Rebuilding TRD Pro Bilsteins

About a year ago, I picked up a set of TRD Pro Billies from eBay. The price was fair, they looked clean, and the seller said they had 25k miles. I rolled the dice.

About 6 months in one of the rears developed a pretty nasty clunk—no resistance to compression for the first 2" or so of travel at all. In investigating the issue I discovered that my shocks have Schrader valves installed. Whoops. It turns out these have been rebuilt in the past, which was a surprise to me. They have part numbers on them, so I don't think they are prototypes. The nitrogen pressure looked good at 200 PSI, so a recharge wasn't the issue. I've pulled the rears to work on a solution.

I'm not going to lose sleep over the seller not disclosing the rebuild. My risk and my consequence. I would however love to keep these shocks around as the hardest part of a rebuild seems to have been completed for me already.

I know Bilstein won't rebuild these and does not consider them to be serviceable. Has anyone here completed a rebuild or know of someone who has? I can only find an old thread on tundra solutions about it at this point. Any help or direction on sourcing parts would be greatly appreciated!

 

Picture of the rears next to 5160s before installation.

 

Anyone? I’m curious to know as well because I have my bilstein trd pro suspension laying in the attic hoping for somebody that can rebuild these things.

 

Did you ever find anything out here? I have a 2015 TRD Pro with 47k miles. Suspension is still fine, but I’d love to be able to rebuild the stock shocks when it’s time - after all, they’re specifically tuned for the truck.

 

I was never able to find a cost effective solution, unfortunately.

 

I have a set of these that are in decent shape, but would like to freshen. There are other dampers and applications out there with 18mm shafts… there has to be something in the way of parts. They are a 6112 with a good smattering of 8112 thrown in, so imo worth doing something with.

 

Try giving Joe at https://jtechmotorsport.com/ a call. I'd bet he'd at least be willing to check them out and see if he could rebuild them.
He rebuilt my Fox TRD Pro's when most shops said they wouldn't touch them.

 

I called my local shop (who does off road race trucks) and he won’t do them either. I did some research and a member on a different forum page took them apart but never did an actual rebuild. Seems like you would just need to find seals and add valves to recharge them.

 

To some this may come across as thick headed, but…… the cost of new bilsteins is minimal in the over all scheme of things why would you want to spend the money to rebuild a shock instead of just buying a new set after 100-150k miles. I know they talk about the lifetime warranty but they also know how to get around actually fixing these under warranty but again, it’s not really that expensive or time consuming to by a new and probably upgraded strut or shock. Im not being snarky but genuinely asking. My wife says I have no attachments to anything so maybe that’s my issue but I assume there is a really good reason folks have to try and rebuild these. Look forward to hearing all of your thoughts.

 

Not a hard headed question, but good question. The dampening in the Trd pro shocks is superior to the 6112 setup. Since it has superior dampening and more advanced internal components than the 6112 and 5160 (not sure if that is the right number) rear shock.

Good off road shocks cost about 3k for a set, and are meant to be rebuilt ever 50-75k depending on use. It is more economical to rebuild for 1300$ then buy new shocks at 3k each time.

 

Ah. Learn something everyday. Thank you for the insight. Makes sense.

 

Any updates on this? I am reaching out to multiple rebuild companies to try and seek an answer.

I did just get an answer from Shock Rehab in Colorado and they were great on phone. He said no, because they'd have to be drilled into and seal kits have to be pieced together, and it just doesn't seem feasible. FWIW

 

Good to know and thanks for the info. I’ve heard similar things from other guys who have talked with suspension outfits. Disappointing because I love the ride of my stock suspension and I really would love to replicate it with the replacement. I’ve only got 54k miles now, but when the time comes for me, I think it’ll be Fox 2.0s. A bit of a downgrade from stock, but my truck never touches trails.

 

no problem. I’m looking at a set with 51k miles that are in good shape. Debating on buying $600…

 

That might be a good plan. Mine with 54k still seem fine, but I’ve always heard the performance shocks really only last 70-80k (while they’re still performing well and not leaking anyway). I’d love to get some of the rebuildable Fox ones from a later gen 2, but they’re basically impossible to find.

 

Yes, this is exactly what KDM here in socal told me. They can't rebuild due to this reason.

Better off buying a new pair somewhere else

 

Here’s a disassembled seal head from a TRD Pro shock. Seals are made by CFW Germany. Some searching of the following numbers might get us closer to rebuilding.
DX19.8-32.4
DH18-26.7
The thin top lip seal has no number.
The bushing is 18mm ID x 21mm OD x 15.5mm tall.
I suspect o-rings and other internal parts like the wear band may be shared with 8100/8112/9100/9200. The 2.0” reservoirs probably use 5160 parts.
Drill the rezi is easy.

 

Hey- super cool you replied. I actually just emailed you and as I am typing this I got your reply to my email. Just want to say thanks for the help- I am going to pass up on buying the used set.

 

Yep, I've been looking everywhere. Nobody is selling them except super expensive new ones.

 

If they were plentiful, such as Raptor shocks, it surely would be worthwhile. It’s really unfortunate, as again, these have a lot of 8112 in there.

 

Yep- and the 8112 are awesome. Just not worth it to me money wise. I have a Baja bug for that lol.