Replacing 215k OEM Shocks - New OEM or Bilstein/OME? (1 Viewer)

[Gnarwgn]

Just thought I'd report back to bring my comments full circle, and for other trying to figure this out in the future -

Ended up buying OEM parts from @murf and the guys down at Camelback Toyota, they are great. Shipped to my door for just over $300.

While those were in the mail, I jumped onto Craigslist and under 'Services' > 'Automotive' and found a guy who keeps a local alignment shop open after hours willing to swap out all 4 shocks with the new set for $125 total. Added an alignment for $60 for good measure. Sidenote - as somebody mentioned one of the rear shocks bolts was pretty much fused and had to be cut out. The guy was not happy about this, and it made me really glad I didn't attempt to do this job myself, as easy as it looks in the videos.

So total job was approx $500 for everything (including tax), and next closest pricing to that was over $600 from Les Schwab (and not OEM parts). I noticed immediate improvement in the vehicle's ride quality and responsiveness. Thanks to everybody who suggested this as a good road to take, I'm 100% happy with the outcome.

 

[Reb Cruiser]

Just thought I'd report back to bring my comments full circle, and for other trying to figure this out in the future -

Ended up buying OEM parts from @murf and the guys down at Camelback Toyota, they are great. Shipped to my door for just over $300.

While those were in the mail, I jumped onto Craigslist and under 'Services' > 'Automotive' and found a guy who keeps a local alignment shop open after hours willing to swap out all 4 shocks with the new set for $125 total. Added an alignment for $60 for good measure. Sidenote - as somebody mentioned one of the rear shocks bolts was pretty much fused and had to be cut out. The guy was not happy about this, and it made me really glad I didn't attempt to do this job myself, as easy as it looks in the videos.

So total job was approx $500 for everything (including tax), and next closest pricing to that was over $600 from Les Schwab (and not OEM parts). I noticed immediate improvement in the vehicle's ride quality and responsiveness. Thanks to everybody who suggested this as a good road to take, I'm 100% happy with the outcome.

I've got the same set-up for my 1999 on the way -- 865s and new oem shocks and upper control arms (my bushings and ball joints were shot). My question is this: I ordered the shocks and UCAs from Toyota Parts Deal. Do I need to order the additional mounting hardware mentioned in an earlier post to install the shocks or can I just use what I got? The price of all the hardware together is more than the shocks!

 

[jimoldguy]

My thoughts are that at 20 years old and you mentioned worn UCA, ball joints, I'd replace the hardware too. It is the suspension: a failure good mean death.

 

[Theraf8100]

In my past experience (European car rallies in late 80's and early 90's) Bilstein outlasted any other brand and the fact that their products were lifetime warrantied didn't hurt either... One of the factors was that they retained 98% efficiency after 100k kilometers (60k miles).

Still have that warranty sitting around? Only took me 2 days to break your shocks.