its stock. I assume that means no lift, right? Does it have KDSS? The odd behavior COULD be explained by a broken suspension link but if it's at the dealer, and they are looking, they SHOULD spot that. It could be a blown shock. How many miles?
3 - a half in or so of height difference is no big deal. It's the '4Runner lean' most often described after lifting and with KDSS. I wouldn't worry about the difference too much.

It has KDSS, yes.

 

[VoodooTitan]

The odd thing is, the "lean" is suppose to be towards the driver side.

could be either a broken link, or a damaged/broken spring maybe? the other thing that can be easily overlooked, tire pressures...

I just had it serviced Thursday and tire pressure is good all around. I'll try and get more pics to show what I mean. I don't think it's tire pressure tho

 

[VoodooTitan]

we have leaf springs?



:faint2:

No I guess not, thanks for first comment making my concerns invalid and feeling like an ass.

What I meant was the frame that sits behind the wheel well. I'll correct this verbiage so I can get more helpful responses tho.

 

[e60ral]

I'll try and get more pics to show what I mean.

no need wasting your time trying to guess and estimate with photos

do this and post the results:
1. park on flat surface
2. measure straight down from the frame rail to ground from some point near one rear wheel
3. on the exact same point on the other side of the vehicle measure straight down from the frame rail to the ground
4. post results

 

[VoodooTitan]

no need wasting your time trying to guess and estimate with photos



do this and post the results:

1. park on flat surface

2. measure straight down from the frame rail to ground from some point near one rear wheel

3. on the exact same point on the other side of the vehicle measure straight down from the frame rail to the ground

4. post results

Where is the frame rail?

Thank you.

 

[e60ral]

don't have a clean pic, but it's this thing:

*for demonstration only, not sure what truck this is

kinda curves up over the rear axle

 

[VoodooTitan]

don't have a clean pic, but it's this thing:

*for demonstration only, not sure what truck this is

kinda curves up over the rear axle

Ok I'll measure it, I should have measurements soon, I'm pretty sure tho the frame is ok and level. it's so strange and it sounds crazy but it's like the body of the truck itself isn't sitting flat on the frame. I'll post the measurements once I get to Toyota.

 

[VoodooTitan]

Lots of intelligent guys here. You'll get better responses than mine, but:
1 - no leaf springs on the 4Runner. It's a rear coil spring and 'track bar' or panhard bar setup.
2 - you say its stock. I assume that means no lift, right? Does it have KDSS? The odd behavior COULD be explained by a broken suspension link but if it's at the dealer, and they are looking, they SHOULD spot that. It could be a blown shock. How many miles?
3 - a half in or so of height difference is no big deal. It's the '4Runner lean' most often described after lifting and with KDSS. I wouldn't worry about the difference too much.

It has ~34k on it. Services on time, never off road, routine driving in California.

 

[4Rager]

When did you first notice? Is it a recent thing? Did you notice the suspension clunkiness before you noticed the lean? My has appeared to lean at times, but when parked in my flat garage it does not. I had pretty significant lean to the right after installing my lift (which again is odd because "KDSS lean" is usually to the left), but it went back to normal after my springs settled.

 

[VoodooTitan]

When did you first notice? Is it a recent thing? Did you notice the suspension clunkiness before you noticed the lean? My has appeared to lean at times, but when parked in my flat garage it does not. I had pretty significant lean to the right after installing my lift (which again is odd because "KDSS lean" is usually to the left), but it went back to normal after my springs settled.

So I noticed it a while ago (a few weeks) but wrote it off because it was parked in my space in front of our house, the space has a handicap spot next to it and between the two spots is a "ramp". I attributed the lean to the 4Runner not being level.

The picture included was taken in a level parking garage at carmax. So I know it's level. Looking at it from the side you can well see more of the frame and some suspension components than the right side. It's constantly leaning, it doesn't resolve at all even when parked at an angle with the right side higher.

 

[The Waco Kid]

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-gen-t4rs/158169-14-te-premium-kdss-lean-fix.html

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-gen-t4rs/152734-2014-trail-premium-right-side-lean.html

 

[VoodooTitan]

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-gen-t4rs/158169-14-te-premium-kdss-lean-fix.html



http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-gen-t4rs/152734-2014-trail-premium-right-side-lean.html

Welp... I'm gunna just pack up my stuff and go over here now and be quiet...

Thanks for linking these. I didn't have time to search for anything due to time constraints. I was in class and have to head straight to Toyota, which I'm getting ready to do now.

 

[The Waco Kid]

Welp... I'm gunna just pack up my stuff and go over here now and be quiet...

Thanks for linking these. I didn't have time to search for anything due to time constraints. I was in class and have to head straight to Toyota, which I'm getting ready to do now.

I'm surprised they dragged you along that long.

We all have it. It's a little annoying but it's not broke and it's not a quality issue. My tires are wearing perfectly and and it rides perfectly smooth with no unexpected jounces.

 

[VoodooTitan]

I'm surprised they dragged you along that long.



We all have it. It's a little annoying but it's not broke and it's not a quality issue. My tires are wearing perfectly and and it rides perfectly smooth with no unexpected jounces.

Yea I'm going to mention it to them. This might be a dumb question but is the KDSS always active or do you manually turn it on? There's an icon on the dashboard for KDSS so maybe if it's activated it'll adjust a bit?

I'm going to chalk it up to normal and if Toyota says it's passed all their inspections and it says it in writing I'm good. I just wanted to make sure the lean + creaking wasn't going to become a safety issue

 

[The Waco Kid]

Yea I'm going to mention it to them. This might be a dumb question but is the KDSS always active or do you manually turn it on? There's an icon on the dashboard for KDSS so maybe if it's activated it'll adjust a bit?

I'm going to chalk it up to normal and if Toyota says it's passed all their inspections and it says it in writing I'm good. I just wanted to make sure the lean + creaking wasn't going to become a safety issue

Always on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLF6n3nMwww

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb7B6h_CNyU

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_Dynamic_Suspension_System