SLE Bounce with TRD Lowering Springs

[mikei]

I just drove from Miami to California and on the worst parts of the interstate the car would bounce front to back relentlessly. Does anyone
have poor ride complaints with the TRD Lowering Spring Set.

I am interested to know if the Sport models are standing up better than
my SLE.

It is obvious that the SLE Struts are no match for the TRD Springs.

Shame on TRD.

Any reports would be appreciated.

[Jai_Jai_Binks]

when you bounce like tigger its struts not springs. Anything trd puts their badging (since its mostly other products with trd badging) is of great quality. One reason some gen2 guys have escaped this is cus they have mated trd springs with struts from their sport models. Yours are made to be soft and not stiff.

[mmcdonald]

I bet what your were experiencing was a resonance that was set up based on your speed and the distance between expansion joints.

When you say it "would bounce front to back relentlessly" do you mean a rythmic rolling back and forth? Or do you mean that every pothole or bump resulted in an isolated series of bounces that would taper off back to smoothness until you hit the next bump?

If it was the former, then this resonance can be sut up on any vehicle with any suspension system, practically (except maybe a softtail Harley.) This is caused by the expansion joints in the highway being spaced at intervals that match the travel of your suspension at the speed you happened to be going. What happens is that you bounce over the first bump, and then rebound, and at the bottom of the rebound, or shortly thereafter, you hit the second bump so that the second bump is added to the rebound recovery and you just float up and down and up and down etc. If this happened, try changing your speed to break the resonance.

If it is the latter, then it is your shocks, not the springs.

[mikei]

Thank you for the responses so far.

Yes it was a combination of the two and slowing down helped.

There is nothing the matter with the springs. It is just that with the SLE

Struts the combination does not work well at all. As you say the SLE Struts

are too soft. And that is my point. I believe TRD knows of this problem

and should warn customers that their spring set is only recommended

for Sport Struts. Then I either would have installed Sport Struts along with

the TRD Lowering Spring Set or waited for an after-market complete

solution.

Has anyone been in both cars with lowering springs?

-SLE Struts with TRD Lowering Spring Set

-Sport Model Struts with TRD Lowering Spring Set

I do not want to buy Sport Struts and go through all the time and money

of re &re if that combination is not a big improvement.

If it is I will go that route!

If it is not I will either live with it until an after-market solution becomes

available or replace the TRD Springs for the time being until a solution is

available.

Mike I.

[Jackass-Jeff]

you might wear the springs (sag) if you keep them on w/ extended driving (like you said, Fl to Ca... wow)

That won't happen for a while though... but the struts will also wear down due to the springs not supporting the weight of the car as well as they should have (lowering springs should have a higher spring rate than the stock springs to help hold the car and not overkill on the strut's ability) but if they spring rate is too high, then you'll still end up getting a bouncing ride.

So ya... be careful! The last thing you want to do is kill your struts hahaha (you should be ok for at least 30K miles though)

[PhreakdOut]

This will sound stupid, but did you or the installer put the jounce bumpers on the strut rod before reinstalling the struts?

No bumpers means you're not bottoming out soon enough. In effect, your suspension travel is greater than it should be which can cause a terrible float.

[mikei]

I am sure he did. However I will double check.

The Master Tech at the Dealership did all the work

on my car but anything is possible.