Rear Shock Replacement - Tips and Notes

Nice write up. The biggest pain in doing the rears for me was taking the interior trim apart. The rest of it was a breeze.

 

Why did you need to take out the interior trim? Mine has a hatch/cover to open and it exposes the top of the struts already. That's where I loosened the top but of the struts.

 

Picture please.

 

This one!

 

Great write-up! Question: Given the time/trouble/broken clips of removing and reinstalling all that trim, and now that your great photos show us where the shock tops are, why couldn't I carefully cut out little access panels in the trim and avoid all of that effort and frusration? I'll just use little hot-glued tabs and velcro to reinstall the panels when I'm done. What do you think?

 

Yeah, my 2011 doesn't have the rear shock access panels. Here's an idea: Make your own using an Xacto knife. You can cover the holes with the same plastic covers used to access the tail lights. You just have to buy a couple of those tail light covers. Sorry, I don't have a picture of the covers but it will work and look factory. It's sad that a car with such brilliant engineering has such basic considerations deleted. I remember my old 1989 Mustang having access panels for ease of removing the rear shocks.

 

What are those sensor looking things directly above the shock mounts?

 

Thanks for the heads up Critic.

 

Thanks for the instructions. I performed this procedure this weekend with my friend who has tools and experience. Took us an hour and a half plus a trip to the store for loctite.
My car has just 11,000 miles. It was very smooth until I took an unexpected trip across 15 miles or so of dirt roads, and I had my tires up to 44/42 psi. This was when the car had 5,000 miles on it. I thought about getting out and lowering the tire pressure, should have done that. Once I got off the dirt road the car was definitely riding more harsh.
I took it to several dealers and they inspected it several times and said nothing was wrong. I don't think even Toyota knows how the car is supposed to ride. They did perform an alignment and balance the tires which helped a little. But the car was still rough, especially in the rear. Lots of rattling noises coming from the back over bumps and just harsh.
After replacing the rear shocks this past weekend (KYB Excel-G, pair on Amazon ordered for $120), I can definitely say the ride is better. Not like new, but way fewer rattles from the back interior and bumps are not as jarring. Definitely glad I replaced the rear shocks. The feeling from bumps in the front and back now seem about even; I am not sure the fronts need replacing. Much more difficult / expensive anyway.
When I took the old shocks out and compressed them alongside the new ones, the old ones took several seconds more to fully extend. And one of the old ones actually made a couple of faint grinding noises like a piece of sand or something gritty was stuck inside.
I had no experience working on cars at all. With my friend telling me what to do this was a fairly easy project.
One thing that surprised him was when we loosened the second shock the springs came loose. He had another jack to prop up the spring mounts on bottom so we could remount the springs. Other than that went smoothly.
I am now running at 35/33 and might increase it a little bit, but definitely not going over 40 psi again! I learned the hard way not to over inflate and ride on dirt roads.
Rear shocks are cheap to replace especially if you can do it yourself, and made a great improvement in ride quality.

 

Did this... but I totally misunderstood the part about finger tightening (until I got home and read it again post-repair =\) but I only drove the car a couple miles so I will loosen and re-tighten them before driving it again. How exactly does it damage the bushings? Is the damage already done?

Also.. this was helpful

 

I'm not a car expert, but if you take the bushing out and look at it you should be able to tell if it looks okay (not cracked or splitting). It would probably be okay after you take it out and install it finger-tight.

 

Do not order the Monroe 5685. Online and parts store offer this as a replacement and it's not. The threaded rod is 19mm and will not for through the shock cover and the rubber washers are generic and not an exact fit.

KYB 349035 is an exact replacement for the stock shocks at 17mm.

Unfortunately my price went from 56 for two Monroes to 132 for the KYB.

Any money I saved was wasted on three trips to the auto parts store and having to reassemble the first strut when I found out the Monroe didn't fit.

 

I took off that hatch floor piece, the one atop the battery, when doing a fan cleaning. I found them alarmingly hard to remove; though for sure I would break something, luckily didn't. But I decide then-and-there: just leave 90% of them off when reinstalling the floor. I did bag and label them, stow in the underfloor tray.

 

So I replaced the rear shocks this weekend with the KYBs from Rick auto.com. I’m getting a mild knocking noise on the right rear when I hit a bump. (I installed Eibach coils on all 4 corners and new front struts as well.)

Also, how did y’all get the battery cover panel back on (the one at the base of the rear seats).

 

Did you every figure out ... the knocking?

 

98,000, 2012. 50% spent in Los Angeles, nuts were very difficult to remove. Sharing my VIN with a dealer they helped choose the rear shocks but I swear the ones on my car were for the model with 17” wheels. I purchased the car used from a dealer who maintained it so who knows if they swapped the 15” and 17”s. It’s a package IV with a sunroof. I’ll do the fronts tomorrow. Video of how spent they are, no oil leaking that I can tell.