This DIY is specifically for a 2000 IMZ-FE, 6-cyl Camry but will probably work for most any model year that has this type of Torque Strut, more commonly known as the "Dog Bone".
I was doing some minor maintenance on my car, and just happened to glance over at the Torque Strut and noticed that it had little cracks in it. I took it out for a closer look, and sure enough the rubber was split as you can see in the close up below. NBD, since when I replaced my front motor mount a while ago I ordered a set of all the mounts, but didn't change the Torque Strut since it didn't need it. But now it did, and I had one, so I swapped it out.
The next day I'm driving around and I notice that when I took off from a stop light the car jerked a bit as if the transmission was slipping. Sure enough at every stop light, when I accelerated, there was a very brief "thump" as if the transmission slipped and then caught. There were no other problems, but I wasn't looking forward to a transmission re-build.
Then I remembered I swapped out the dog bone. I wonder if that would cause the problem. So when I got home I put back in the original one, and drove around. Much to my surprise the thumping/slipping went away. So the "new" dog bone was fubar, and I was just planning on throwing it away, since when I had them both out, I noticed that the part number on the one that was cracked was 12363-20020 which means it was OEM, and the eBay one was, well Chinese crap.
But then I got to wondering what the difference was. So I took the OEM one out and compared it to the eBay one side by side. Much to my surprise the eBay one was a bit shorter, but the OEM one had a much larger hole in it, so the mount could slop around on the OEM one, but not the eBay one. It would have been so much easier if they just made it adjustable, so you could fit it to suit the condition of the rest of the mounts.
Why wait for Toyota to do it, I'll do it, and make the first Camry Adjustable Dog Bone Torque Strut Mount.
As luck would have it, when I measured the thickness of the rod, it measured .475" and that would make it easy to thread for 1/2" 13 threads and I had the necessary hardware laying around so it wouldn't cost me anything to make this. Just a little time.
Here's a shot of the two struts along with a close up of the cracked OEM rubber part. You can see the difference in the size of the holes, and the length of each strut.
Here's where I cut out 1/2" of the rod and threaded both ends of the cut piece. Notice the one end's threads are less than the other. The reason for this is I'll thread the nut coupler on to the short end, bottom it out, and then drill and tap a hole for a set screw. Drilling and tapping for a set screw probably isn't really necessary, but it will ensure that the one end never rotates. The other end can be screwed in or out to the correct length and the locked in place with the nut. I could have used a lock nut on both ends, but I opted to fasten one end permanently and not have to use a lock nut. If you don't want to go to all this trouble, just use two lock nuts.
Run the nut coupler until it binds up on the threaded shaft, and then drill and tap for a set screw.
This pic shows it all put together, and set to the approximate length.
And finally installed in the car. Kinda looks like it belongs there, eh. I'll be curious to see if anybody will ever spot the modifications.
I took the car out for a drive, and there was a slight clunk when I took off from a stop. I adjusted it one turn longer, and everything's working just like it should. One thing I did notice is that the eBay strut had much softer rubber than the OEM one did. I don't know if it's because the OEM one was in there for so long, or if it was made that way. Next time I'm out at Pick-N-Pull I'll see if I can get another OEM one for comparison and modification.
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1999 Toyota Avalon
I4 5-Speed Manual 115,500 miles acquired 01/21/2011 at 109,XXX miles
Linear Mode
