Upgrading the suspension on the Toyota 4Runner is one of the best upgrades you can make to your vehicle. Most people will pay someone to do this work, but you don’t need to. In this post I will go over the steps to getting this done yourself. You can save yourself a lot of money by putting in a few hours and some elbow grease. The pictures that follow will be from a 2017 SR5 Premium. If you have KDSS like me I will also talk about dealing with that system and how I got the lift on my 4Runner done.
Take some before and after pictures so you can remind yourself how short your ride used to be. This is a key thing for me to do so I can look back to what my 4Runner used to look at.
I word of the wise to anyone doing this, I like to coat everything in anti seize as I put it back together. Having not done this on my first suspension is what caused me to have to get a second suspension setup. The bolts rusted to the lower shock eye causing me to have to cut them out.
Table of Contents
Front Suspension
Step 1: Be sure you’re level
Park your vehicle on a level surface. Ideally you will do this in a garage, but I understand that not everyone has that luxury. Trust me I have done plenty of wrenching in the driveway too.
Step 2: Loosen Lugnuts
Get your jack and jack stands ready. Before you lift the vehicle up break the lug nuts loose on the wheels.
Step 3:Jack Up Both Sides
Jack the 4Runner up. It’s always smart to put a wheel chalk behind a rear tire. I like to knock the front suspension out first as its the most complicated. Jack up both sides of the front of the truck and place jack stands on the frame. Take a minute to give the truck a good shake to make sure it is stable. Take the wheels off and get them out of the way. Some people like to put them under the vehicle.
Step 4:Locate All the Bolts
Locate all the bolts that you will need to remove to get the suspension out of the vehicle. There are 4 bolts holding the actual suspension in, but you will need to undo possibly 6. If you have KDSS you will have to deal with the sway bar.
Step 5:Loosen UCA
Remove the Cauter pin from the upper control arm ball joint and loosen the nut. Don’t take it all the way off just yet as you will use it to catch the spindle when you separate them. To separate the spindle from the upper control arm hit this flat spot with a hammer. Eventually it will pop loose. Once loose take the nut off and use something to tie the spindle out of the way. You will want to make sure you aren’t tugging on the brake line or the ABS wire. (You can take the ABS wire out to be safe if you want). Ask me how I know about the ABS wire.
Step 6:Start Unbolting
Now that you have a clear path for the coil-over to be pulled out of the truck, start unbolting things. There are 3 nuts at the top of the suspension, and a bolt going through the bottom of the coil-over. Don’t undo the big nut in the middle of the top of the suspension. This will undo the coil-over, and can be VERY dangerous. You may need to undo the sway bar as well to get it out of the way. If you undo both sides you will be able to swing up out of the way easily. This is where having KDSS can be a real pain. KDSS will not swing out of the way the same as the non-KDSS. Once these are out you can wiggle the shock out.
Step 6b: KDSS Only Step
If you have KDSS you will likely need to release some of the pressure from the sway bar. There are several ways of doing this. One is you can undo both mounts under the radiator and swing it down. Or 2 you can undo each side at the lower control arm. I have done both and of the 2 options the first one is easier to fight back into place. You can also loosen the KDSS valves to make working with the system a little easier. I have never messed with the valves myself. I have also seen people just use a long pry bar to create room to slip the new suspension in, but it really only works if there is two of you. I’ve never had that luxury. (Side note: I have written an article about the benefits and drawbacks of the KDSS system here.)
Step 7:Reusing the Stock Tophats
This step really only applies to shocks like Bilstiens that need to use the existing top hats. You will need to compress the springs and disassemble the coil-overs. Keep in mind that this will be the most dangerous part of the entire job. Those little spring compressors you can get from the parts store work, but they are VERY unsafe. If you aren’t sure take them somewhere that will compress them for you. I happen to have a commercial spring compressor in my garage only because I came across one on Craigslist for dirt cheap. Once the spring is compressed, just undo the nut at the top.
Step 8:Assemble the New Coil-Overs
Once you are ready to assemble the new coil-overs, just compress the new spring and slip the new shock in the bottom. When lined up put the top hat on and secure the top nut. Heres a little trick to make sure everything will line up when it’s in the truck. One of the top bolts will line up directly perpendicular to the lower shock eyelet. If you are in between then this will make install a lot harder, and could prematurely wear your lower bushings. Trust me it’s worth the couple extra minutes to get this right before you release all the pressure off the spring.
Step 9:Install
Slip the new taller coil-overs in to the truck. Put the top in first then slide the bottom into place. Keep in mind that you are putting a longer setup back in, so you may need to wrestle it a bit. Usually you can push down on the lower control arm enough to push the bottom bolt through. Just be careful when it comes to that bottom bolt. If you mess up the threads I suggest chasing them before you run the nut back on. Also make sure you put the bolts in the way they came out. The bottom one goes from the back to the front. In these pictures we put 2.75 in lift on the front and had very little trouble getting the taller coil-overs in. If you have KDSS it will be a littlle harder.
Step 10:Reassemble
Bolt everything back together. I suggest looking up actual torque specs, but I’ll be honest, I just make sure everything is good and tight. You should have all 3 nuts on the top of the shock, the lower shock bolt, the sway bar, and the spindle/upper control arm all bolted back up. Don’t forget the Cauter pin either. If you have something like my Icons you will be replacing the top nuts with bolts that got from the top down into the coil-overs. You also won’t need to compress the springs at all because they come fully assembled. Once both sides are done you can move to the back.
Rear Suspension
Step 1:Make Sure You Are Leveled and Solid
Just like before, you will want to break loose the lug nuts before you jack the vehicle up. Make sure you have a front tire chalked, and your jack stands in a safe spot. Give the truck a good shake before you take the tires off.
Step 2:Unbolting the Rear
Start unbolting the rear shocks. There is one nut at the top of the rear shock, and a bolt at the bottom. Once the top nut is off, the shock should start dropping down. This will make it a lot easier to pop the bottom of the shock off. Don’t be surprised if you need to pry the bottom off a little.
Step 3:Removal of Rear Springs
Once the rear shocks are off, you can move to the rear springs. Doing the springs before you put the new shocks in will make it a lot easier. There are a couple different methods to getting the rear springs out. you can jack up each side of the axle to create space on the opposite side. Another trick is taking your factory bottle jack and jacking the axle down against your bump stop. Both ways work, or you can do what I did and before jacking the truck up I put those super unsafe spring compressors on. After the truck is jacked up the springs practically fall out.
Step 4:Install New Springs
Put in the new springs. Weather you are putting a spacer on top of the new springs, or replacing with taller lift springs, you will have to use one of the above mentioned tricks to fit the taller setup in. Honestly the bottle jack is probably the easiest. When I put in my 3″ rear springs I need to use the bottle jack AND the spring compressors due to me not wanting to unbolt my whole rear axle. Before you move on make sure the spring is seated fully. There is a notch on the rear springs seat that the spring ends at basically. Also don’t forget to put the factory spring isolator back on top. If you need to use the spring compressors, make sure you put them on so the part you screw is at the bottom of the springs, and they will need to be in the front and back of the spring essentially. If they are off to the side you will have trouble getting them off, and the springs lined up.
Step 5:Install New Shocks
Now that your springs are fully in, you can move back to the shocks. Slip the bottom of the shock on and put the bot in. Once that’s done you can start to jack up each side of the axle while guiding the top of the shock into the correct hole. Just make sure you have all the rubber bushings on the shock that need to go on before its in place. Once through the hole put the top bushing, washer, and nut on and tighten. This concludes the labor of the lift kit.
Step 6:Hot Lap
Go for a test drive. Take some corners, go over some bumps. The goal here is not to be showing off your dope new ride. You want to be listening for any odd sounds, and see if anything feels loose or off. If all feels and sounds good and tight you should be good to go. I always like to go home and just double check everything one last time while I clean up all my tools.
Step 7:Get an Alignment
Get an alignment. Any time you make any kind of adjustment to your suspension, you will need to get an alignment done. Skipping this will cause your tires to wear out at an unbelievable rate. This will cost you far more than the $100 an alignment would cost. Don’t be surprised if your truck feels a little flighty on the freeway before you get the alignment done. At the 2.75″ we set this 4Runner at you could see serious positive camber just sitting there. I can only imagine how far off everything else is.
Upper Control Arms
If you are going past a 2.5″ lift on the front it is advised to replace the upper control arms with new ones that will give you some added castor. This will make it easier to get your alignment back into spec. This is not a super hard step. All you need to do once all the suspension is out, is undo the super long through bolt and slide it out through the engine bay. Assemble the new upper control arm and install the bolt back through. You will more than likely need to grease these after you are all said and done.
Final Thoughts
All in all this is a pretty basic job, and blows my mind that people will pay upwards of $1,000 for labor. The 4Runner pictured took me about 3 hours with a lot of shooting the S#!t with my buddies. Granted this 4Runner happened to be very low miles (26,000 on a 4 year old 4Runner), so the bolts were really easy to get out. We had back up lower shock bolts on hand just in case. I know they are expensive, but better safe than sorry. When I work on mine with 85,000 miles on it, things don’t come out just as easy. Cover everything with anti-seize and you will be happy down the road when or if you need to take it out again.