A Grande question about my suspension

[shmick82 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close shmick82]

Hi all,
Past couple months the suspension has been a bit weird.

When parked I hear hissing and car slowly dropping. Sometimes though it just stays up over night. Its like it has a mind of its own on what it wants to do.

Last night while fuelling up, rear dropped, as it does, but failed to come back up on the ride home. That was not fun. This morning, rear came up and no problem. So not sure if they are torn.

Does this sound like a bag problem? Compressor? Line? The car is 2005, so I'm thinking probably time to change bags anyway.

On that note, how do you tell if shocks are OK? Or do I change the whole thing, front and rear?

Oh, if it helps the diagnosis, when I change the ride firmness settings, 2 years ago I could keep it at comfort, for a nice plush ride, rarely going past sport, but now I'm on the firmest setting because anything else and the car just bounces around like crazy. (Most of this started when I fitted my 80kg draw system in the boot. It felt like rear was bottoming over speed humps, at any setting).

Thanks

[Guest Close Guest]

Bags are leaky. The compressor still sounds like it is working. It just has a protection delay.

The shocks also sound like they are on their way out. Time for a (Whitey) suspension upgrade.

[Hobes Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hobes]

1. Grandes "kneel" after the car turns off like by 40ish mm at rear to allow easier entrance and exit as car is lower to ground and goes back to original height when you start the car nice touch.
2 10 years is about time to replace airbags and shocks and front springs, easy to buy and cheap enough on Partsouq.com, airbags about $220 ish ea, front Tems shocks $180 ish ea, rear shocks $400 ish ea, new front springs $250 pair from what ever oz supplier. Easy to put small lift in like 40mm front and rear.
3. Google how to fit suspension, lift, etc and you could in one weekend retain all your Grande features ( suspension automatically firms up when it detects cornering and emergency situations Tems is worth keeping).

[Guest Close Guest]

Grandes don't kneel unless you tell it to.

[Whitey Shockie Maker of the Month Award Find all posts View Profile Close Whitey]

1. Grandes "kneel" after the car turns off like by 40ish mm at rear to allow easier entrance and exit as car is lower to ground and goes back to original height when you start the car nice touch.
2 10 years is about time to replace airbags and shocks and front springs, easy to buy and cheap enough on Partsouq.com, airbags about $220 ish ea, front Tems shocks $180 ish ea, rear shocks $400 ish ea, new front springs $250 pair from what ever oz supplier. Easy to put small lift in like 40mm front and rear.
3. Google how to fit suspension, lift, etc and you could in one weekend retain all your Grande features ( suspension automatically firms up when it detects cornering and emergency situations Tems is worth keeping).

Hey Hobes,

Interesting discussion about what would be termed semi-active suspension!

I have not had the opportunity to dyno test the soft and hard limits of TEMS struts and shocks, but I'd like to know!

Andrew, what is your opinion about this, what is your impression of Prado handling on hard TEMS settings?

I'm not convinced it would be worth retaining TEM struts and shocks at their limited open lengths/potentially under valved specs when you can coil convert the rear and have a bush proof handling weapon on stronger valving!

I'm happy to test some TEMS struts and shocks on the dyno...the only trick may be swapping the actuator between hard and soft settings.

Best

Mark

[Hobes Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hobes]

Really they do not kneel. Admittedly a Toyota car salesman said that all Grandes "kneel" when stopped, as I asked what the hiss was when I turned off the car he then showed me another and it did the same thing. You can hear a hiss outside the car or if a window/s down but not in the car if windows up sounded plausible.

[Hobes Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hobes]

I have the old Tems front shocks here if your in Perth, feels like they turn the rebound up or down, going from soft to hard, I not really interested into hardcore 4wding and like the ability to mostly honestly stay in soft around town, it firms up after about 60kmh if you do not turn the dial, on open road I have it on the third setting only hardest setting when there are lots of corners and I feel like hustling the old girl around, but on the few corrugated roads I have been on, you can sort of find the best setting for ride comfort.
Actuator turns a little rod on top I pulled mine out on soft but had not gas in compared to new ones.

[Guest Close Guest]

Really they do not kneel. Admittedly a Toyota car salesman said that all Grandes "kneel" when stopped, as I asked what the hiss was when I turned off the car he then showed me another and it did the same thing. You can hear a hiss outside the car or if a window/s down but not in the car if windows up sounded plausible.

Hiss, yes. Auto kneeling, no.

[Guest Close Guest]

A Grande question about my suspension

Whitey. All the actuator is, is a multi position rotary solenoid. Without it you can select the various valving position (crap/crap and harder crap). Or in Toyota brochure speak. Comfort, no idea and sport. with a pair of pliers.

First I've heard that TEMS supposedly tighten the shocks in corners.
I can say the two Grande's I've dealt with did not do this.

Airbags should stay up overnight. They do not "kneel" when you stop. You have to select this once stopped or under 30kmh.

Bags going down overnight will have a small leak. Get the soapy water out and see what you find. Might be an airline. But more than likely a bag.

When I pull up with mine occasionally and reverse into the sunken garage it will drop a small amount of air to level the car. I hear it hissing.
When I had a slow leak in a bag however it did not make a sound.

I would never install Toyota TEMS shocks, huge waste of money. They underperform so badly.
TEMS which allowed adjustment of shocks from in cabin was crap. IMO.

[shmick82 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close shmick82]

Thanks for all the quick replies (I'm in Melbourne Hobes). So pretty much, buy new airbags, buy regular shocks for the back, buy TEMS shocks for the front and some springs for the front. Easy enough.
I probably wont lift it, those days are over for me, for now, unless anyone can conclusively say that lifting will make it better to ride (on the road and unsealed roads) which in my experience is not true.
I'd like to keep it as factory, ie, working knobs and height. So from what I gather, the rear shocks and front springs can be just about anything?
I remember when I had the wrangler there was so much ride variation between different shocks/springs, I'd hate to ruin the ride on the Prado.
One more thing, I plan to put a Sovereign bar on the front of it, can someone recommend what extra length, if any, I'd need for the spring, and TEMS, if the TEMS come in different lengths.
Thanks again.

[Guest Close Guest]

TEMS is on all 4 shocks. Replacing just front and removing rear will make the already crap TEMS ride extra crappy.
Putting a bar on will make it worse again.

Do yourself a favour find a member close to you. Who has got rid of the TEMS and gone another make of suspension and ask to go for a ride.

You can't ruin a ride on a TEMS prado. You can only improve it. IMO. TEMS was horrible to drive I found.

[shmick82 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close shmick82]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. OK. I'll do that before I order. Or maybe I'll just do that as I've seen the prices.

PS. Found the part numbers (from another thread) for Partsou.com. Front 48510-60121 $220 each, rear 48530-69485 $550 each. Dang naggit. Thats $1540 before shipping, before airbags, before springs, before install.

[Hobes Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hobes]

Holy Sh** price of the rear TEMs has gone up.

[shmick82 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close shmick82]

Am I correct to assume I can just get any shocks for front and back, but I lose the comfort/sport mode, but height adjust will still work

[Guest Close Guest]

Yes. But be aware just adding "any" shocks may lead to the known Grande issue of the rear pogo sticking with the wrong shocks.

I'd highly suggest looking at whiteys group buy.