AE111 Non Superstrut Shock Absorbers

[Subway]

Apparently my factory rear shocks are borked (not unsurprising considering its done 160ks) but im not interested in coil overs etc, just OEM or equivalent replacements. Any recommendations as to my options (I did try searching, but not alot came up that was helpful). Im going to give Autolign a call tomorrow and see whats available, but I thought id ask here first. Would I be best to just get the Toyota OEM shocks? or KYB/Monroes? If so, who is the best/cheapest to deal with. I might give partsmaster a call as well

[Bling]

viewtopic.php?t=66290

Factory ones will be fine

[Subway]

Sweet, ill flick him an email

[Subway]

$160 each for the rears, is that a good price? or should I be pricing up monroes/kybs?

[Mr Revhead]

It'll be hard to find cheaper, and if they are cheaper.... I bet the quality won't be as good

[AceSniper]

I would look at kyb's ... rears are more expensive as you cant just fit inserts like the front

[Bling]

If your current ones are shot, new OEM will be a big improvement, so for 160/corner i'd go for it.

[Subway]

Sweet, I think ill get them. Is it a difficult job swapping them out? or is it a job I should leave for the pros...

[Bling]

Its not too difficult, depends what tools you have. Also how confident you are.

I'd recommend a rattle gun as tightening and loosening the top nut I found impossible with just a socket set. Though shocks often say not to use a rattle gun... I don't know how else it can be done tbh.

You can drop the shocks out with (from memory here) a socket set and some spanners. Axle stands and will need spring compressors to get the springs out (compress them before taking top hat off). Depending on the brake hoses, you may have to disconnect the brake hoses at the hub to get the strut out of the car. So you'll have to bleed the brakes at the end too. Worth getting an alignment too.

So that should give you a ROUGH idea of what's involved, and whether or not you want to take the job on. I've probably missed out something, but you'll find out what that is if you do it

Find someone local that drinks beer If you were in chch, i'd have shown ya how to do it.

[TRD_ZERO]

Easy as plus ull learn a few things along the way.

[AceSniper]

have a good 14mm spanner and 5mm alan key on hand if you don't have a rattle gun for the rear swaybar links.
An as iv said at least price the kyb's after all kyb made some of the TRD AE struts

[Mr Revhead]

But the KYB's you buy in NZ have nothing to do with TRD shocks
Don't buy the base model pink boxed/stickered ones. The will at best be equal to stock.

Top nut, undo that first, use a power bar. BEFORE you take the strut out of the car, infact make it the very first thing you do even before jacking it up.

[Subway]

Haha im in Auckland, East Auckland to be specific. Cheers for the advice though, might be a bit beyond me, but I certainly know how difficult the sway bar links are. That reminds me, I need to replace them while im at it, one of the links I put in this time last year loosened itself and im back to square one again

[Dell'Orto]

Bah, shocks are easy as hell to do...we swapped a set of rear shocks over at a TS meet here once

Best thing to do is give all the nuts a blast of CRC for a couple of days before you do it, then they'll be easy to undo. I've never had to use a rattle gun on suspension before, though it would be faster. Decent sized breaker bar will get anything undone

[Bling]

How do you stop the shock shaft moving inside the shock? With the top hat in place I couldn't get a spanner onto the flattened off section so it just turned the shaft. First time I had to putter down the local garage with semi tight struts to get them to tighten em up. I don't lack the powerbar, just the ability to turn it fast enough

Also if you haven't done shocks before, it is quite involved IMO. Once you've done it once its piece of piss. Very easy to say its easy when you've done it many times

BTW Brad, you need an email on ya website, I need some bits pricing up

[Mr Revhead]

How do you stop the shock shaft moving inside the shock?

By doing it how I said, ie undo that top nut before you do anything else. weight of the car helps

[AceSniper]

if you have a semi big screw driver you can use it to lock the spring/top hat then use a beaker bar on the nut

[Bling]

How do you stop the shock shaft moving inside the shock?

By doing it how I said, ie undo that top nut before you do anything else. weight of the car helps

What about when putting the springs back in, even in the car mine spun.

[Mr Revhead]

reverse! tighten the nut last.
thats how I've always done it on all my cars and never had an issue

[Bling]

Lucky you, in my car the shock just spins, the weight of my car had no affect on the shock turning inside itself.

Doesn't matter now with air tools at the ready