Is it possible to get the soft plush ride of the Limited or XLS on my Touring? Is anything other than the gas shocks different? I'm hoping I could put Limited/XLS shocks in my Touring and loose the stiffness. Not sure why the aggressive stiff ride on the Touring was made. It wasn't until after my purchase I discovered there was a difference. I bought the car for its soft ride and oppulance. So, a simple shock exchange or are there physical differences in the hardware...?
Struts are an easy swap. Issue is some of the ride quality might also be the springs. So, swap the struts. If all is good, keep driving. If ride quality isn't what you expected, verify the spring PNs to see if there are any differences.
I've got a limited. Guess I'll want to try the 'touring' struts since the highway floating is excessive.
You can search for quickstruts (strut assembly with spring) on Rockauto or Toyota parts website. Even Monroe website. I'm sure the touring quickstrut has a differnt PN....
Change out yours with XLS quickstruts. KYB from Amazon is what I used on my son's Toyota.
Monroe makes a great traditional shock for a truck or older America car that is non-strut based. Monroe struts are terrible!! It's pretty simple to move springs over and you can rent/borrow the spring compressor from Auto Zone for free.
All I could find for the Avalon was KYB struts. I found Sachs for the rear but not the front. I prefer to run the same series strut on all four corners. Would have preferred Bilsteins, Konis or Tokicos. KYB will have to work. <y guess is KYB is the OEM given the availability of other options.
On the Touring ride, I wanted a Touring but Toyota was too proud of them. As I recall, they had 18" wheels, which will stiffen the ride a bit too. The struts are different. Not sure about the springs. the best ride was in the XL they no longer make. The XL had 16" wheels. The slightly taller sidewall gives it a softer ride the XLS or Limited rolling on 17" wheels..
As to "why" they made the Touring model, I think there are two reasons. 1) They were looking for that firmer BMW-like ride. I don't think people look to Toyota, especially the Avalon, for that kind of ride. That's further evident by how few Tourings you see on the road (part of why I wanted one). 2) The average Avalon owner is 64 years old. The Touring was an effort to appeal to a younger demographic and increase sales.
Just went through the painful process of replacing both front strut components on my 05 Touring model (151,000 miles) and I can tell you for sure that Monroe doesn't make Quickstruts for the Avalon. Making matters more difficult for Touring edition owners is that the spring and struts themselves are different from the other models and for the 05 year there is a pre-January 05 and January 05 and beyond strut setup so must use the VIN to order parts. I thought I even saw that January 05 through 06 production models are the same so things might be different for 07 and newer models.
In my case, the base of the front left strut spring broke so with the miles and years on the car it made sense to replace both front struts and springs but it was hardly your typical repair. KYN might have great replacement struts for the Touring model but finding matching Touring springs, mounts, bearings, etc was an expensive and time consuming ordeal to get the right parts on order. I read many owners tried to use MOOG springs only to find the interior space of the spring was too small so after some online shopping I went with genuine Toyota springs for not much more money.
To answer toneycross15's question, it might depend on the year of your car. As long as length and bolt patterns are the same for the strut and the springs have the same top and bottom mount dimensions and length, it seems possible. I saw some manufacturers that claimed their struts fit all Avalon models but I wanted to have the firmer ride so stayed away from the one size fits all struts. I think to get the ride you're seeking you would want to somehow use a non-Touring spring with the strut that fits all models because it would probably be a little more cushy. Personally, I think it would save you a bunch of grief and about $950 (including alignment after the mod) to stick with what you have until something fails or you sell the car. One final thought .... depending on your current tire situation, you might substantially improve your ride and safety, as well as save over $300 by replacing your tires. Last year I put on some CINTURATO P7 ALL SEASON PLUS Serv Desc 94V tires on and they definitely improved the ride as well as grip.
So what did you end up getting since Monroe, KYB and Gabriel don't make a strut-spring assembly? I have a 05 XL with 89,000 miles and is starting to look for strut assemblies. Those off brands on Ebay or Amazon.com (Sensen) are available but I don't trust them. My only other option is to get a coil spring comnpressor tool (OTC or used Branick) and remove/assemble the strut/spring myself.
Thanks for the info! Yes ive decided to stick with what ive got after reading other limited owners concerns about control and bounce at highway speeds ..
It would be beneficial to know the specifications on the Touring vs. XL/XLS/Limited struts but I’ve never seen this info available for any car, it’s either “increased” this or “decreased” that.
If/when I need to replace the struts on my ’06 Limited, I’ll consider going with touring spec struts (assuming it’s a straight, bolt-in affair). Since the struts would be replaced, this would be the least expensive way to (hopefully) reach an improvement. I’d like more compression and rebound dampening to handle large dips. I don’t know if the XL/XLS/Limited struts are weak in this regard or just worn.
Just did the reverse, had a 2007 one owner XLS with 103 thou on it and swapped out the struts to the OEM "touring" struts. The ride before was loose but tolerable on the highway and I wanted to firm it up. I had an 88 Camry prior and had swapped out the factory struts for Tokico Blues at about 115k.
I had read everywhere that Tokico Blues would ride too stiff but did it anyway on my Camry...Yeah they were really stiff but the valving on the Tokikos was VERY intelligent...that is they were extremely stiff as far as controlling body sway but on quick compression like hitting a break in the pavement they would allow rapid suspension compression..not transmit the BANG to the body.
So I figured no problems with an OEM shock like the "Touring" KYBs the Avalon came with....BIG MISTAKE...the KYB's are garbage in my opinion. They do just the opposite they allow some body roll and jounce ( In fairness a lot less than the XLS version OEMs) however they transmit every single bit of a bump or bang in the pavement.
I would stay completely clear of the OEM KYB "touring" struts....
If Tokico came out with a struts I would pull mine tomorrow without a moments hesitation.
PS Yes the struts are the entire problem with the nature of the "touring" versions ride, the sway bars are the same PN as well as all the bushings etc. Toyota would have done much better to produce two versions of the sway bar and not tried to change a cars ride with solely a strut change.
PS Yes the struts are the entire problem with the nature of the "touring" versions ride, the sway bars are the same PN as well as all the bushings etc.
I need to replace front struts and most likely rear as well,but i was driving and heard a rattle coming from front left so i had a friend jack it up and a part of the spring broke and i removed it was just hanging there. also bushings in rear are in bad shape. i was thinking kyb excel-g either (xl,xls,limited) or touring with vogtland spring but they only have lowering springs i would rather have stock ride height plus i've heard that lowering springs with struts ment for regular height springs can damage shock difference is only 1.7" is this true if so does someone make a spacer correct this issue or maybe not too hard on shock with lowering springs. thanks everyone here on this forum has been a lot of help really appreciate it. i really am a newbie especially with suspension. i would like less body roll it is really floaty on highway and yes i know that going to even kyb quick struts would be an improvement. but i foung the vogtland springs for all 4 for only $215 + $10-$15 shipping kyb excel-g for around 80-100 each but would that be a good choice don't need plush ride some harshness is ok but not like putting on stiff coilovers on heard this combination is a good balance of ride quality with improved handling.
All I can say is when I got my 06 the steering was terrible and so was the ride. I bought a full front end kit from Amazon. Our front ends fail somewhat quickly. Anyhow I replaced the full front end with Detroit parts. Still had a rough ride. I replaced the front end struts with a kit. Better response! BUT STILL the ride was harsh. I researched. The tires I had were rated well but I needed softer rubber. Went to Discount Tires and had all corners replaced. Outcome was a much smoother more comfortable ride. Still corners well. Alas I want a more cushy ride WITH good cornering.
Have a shop check out your suspension on the front and rear. Have them check the bushings. Often they are worn AND torn.
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