Sagged drivers side spring

[GOLDS]

Hello.
Last Thursday I was driving on a very bumpy road at pretty high speeds. When I got home I noticed my truck looked a little funny. It was sagging about 1 inch lower on drivers side. After another
pass on the same road today, it is about 2 or 2.5 inches lower. (truck looks pathetic right now) My left front tire is also rubbing very badly when cornering since this happened.

I am currently running Revtech 3 inch lift coil spacers (more like 2.5 realistically) in the front. I am not a big fan of spacers, but also do not have a very large budget at this point.

So..... my question is will the TRD tundra coils fit with my factory Tacoma shocks? Will the OME setup with 881's match my current revtech ride height. (if my front end sits any lower that the revtechs my tires will rub)

any advice on inexpensive solutions would be much appreciated.

[DNAhilux]

front and rear or just one? check your shocks.

[GOLDS]

Just fron left spring. if you look at it, the gaps between the coils are much smaller on the left side than the right.

[MTL_4runner]

Is the coil broken? collapsed? any pics?
Both the 881's and the Tundra coils will require spacers to clear 32.5" 33x12.50R15's (or 33" 285/75's) tires.
The cheapest way to do it might be to just replace the stock spring.

[GOLDS]

Coil appears to be collapsed (sagged) it just sits WAY LOWER on the left than right. The gaps between the coils are allmost not existant, I have seen before in the past where a top or bottom ring of the coil has broken and it is not visible until the spring is removed. But I can not see any breaks on my coil. I priced the stock Tacoma coils and they are not to bad 145$ Canadian each(dealer price for me). So I'm kind of leaning towards that option right now.

Don't have my digital camera right now, sorry no pics for a while.

[DNAhilux]

well, you can get aftermarket coils for much less than 145CDN. what dealership you going to for that quote? If you are close to the border and depending on the type of taco check here link (http://www.trademotion.com/partlocator/index.cfm?action=getLocator&siteid=214074&chapter=APM809&appSectionid=19&groupid=20135&subgroupid=60277&make=34&model=Tacoma&year=1996&catalogid=1/)

[AZ4ME]

If the coil looks fine after you take it off, it could be the strut. Happened to me a few months back. The drivers side would compress and not let the spring back out. I replaced the spring thinking it was the issue, but it did the same thing. Replaced the strut and everything works great.

[GOLDS]

If the coil looks fine after you take it off, it could be the strut. Happened to me a few months back. The drivers side would compress and not let the spring back out. I replaced the spring thinking it was the issue, but it did the same thing. Replaced the strut and everything works great.


Thats interesting, was the strut able to compress after you removed it... or any other way I could tell? My struts are only about 1.5 years old, replaced by previous owner just before I bought truck.

The dealer I go to is Heffner Toyota in Kitchener Ontario. My buddy is a tech there, I stopped by tonight and asked him to order me the springs so now I can get his price, should be a fair bit less than $145.

[MTL_4runner]

If the coil looks fine after you take it off, it could be the strut. Happened to me a few months back. The drivers side would compress and not let the spring back out. I replaced the spring thinking it was the issue, but it did the same thing. Replaced the strut and everything works great.


That's entirely possible.....you might consider ordering one spring and strut just in case. That way when you remove the spring and it's not broken, it may have been the strut internals or strut mount that got damaged.

[Robinhood4x4]

This doesn't sound right. Springs don't sag in a couple days unless something is broken. The only way to permanently deform a spring that quick is to compress them beyond their yield limit. That means you had to jump the truck and the suspension went way past the bumpstops.

New springs aren't going to fix the problem, I think you need to look further into this as there is something else going on.

[GOLDS]

Replaced both my front struts this week, fixed the problem... when I got the struts out I tried compressing them and the one on the left does not return, I suspect that the internal valving is blocked or something.
Thanks for the advice!

[MTL_4runner]

Replaced both my front struts this week, fixed the problem... when I got the struts out I tried compressing them and the one on the left does not return, I suspect that the internal valving is blocked or something.
Thanks for the advice!


Glad to hear you got the problem licked. :thumbup:

[AZ4ME]

Glad to hear it worked out for ya.

[Bajabwk]

So, let me add onto this. I am running the sway away adjustables and i recently did some adjusting. I cranked up on both the front left and front right the same amount and drove for a week or two and noticed the drivers side was sitting about an inch lower then the passangers. Is this at all normal? more wear on the drivers since i do run solo alot? any comments?

[MTL_4runner]

So, let me add onto this. I am running the sway away adjustables and i recently did some adjusting. I cranked up on both the front left and front right the same amount and drove for a week or two and noticed the drivers side was sitting about an inch lower then the passangers. Is this at all normal? more wear on the drivers since i do run solo alot? any comments?

The gas tank is on the driver's side so if it sags it is usually in that direction but to be an inch off is alot. Is it sitting lower in the front and back or just the front? Also did you double check the rear OME springs to be sure the longer of the two went on the driver's side?

[Bajabwk]

The measurements are as follows for my truck. FL-37.5 inches FR-38.37 RL-38.37 RR-39 iches. A fellow runner i used to talk to told me that he had to bring up the adjustables on the drivers side to compensate for that sag. Im thinking its just wear. Ive had the lift for almost 2 years.

[MTL_4runner]

One more thing might be that the driver's side SAW has lost it's nitrogen pressure so it may be in need of a rebuild (thus causing one side to sag over time). You might also try adding an OME trim packer to the rear to help level you off in the back too. I'm surprised one side sagged that much but stuff happens. Crank up the driver's side for now and see how that works for you, but you might also look into doing a SAW rebuild too (or at least recharge).

[Bajabwk]

Hey thanks for the ideas. What does it take to rebuld or recharge the SAW's in the front?

[MTL_4runner]

Hey thanks for the ideas. What does it take to rebuld or recharge the SAW's in the front?


Here's what's involved on a rebuild:
http://www.bajataco.com/sawrebuild1.html

If you just want to get them recharged, then take them out and bring them to a race shop (even a tire shop that has nitrogen fill service can do it as well). You can recharge them on the truck but the shocks need to be at full extension so you'll have to release all pressure on the lower A-arm by putting the truck on a 4 point lift (ie the lift points are under the rocker panels). They should be filled to manufacturer specs (I believe it is 184 psi) via the schraeder valve that you see in the below pic. If they are both low or one side is lower than the other, that may signal the need for a complete rebuild (if you have over 60k miles on them you should be doing that anyway).

http://www.bajataco.com/bottom-detail.jpg