2000 rolla, need suspension advice

Yea stiffer struts and id you want to lower the car springs.
The 2 best companys when it comes to struts are KYB and Tocicko (sp)

Its best to do both the front and rear at the same times, if not a dangerous situation can arise,

A good site is www.shox.com

2000 rolla, need suspension advice

my rear (STOCK) shocks/springs seem too weak, the rear bottoms out too easily when weight is in the back. this causes my 15" wheels to rub. wat is my best, most economical solution? I want the rear to be stiffer, so I may need new shocks & springs??? the fronts seem fine, but I may have to lower it to match the rear? wat do u recommend? I am new to this.

can I add new rear struts w/o lowering the height? (so this means I don't need new springs?) I thought the springs work together w/the struts to maintain ride quality & height!?!?!?

I do not want to roll the fenders because it wouldn't work anyhow, the 15" wheels (konig monsoons) stick out a little.

You can change the struts with out changing the springs.

But if your wheel stick out a little past the body your offset is wrong so new rims with the right offset would be the best.

If the tiresa are not sticking out past the body then just rolling your fenders would solve that problem.

Here is how you roll fenders
http://vamp.darkravers.net/DIYRollingFenders.cfm

i'm sorry but that's not true...i would just do the rear and save money.

if all he's trying to do is get the rear stiffer so it doesn't rub then why not just do the rear. doing the front would be pointless.

change your whole suspension.Buy ground control coilovers with tokico struts or kyb thats a good match or tein full suspension

Thank you for letting know I was in the wrong. I guess I learned something new today

yes dat is all i'm trying to do. I looked at the car again, the wheels seem exactly flush w/the body, but it doesn't tuck under & rubs when the rear goes down.

so is it safe to safe to say all I need are rear struts? and use the stock springs? which is STIFFER, KYB or tokico?

Tockino are stiff struts

I agree..Tokicos are definitely stiff. I'm happy with mine.. =)

toyhookup@yahoo.com sells them, as does racingsolution and vpower.net, I think..

ttman - seems like you and i have similar setups. the 15" monsoons are rather nice when the struts they're attached to actually allow for the wheels to be there. go with Tokico...you'll spend a little more but you won't bottom out. KYB is simply a replacement for OEM struts...that's one of their regular applications.

vpower's shut down for now, isnt' it?

not quite. i could be persuaded to wash the car by Wed and take a few pics for you if you like.

Please. . .I wanna see your car. . I'll buy you a pack of condoms. . .

(if you don't get it go to the group buys section. . .Or ust ignore what I just said)

cool, got any pics of yer ride?

hahahahahaha...read through that thread, kiddo...i'm one of the first posters in it.



sure, i'll get that done for you. do you want me to just post them here or email you with them?

post it here

willdo...give me a couple of days

the struts really dont do anything as far as going down, up yes, but down no, the srtut stops the springs from jumping up too fast, your springs are what holds your car up, my friends dad is a mechanic and we were dicussing the strut spring theory, if your strut help you up, then why even use springs, ive read in books that its purpose is to make the spring back even so the car doesnt bounce, if it bounces then you need new struts, if it doesnt then springs should do ya

struts arent actually "stiffer" per se...... performance struts just have different rates of compression and/or rebound...... basically its the rate (or how quickly) they will compress and decompress depending on the internal valving

stiff springs help to compliment the performance oriented nature of aftermarket shocks/struts

so theoretically aftermarket (performance) struts on stock springs CAN be a dangerous setup seeing as how the stock spring is going to move and react entirely different than the aftermarket strut

and for those of you who have done this..... im talking an actual performance strut/shock.... now one that you can pick up at sears

if daz the case, then do manufacturers specify what springs are designed to work w/their strut??? and, in my case I want to retain the factory height (all aftermarket springs lowers the car???!!!). also do u believe the reason for my bottoming out is due to the springs or the struts? or both?

Most springs should work with most struts unless they are made for different cars. As far as I know, there is not an aftermarket spring available for our cars that will not work with any other aftermarket strut made for our cars and vice versa.

Most aftermarket struts and springs will lower the car slightly as the different spring rates or stiffness change the overall dynamics of the spring hence a stiffer spring is usually not as tall as a stock one. This is just the nature of the beast.

The reason for your bottoming out is probably the fault of both the strut and the spring. Stiffer springs on a stock strut might help, but as someone else noted, stiffer aftermarket springs will put a lot of pressure on your stock struts so changing them both it a good idea. If your struts are blown (which might be the case by now if you constantly have a lot of wait in the rear) you would want to get new struts too. In general stiffer springs and struts compliment each other well. The Tokicko/Tien combo seems to work well for most people. Hibachi makes a good spring as well.

Does the rear of you car sit lower than the front? I have 200 lbs of stereo equipment in the trunk and my rear was way low so I got Tokicos and then Ground Control coilovers to even the whole thing out. One problem I ran into was that, even though things looked even, the car was out of balance and the weight distribution of the car was excessive to the rear hence I was still bottoming out at times (much less frequently that stock though). I took the car to a shop and had it corner balanced which evened the weight distribution out and my problems were gone. You might just have too much weight in your trunk and your car may be out of balance. The only real way to balance out a car is with coilovers, but if you don't want to lower the car at all, these don't make much sense.

You also never mentioned how wide your wheels are or what the size of your tires is. If your rims are any wider than 7 or 7.5" they will probably rub no matter what unless you roll your fenders or raise your car. If you have a high profile or excessively wide tire, they will probably rub as well.

On a side note, I will probably be selling my Tokicos and my Ground Controls in a few weeks once my JIC's are put on, so if you are interested in them just let me know.

Improper offset on your rims, maybe.

Typically struts are replaced when you go with aftermarket (stiffer) springs, because stiff springs tend to kill the stock struts quicker than the stock springs do..if you can afford it, just replace all your springs and struts -- it'll look better, handle better, and if you roll your fenders, you shouldn't rub anymore.

if it's only me driving then the car looks perfectly balanced and it doesn't rub. but if 3-4 people are riding (or heavy item in trunk) then there's NO WAY. the car rubs every time we hit a uneven surface. the wheels are 15x6.5, tires are 195/50.

yes I would be interested in your tokico & ground control (wat's dat?) if the price is right.

Yea if you have 3-4 people or anything heavy in the back you will even rub with the stock 14's. The stock suspension is really soft cause its not a sport car.

Ground Controls are coilovers.

Agreed, the stock suspension is really soft and bouncy. I couldn't believe the difference once I put on the Tokico's and the Ground Controls. For the first time I actually felt like I was driving over bumps instead of "floating" over them. And any serious amount of weight in the rear with the stock suspension will give you a nice bouncy, bouncy, rub, float, rub, float kinda ride. I can tell you though, the stock and even the aftermarket suspension upgrades for our cars are only ment to handle up to 900lbs of additional weight, so if you have three 300lb friends in your car, your gonna rub no matter what you put on.