I Hate My TRD Struts

[Gregtrd]

^^ I've installed several trd struts in the past and never had any issue when using new strut mounts, if anything improper installation would be your problem. bbq bob, frank(aka jetbtkng) which they do track there cars, Ryn (twinjet) myself,uriel,the list goes on and on, I have yet to see noise problems. If you're paranoid and don't want noise problems buy some ksport solid mounts. If you have to re tighten the 19mm nut that's on the shaft then most likely they're install improperly.

[hskrsolara]

Any time you install new struts, new mounts are a GIVEN!!! If you spend all that time changing the struts and then cheap out and use your old worn out mounts...you deserve any problems you have. Why was this standard knowledge 5 years ago, but not now? Jeez, people need to do the research and search those old posts when we had guys constantly doing suspension mods.

Everyone knows our oem strut mounts are crap and fail constantly!

Struts are simple. Hand tighten all mounting bolts and strut nut, set the car on the ground and make sure mounts, struts, springs are properly seated, then crank everything tight. Drive a little bit and re tighten. Get alignment. Done, no problems.

[02slera]

^^ yes, and if you forget to crank down on that 19mm nut on the top of the front strut shaft after the vehicle has been set back down and driven a little bit, you may get a clunking, and be accused of "installing improperly" , but the bottom line is just torque the nut

[ThurzNite]

When I did my struts, I used oem mounts from dealership... It seems that the rubber doesn't completely fill the metal housing. I'm tempted to fill my mounts, if I can find something that'll ooze into the voids. Any ideas?

Dr J

[ThurzNite]

Ok, this's lame. A vibration isolator is a sleeve that has to be pressed into the oem mounts. Makes sense. The shaft is narrower on the TRD vs OEM. I'm going to measure the diameter of the OEM shaft. Greg, do you have calipers to measure your TRD struts?

Dr J

[ThurzNite]

OK, so here are the TRD struts from SuperStreet


These are my OEM struts


Measure where that blue mark is


That, obviously, should match the inner diameter of the OEM strut mount


Now go back and look at the first image, the TRD struts. The shaft where my blue mark is, I believe is narrower than my measured 14.89mm. Right now, Greg has a set of TRD struts available to measure. Would love to see what he gets!

The TRD vibration insulator should be a piece that goes into the inner diameter of the oem strut mount. I don't know what that piece is made of...rubber? metal? But we do know that you need a special TRD tool to press it in. Obviously, it's pretty hard to line up a sleeve and press into that hole w/o breaking the fragile rubber already in there, which's why you need a "special tool".

Dr J

[ThurzNite]

Ok, I was wrong. Will post additional pics and analysis in a moment.
http://www.superstreetonline.com/projec ... to_10.html
http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4252
http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/showt ... p?t=366112
http://www.yoursciontc.com/forums/121-s ... post685070

Ok all the above posts talk about something that goes in the strut mount. Makes sense, look at your strut mount and there's a huge gap between the rubber and the top of the strut mount where the rubber is inserted.

However, what throws me off is that superstreet talks about something that increases springrate. The only thing I can think of that would do that is this: http://www.zerotohundred.com/newforums/ ... 1211672930
But that doesn't get "inserted at the top of the mount". So is SuperStreet talking about 2 different things?!

Dr J

[mdatrdcam]

I've just had nothing but problems with my trd's, the front ones only. That's why I started this post, and if you search there is a pretty long forum where other members have had the same problems. They are just very noisy and mine were professionally installed. So unless you can somehow fill the mount or find the trd isolator kit, I would just get tokicos.

[ThurzNite]

Freakin eh... Alright, take a look at this pic. At the top of the spring, you'll see a 1" rubber block. That's the isolator
http://www.superstreetonline.com/projec ... to_11.html

What I don't understand is, the superstreet says it's "pinch the isolator while inserting at the top of the mount."

So what exactly gets inserted at the top of the mount?! I'm confused...

Plus, the isolator should be a component of trd springs, not trd struts. Or, are TRD struts shaft longer than oem? Again, only Greg can answer that one. Greg, wanna measure the length of a fully extended strut? I'm not sure why a longer shaft is needed in a lowered car?

Dr J