Suspension finally installed (overview)

[Kevs Toy]

About several weeks ago I finally got my suspension replaced. Went to a friend's and we spent roughly eight freaking agonizing hours getting it done. We replaced all struts and springs and strut mount assemblies. Fronts were realtively easy to do but the rears were a pita, due to a comb. of seized knuckle bolts and one strut/spring assembly that wouldn't dsasemble easily.

The setup I went with was Tokicos and Eibachs and new Toyota strut mounts. The rear strut mount assembly comes with the mount, bearing, and strut boot. The fronts are just the mounts and actually you end up reusing the bearing from the old mount, so not sure how effective that is if someone would like to clarify this matter for me. I alway sthought it was the bearing itself that was the culprit in bad mounts, so not sure what benefit in replacing the mount itself does, but I did it anyway and didtn realize this until we were installing this shit anyway.

I think the hardest part about remove the fronts was just getting the damn swaybar links off and then assemblng the new strut and spring assembly. My friend was the one who actually did the assembling part since he's done far more suspension installs than me. He had to rotate the spring assembly jsut right when compression it so it'd seat on the strut.

Now the rears. This was where most of our time was wasted. The freaking lower knucle bolts were stuck on there like a mofo. We tried a 2 ft. breaker bar with a 4 ft cheater pipe and still wouldn't budge. Finally we took a sledgehammer to a sturdy Craftsman wrench and they slowly broke free. This was rewarding since we were so frustrated, the hammer blows felt that much better.

We ran into a problem with dissasembling one side though. When we were loosing the tophat nut while having the spring compressed, the whole shaft turned instead. We couldnt find anything to keep it from spinning while loosening it, so we drove around to multiple shops till finally we found someone willing just to loosen the nut for us. It was amazing how many places wouldnt touch it for liability reasons even though we explained we werent reusing it save for the bump stop on it. An impact did the trick though, but it still took some effort to get it off of there as the whole shaft till spun, but at least the impact did it fast enough that it could remove the nut.

So we get back to my buddy's and we rememembered to save one of the rear top nuts since Tokico forgot to include a new one on one of the struts. No biggie. Nuts were still shiny and no signs of worn threads. However, when we took apart the rear struts we found some kinda bearing on one shaft but not the other (this was below the mount, so between the mount and bottom of the strut). I thought maybe this bearing was something that didnt belong since it was only on one, but my buddy observed it was supposed to be there. I dont know how to explain its function, but I think he said it locks the strut/spring in place?? Well, since one side didnt have one we were screwed. Also note, the assembly missing the bearing was the worst rear strut. It looked older b/c of all the rust on it and was the one that the nut wouldn't come off without an impact. It also rebounded the worst when you compressed it. Now as far as I know these were orig. struts, so I was wondering wtf happened down at tmmk.

Anyway, we ran to Auto Zone and Home Depot and finally found a large enough nut that would slide on the strut shaft to substitute as a bearing. Ghetto but itd get the job done. So with all this time wasted on driving around trying to get the one strut/spring dissambled, find a bearing, we prob. lost an hour-hour and a half. Anyway, we got everything reinstalled and went on a test drive and I noticed a difference just on acceleration as the car def. doesnt squat as much so a lot less energy is wasted and it accelerates much better now. I also noticed a difference on a backroad by my house, as there's a section that is bumpy and I have to slow down as my car would have to resettle itself but it didnt even upset the car one bit.

I got the car aligned about 2 weeks later and actually everything was still winin spec save for toe was out on the front pass. tire. Otherwise camber was (I dont recall specifically) close to about -1 degree, which is still within the service limit so I had the shop leave it alone since I do drive the car somewhat aggresively anyway. Also had it set to toe out a lil more than factory, but still within specs.

Now one thing I've noticed with the car since the installation is that I checked ride height at all four corners and it looks like a slight variance up front. Using my fingers between the tires and fenders, the gap seeems to be equal on the rear, but on the front, it seems like there's less gap on the driver side than the passenger. It's not noticeable to the naked eye or anything, but it gnaws at me. I dont know if this is normal or not? I first noticed it shortly after doing the install but thought things needed to settle. But nothing's changed. One thing a friend pointed out was that due to the transmission being on the driver side, theres more weight on that end and that might be why that side is slightly lower. BTW, it is very slight, like I guetimate maybe a quarter of an inch or less. One thing I did was look at my folk's 2000 5sfe camry (mine's a 1mz) and the ride height is biased the same up front too. More gap on pass. side than driver. They just had new struts (but not springs as far as i know) put in not long ago. So maybe it's just the nature of the gen 4.

The only other thing I wonder about sometimes is that the suspension seems loud. I dont know if this is just a tradeoff for the stiffer nature of the eibachs and tokicos. I dont hear really any rattling, just impact noises seem to be louder. And occasionally I think I hear a clunk on hard turns but I can't really get it to duplicate under same situations, so thinking just coincidentally I'm hitting something in the ground when im turning like a pavement break or something. The shop I took it to get it aligned said everything looked good and the car seems to be driving fine.

Anyway, sorry for this long ass post. Hopefully it makes sense and is beneficial to some of you guys. And if anyone has any feedback on any of the concerns I've mentioned about the ride height or noises, please feel free to post. Thank you!

[bigbird]

well quite a long post but very detailed. i had just about the same problems when i did it the first time. you should post up some pics of it. the camry jsut has loud suspension, its louder with aftermarket suspension. all should be fine though.

[cruisn76]

Originally Posted by bigbird

well quite a long post but very detailed. i had just about the same problems when i did it the first time. you should post up some pics of it. the camry jsut has loud suspension, its louder with aftermarket suspension. all should be fine though.

Is that right? No wonder I am pissed over the fact that when I got my new suspension it was louder than my original 16year suspension

[TheKevin]

Originally Posted by cruisn76

Is that right? No wonder I am pissed over the fact that when I got my new suspension it was louder than my original 16year suspension

Ha, I thought mine was the only one

[Kevs Toy]

So anyone else got input on the ride height issue?

[ASG14]

Same with the height in the front for me. I had Eibachs, now have TRD Sprins, same thing.

My Eibachs made more noise then then TRD's. Some of the Gen 3 Eibachs hake a clunk then you hit a big bump, and still not 100% sure why mine did. My TRD's don't.

[Kevs Toy]

Thanks ASG14. Now I just need to get the damn bushings and sway bar end links replaced and I'll be in business

[ASG14]

^ Get a TRD Rear Sway Bar. It really makes a difference, and only about $150 (and comes with Poly bushings).

[Kevs Toy]

Way ahead of you. TRD RSD was the second handling mod I did after the strut tower brace. Now I just need to get my polyurethane bushings installed sometime on the control arms and steering rack