2019 4runner
new bilstein b6 shocks in the back. These are very, very nicely tuned to this vehicle. While I’ve not been as pleased with them in other vehicles, they *nailed* it here. I’m not sure they could have done better.
we were lucky that there is no rust in this one - getting the top nut off is aggravating enough on a clean car - there’s just no room for it. you can’t put vice grips on the shaft since the upper dust guard is metal, so I’ll bet in rust areas a cutting wheel is often used to cut the dust shield apart so vice grips can grip the shaft. We were barely able to sneak an 8mm wrench up there to trap the wee top of the shaft, with the 17mm nut immediately below.
then raybestos element3 pads all the way around, brembo rotors up front, and a tightening of the e-brake shoes in the back. Surprisingly, the shoes do not have auto adjusters in them - this was a rotor off-and-on operation, though I may have seen an access whole for it through the rotor, but not the back plate. The element3 pads were HH rated, where whatever came off was GG in the front and FF in the rear. May have been an oem pad.
bleeding this was wild. It’s not vacuum boosted. Maybe hydraulically? Engine had to be running to bleed the rear. Pumping the pedal would blow the bleed line off the rear. Pressing and holding the brake pedal was essentially like adjusting a spigot to flow. The cylinder simply pumped the fluid on its own while holding the pedal partially down. The front could be performed traditionally, by pumping the pedal, engine off. Wild, never seen one like this. And it held a ton of fluid, we used 2 large bottles. Anyone ever seen that? I thought these were typically found in 3/4 ton trucks and larger.
and, it was a good time with my son. He’s starting to take an interest as a young adult and the relationship time is something I didn’t do well with them when they were younger. I had my issues. to have a continued chance to be a better dad now… I’ll take it. Paid for all the parts just for the ability to have the time. Gotta figure out if we can do the front struts ourselves or not.
new bilstein b6 shocks in the back. These are very, very nicely tuned to this vehicle. While I’ve not been as pleased with them in other vehicles, they *nailed* it here. I’m not sure they could have done better.
we were lucky that there is no rust in this one - getting the top nut off is aggravating enough on a clean car - there’s just no room for it. you can’t put vice grips on the shaft since the upper dust guard is metal, so I’ll bet in rust areas a cutting wheel is often used to cut the dust shield apart so vice grips can grip the shaft. We were barely able to sneak an 8mm wrench up there to trap the wee top of the shaft, with the 17mm nut immediately below.
then raybestos element3 pads all the way around, brembo rotors up front, and a tightening of the e-brake shoes in the back. Surprisingly, the shoes do not have auto adjusters in them - this was a rotor off-and-on operation, though I may have seen an access whole for it through the rotor, but not the back plate. The element3 pads were HH rated, where whatever came off was GG in the front and FF in the rear. May have been an oem pad.
bleeding this was wild. It’s not vacuum boosted. Maybe hydraulically? Engine had to be running to bleed the rear. Pumping the pedal would blow the bleed line off the rear. Pressing and holding the brake pedal was essentially like adjusting a spigot to flow. The cylinder simply pumped the fluid on its own while holding the pedal partially down. The front could be performed traditionally, by pumping the pedal, engine off. Wild, never seen one like this. And it held a ton of fluid, we used 2 large bottles. Anyone ever seen that? I thought these were typically found in 3/4 ton trucks and larger.
and, it was a good time with my son. He’s starting to take an interest as a young adult and the relationship time is something I didn’t do well with them when they were younger. I had my issues. to have a continued chance to be a better dad now… I’ll take it. Paid for all the parts just for the ability to have the time. Gotta figure out if we can do the front struts ourselves or not.