installing gen4 shocks on a gen3...

[lemegacool]

so some of you know that i lowered my gen3 camry on gen4 shocks and gen3 springs...

everything went well exept there was a thumping sound when i was turning... i took an appointment to a toyota dealer where my buddy work and the aligment guy sait that i was missing the strut mount bearings... then it jumped right im my face...

when i installed my shocks i used my old gen3 strut mounts on the gen4 shock thinking "oh man this is easy" BUUUUT!!!
on gen3 the bearing on on the LOWER spring plate(didnt payed attention to that) and on the gen4 its on the top!!! so what basically did is jam the springs between 2 non bearing rubbers... the "tonk!" sound was from the spring rotating on itself/plate... i'm a dummy

so now in order to make it a proper suspention i had to buy gen4 bearing top strut mounts for 106$ each and spring seat for 60$ each and gen4 upper spring insulator/boot for 30$ each gotta love canada's pricing!!!

and in the rear using gen 3 mounts resulted in loose springs when the car is jacked up (didnt needed spring compressor to put back together...) so i ordered 2 gen4 rear strut mounts for 100$ shipped online....

i was new to suspention work and learned the hard way! when installing a suspention on you car make sure there is a friggin bearing somewhere and also mounting hardware is to be matched with the strut used...

right now the car is still sitting on the redneck suspention as i need to wait for my spring seats and rear mounts...

if i knew it was going to cost that much i would had bought coilovers... they actually would had been cheaper than my current setup

[fenixus]

ooops, shit happens bro ... it was a hard (and expensive!) lesson for you.

just to let you know, gen4 toyotas have also something like OEM integrated strut mounts, look for them, it consists of all the parts you need in one single pre-assembled unit (insulator, bearing and mount).

[lemegacool]

ah! good to know! but i already have everything on order so i'll just slap that on my car and get it aligned and call it quit lol

now i need to concentrate on my custom SS 3" exhaust new o2 sensors and crank position sensor :P

[fenixus]

good luck!

[bronzemaxell]

i am suprised the front struts even fit, the rear strut seems to be the same for gen 3/4/5

[projektvertx]

Originally Posted by lemegacool

if i knew it was going to cost that much i would had bought coilovers... they actually would had been cheaper than my current setup

If you only knew Simon I did things like 3 times in certain respects on my car!

[lemegacool]

ooooook so i installed gen4 top plates and bearing/spring seat and my car went up in the front.. before it was half finger gap and now its 3 good finger gap awwww! in the rear i ordered gen4 strut mounts too but didnt installed them since i realised they were identical to the gen3's. the rear looks slammed... so yeah it looks like total ass

so i would like for someone to tell me what the heck i'm doing wrong here (exept using gen4 shocks on a gen3... lol)

so heres the current setup and problems

GEN3 sprint springs
GEN4 tokico blue shocks
GEN4 top plates, boots and bearings/seat in the front and GEN3 plates in the rear but they are the same as GEN4

-front is raised up 3 finger gap
-rear is -1 finger gap and when the car if lifted the springs are loose on the strut...

i thought gen3-4 springs were the same are they?

really wishing i had got coilovers...

[fenixus]

sorry to burst your bubble bro, but not only struts and mounts are different between the 2 generations, the springs are different between gen3 vs gen4 too.

so likely your gen3 springs do not match the gen4 struts (once properly installed on an improper platform LOL)...

you may want to sell those struts and mounts and get the ones that fit the gen3, redo it once and right and be happy.

[lemegacool]

well my bubble is pretty much already torn to shreds so no biggies lol


well well well... was sure they were the same... thing is that i paid big money for these mounts at carquest and i dont think they will take them back... not sure people here would buy my 106$ carquest top plates and 60$ spring seats... sight...

plus i paid 100$ duty and 80$ shipping on my struts so here again i would lose to sell them... arrrghhhhh!!!!

[fenixus]

then maybe try a set of gen4 springs on setup you have? and then if it turns out OK, just sell your gen3 lowering springs?