I'm in the middle of helping my buddy put a 3" lift on his 2000 SR5 4x4. He is on a SUPER tiny budget so I'm trying to help him make it work with the funds he has. He isn't going to wheel it. Just wants the look. I don't need opinions on "budget builds" its not my budget. Here's where we are at. We put the extended rear rough country shocks on the back with the 1.5" spring spacers and a 10mm OME trim packer. Were sitting right at 2" of height in the rear. He read and I also read that you can use the 4WD V8 Tundra strut assembly for the front for 3" of lift. Some threads stated you had to use the TRD bilstens and other did not. Right now he has a new set of strut/spring assemblies for the 4WD V8 Tundra for a 2002 and they DO NOT bolt up. They are the standard KYB and NOT the bilsteins. The bilstein are out of his budget. The parts catologue showed both setups to use the same mounts top and bottom with the same extended and comressed strut length so I figured we were good. The lower mount seems to match but the upper mount top 3 bolts don't line up. What are we doing wrong? What parts SHOULD we have ordered? Again, this is a budget build and the Rock Auto KYB Tundra Strut assembly was $90. That was him "stretching" his budget. It appears we can redrill the holes on the top plate to make it work. Can I simply reuse the 4runner top section of the strut on the Tundra assembly?
Tundra Struts and Coils for a front lift?
- Thread starter bhicks
- Start date
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Tyler James Inc
Senior Member
Um, not quite accurate.
You can use the Tundra struts no problem, but you need to swap the top plates for the 3rd gen 4Runner top plates.
jpeaslee
New member
Whoops. You're absolutely right. It's been awhile since I originally did the TRD coil lift before upgrading to my Icon coilovers. I'll edit my original post so I'm not leaving bad info out there. Last I had looked into it, people were very specifically looking for the OEM TRD springs, aftermarket springs didn't give the same result.
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That's what i was thinking. With both strut assemblies laying on the floor side by side it seemed like all we had to do was swap the top plates. I was so excited to have the struts all assembled and just do an easy swap with no assembly/dissambly of the struts. Oh well. looks like we will just have to take a little more time. The top strut plates on the 3rd gen are horribly rusty. the bolts had to be broken off to get the strut off. We will pick up new hardware and 3rd gen top plates before we reassemble. I will let you guys know how it goes. I may have more questions along the way. Thanks for the help.
We got everything back together. Turned out great. The Tundra Springs and struts (with the 3rd gen top plate) bolted up with no issues. Rides a bit stiffer but overall a really nice ride for a lifted vehicle. The rear sway bar bushings and end links were shot so we ordered new end links and bushings. Those will go in once the parts show up. Tomorrow will be a trip to the tire shop for the new Wild Peak AT3s 285/75/16s to be mounted/balanced and alignment done. Once we get it back from the tire shop I will snap some pics.
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Sorry for the delay. My buddy got the tires finally mounted today and sent me a pic. I will get a better pic next time we meet up. Based on his fender to hub measurements he gained a hair over 2" out back and 3.25" up front. This was with the Tundra springs and struts with a .5" spacer on top of the struts. That seems to keep the rig at a very level stance. It looked really tall with the stock tires but lost the tall look with the 33's he put on. The 33's seemed like the perfect fit for this height front and rear.
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snydmax
New member
Shucks! I was just shopping for pre assembled tundra coil/struts... thanks for learning this one for the rest of us!
Swiper2020
New member
This may be in the forum, but I am having trouble finding it. Can I use a 4wd Tundra coil or must it be a TRD 4wd Tunda coil?
