On 5/17/2020 it begins - My Suspension Install

This is what I am installing tomorrow using a buddies shop. My new dewalt Cordless 1/2in impact, shop lift, trans jack's, wall mounted spring compressor, hand tools, PB blaster, blood, sweat, and maybe tears lol.

Front -
Bilstien 6112 front coilovers, highest setting -
Shock Boots?
3 Coachbuilder Front Shims .5in -
SPC Adjustable UCA's -
Front diff drop -
Alignment - Monday

Rear -
Bilstien 5160 Remote rear shocks -
Shock Boots -
Coachbuilder +3 rear Shackles with Bushings -
Rear Carrier bearing drop -

Wish me luck!

 

I just got done doing 5100s and a TRD sway bar on my 08. Certainly not as young and nimble as I once was working off the floor.

 

No shock boots. 6112s and 5160s don’t even come with boots. Boots cause more harm than good.

 

Final report.

After 10 hours it is 98% done.

Still drives straight and good, but getting alignment asap.

It looks awesome now!

I'm exhausted and feeling my age, will report more tomorrow.

Love this website, and everyone here!

Good night.

 

How's the ride? Stiffer?

 

Nice - I did my own install. I’m not as young as I used to be but it was a straightforward install - except for a few minor issues which this forum helped me solve.

 

Using stock springs or new? If new, might want to wait for them to break in a little as the height changes before getting an alignment

 

Man, you got that right.

I was almost going to tackle this on the ground.
Would have never worked.

Lucked out and my buddy let me use his shop on a Sunday.

Getting older is not fun after like 30 lol.

 

Got boots for both ends.

Only installed the rear ones.
Sending fronts back.

I live in the salt belt, Northern Virginia.

Not as bad as the upper east coast, from Pennsylvania up it is really bad.

Factory shocks had covers, not boots but some plastic or something over the shafts.
I feel they work.

 

Its weird man!

I fully expected it to ride stiff from personal experience modding other toyotas (4Runners).

It is firmer......but yet, it gives a lot more, but rebounds faster........

Lets just call it a noticeable improvement over the stock black shocks/coils!

I like it very much, still on stock wheels for now 275/55R20 AT's

Way more controlled over rough road (I already had the rear TRD swaybar), eats up bumps and speedbumps, WOW!
Feels much taller now, like a real truck, handles tighter, but still leans some in turns.

Worth the money, if they last long enough.

We shall see!

 

Good job man.

Did you see my list? All that stuff was a lot of work man lol.

My lower control arms, the front bolts would not break loose, so we had to pry, and pull them down to get the new coils in.
It was painful and exhausting!

Also my first time in a Tundra's suspension, and 4 years out of the auto repair industry lol.
I ride a computer desk selling Business software these days.

Diff drop took awhile getting left side nut on where you cant reach it lol.

Rear shackles required a lot more work than expected, had to drop spare, pull sway bar and flip it to the back, side of axle, pull both TRD exhaust hangers off, lots of physical work.

Also for the Rear Coachbuilder shackles, the ball joint press did not have a perfect size to drive out the stock bushings with the race, and no tools to cut it out after pushing the rubber bushing out of it, so I opted to leave the stock bushings alone and will eventually get the Coachbuilder poly's installed later.

Carrier bearing drop was the only truly simple thing lol.

This forum and everyone here are amazing, so are a good portion of the Vendors!

Shout outs to Coachbuilder, and Dirtydeeds, both super nice guys and very helpful and passionate!

 

From the first post buddy.

"Bilstien 6112 front coilovers, highest setting -
Shock Boots?
3 Coachbuilder Front Shims .5in -"

These come with new springs, the 5100 models use your old springs, or others you buy separately.

They will settle some, but not much.

My alignment with out even trying is very close to good.
It drives essentially the same as it did before I ripped it apart, which was perfect.

Now I have to get $160 worth of lower control arm cam bolt assemblies, and pay $400-600 for an alignment where they will most likely have to cut out the front bolts and replace with new ones.

This shop specializes in lifted trucks and custom specific alignments so they must know what they are doing, a major truck lift shop in the area subs all the alignments to them, and referred me over.

After this initial alignment, it wont cost that much in the future. A lot of that cost in the lower cam bolts cutting and replacing.

We will see how it goes once I can afford to get it over there lol.

 

I agree. These aren't great but she's my baby!

This is before.



This is after.



Pics suck. It's much bigger in person.
So she told me anyway.... Lol.

Drives awesome, looks awesome, finally looks and feels like a real truck should.

I just need $3k worth of +25 or +35 offset wheels, and 35in tires now.

 

Update and report on bad vendor.

Do not purchase from Rockauto.
They do NOT stand behind their parts.

They sent me right side SPC UCA with gen 2 greasable ball joint, and left side with gen 1 non greasable ball joint. After going back and forth with their horrible online only return system, No phone support at all, they told me to bad, the manufacturer can send whatever they want.

Their listing pic shows greasable ball joint.
That's what I paid for, that's what I expected.

They refuse to make it right.
So I just called Capital One and issued my first ever charge back.

I warned them there would be repercussions for burning a first time customer.

Do yourself a favor and stay away from Rockauto.

I will never so much as look at their website again.

Cheapest prices mean cheapest service, or lack thereof lol.

 

I replaces all my suspension parts last fall and here is what i found out and hopefully this info might help. Most of the parts you find are cheap Chinese stuff. The Toyota parts are stupid expensive. You can order AC Delco Pro line parts for any vehicle and that is what I used. They look identical to the Toyota parts and are made in Japan, i have had no problems with any of them. They are about 1/5 the cost of the Toyota parts.

 

So I paid a "trusted" shop to get it aligned today.

That was fucking painful.....

Drives real good. Here is the spec sheet. I asked for the alignment specs I found on socals sticky. Thanks dude!

As mentioned the front cams on the lower control arms where frozen. They could not break them, they had to cut them off, but they were able to airhammer out the remaining pieces of bolt. They also replaced the rear cam bolts, all with parts I bought from Toyota.

They claimed they antiseazed the shit out of the bolt bodies so they will never freeze up again...

I think I over paid by a hundred or so, took them about 4 hours, but whatever it's done now.


Thanks for reading!

 

Did you get the UCA situation figured out with Rock Auto?

 

Dayumm that's a pricey alignment + cam bolt replacement.

 

WOW, good quality control arms (AC Delco Pro) are about $80 each and you could have done this on a Saturday morning. The stuck adjustment cams are normal and the are about $20 ea if you do some searching and not just go to your local dealer (about $35 ea). Sunce you didnt mention it it looks like none of your ball joints or steering bushings were replaced. The Toyota control arms are $250-$300 each depending where you get them

 

Nope they refused to send me a replacement greasable ball joint. So they got my first ever Chargeback to a vendor in my life. After all the work I put in assembling this thing Sunday I have no patience for bullshit.

They do bad business, I will NEVER shop there again!

Also ZERO phone support, and corporate would not answer their phones either. Had to do it all online and their system did not work for my problem, but they emailed me back to say tuff shit, return it all if you don't like it. Yea........after I spent 10 hours installing it, OK buddy.

That's one vendor I won't ever have to worry about again lol.

 

Yea I tend to agree, but whatever, at least now it's done and good for awhile, I checked their work so I'm content I suppose.

 

I had no time to order parts and wait.

Best I could find was $275 per lower control arm. No I could not do this at home in my townhouse parking space. I had to borrow a buddies shop (1 time deal) to do the install, and we could not remove them there, so no way I could at home.

Cam bolts same deal, no time to wait on orders, and I needed the bolts not just the end nuts, bolts were frozen in sleeves.

No, no other ball joints or steering bushings were needed, the truck is a 2014 with 57k miles in great shape, no rust even, except some on TRD exhaust. Don't need to buy shit I don't need right now.

I was budgeted for about $300-350 for alignment but shit happens.

Overall I'm thrilled it's done now and I grin like a Cheshire cat every time I see my truck. This is how Toyota should setup and sell all their trucks. It was waaaaay to low before. Now when I pull up beside another truck I'm equal or higher instead of literally being looked down on lol.

Now where can I steal $3500 for a set of 20s on 35s lol

 

So your running one greeseable and one non greeseable UCA?

 

Sorry to hear about the ball joints not matching. Its really not going to cause an issue, I'd probably just roll with it and when the time comes you can get replacements for under $150 (part no. SPC 25002). One thing about SPC is the ball joint they use is not the greatest, even the greaseable ones still have failures. I've returned a few items to Rock Auto and never had an issue, only problem is you might get sent the same item if you reorder.

Might not hurt to call Mevotech directly and explain the issue, I'd be willing to be they would make it right.

Mevotech 416-783-7800

Sucks but Rock Auto does show the right side part number CMS861202 with the non-greaseable ball joint, they may have run out of the greaseable ones. So maybe not entirely their fault.

 

That is correct.
I don't see any harm, except that the sealed one does not seem to even have grease in it, or very little.
The greasable one, I was able to add a good amount to also. They were supposed to be greased already. Think it was just bad luck for me, and an unconcerned vendor.

I am keeping an eye on it. Once my Chargeback clears, I will use some of that money to order the correct greasable ball joint from someone else and replace it.

 

Your right it will not cause an issue, it's just not what I ordered.

Thanks for the heads up on reliability. I won't be doing more then VA snow and OBX beaches so I expect them to last a long time, we shall see I guess.

My issue is the left arm which shows a greasable ball joint. The right does not show it, but I got one anyway. This shows a lack of concern, attention to detail, and care for your customers. They don't deserve my money.
This is my first and last order from Rockauto.

I will try calling mevotech but I didn't buy it from them so I doubt they will care. Rockauto also tried to tell me this is how it works, even the manufacturer doesn't garuntee greasable ball joints, you get what you get, but that's just not true of SPC, so they also lied to me.

As mentioned I will replace it when it fails, or when my Chargeback clears and I can use the same money to order a greasable ball joint from some one else.

 

I just thought of something.
Should I do the zero point calibration for my traction control stuff after this lift?

Drives fine so far FYI...

Thanks for everyone's help!

 

On the Tundras, the Zero point is one of the steps in the alignment process. I don't know if all shops do it or not. Someone posted a while back on things to check to see if you need a ZPC done. It's been a while so I would have to search for it. The greasable SPC balljoints are around $150 for the pair. They do Not come with grease in them, so keep that in mind.

 

2nd this. These manufacturers are usually really good to deal with. Just nibble on their ear a little when you get Mevotech on the phone..