Rear Shock Replacement - Tips and Notes

So the question I have after seeing the video above, what was done on the rear shock that necessitates the need for an alignment? I didn’t see anything that would have required one.

BUT, having a car with lunar miles, I know it’s not a bad idea to have it checked. I’m just trying to understand why the video includes that recommendation. Maybe because they know that most of the time cars have lunar miles when you finally get the shocks changed??

 

Nothing is adjustable on the rear anyway? Unless you resort to shims.

 

I had a mechanic friend do the front and rear struts a few months ago and I helped him do it. I had ordered kyb struts for the rear and kyb assemblies for the front. He never read any of the instructions on any parts and didn't torque anything to spec. I seem to remember him re-using the rear strut covers and maybe discarding the boots? Anyways, I had a pic of the rear mount and noticed it looks different from the kyb video on this thread. The metal ring is on top instead of the black rubber piece. Is it worth it to try to correct this? The ride was great for first 5k miles and now it's still better but not quite as nice. Could this be part of the problem? I was thinking of ordering replacement kyb sm5840 mounting components. Can i replace this top mount stuff without removing the strut? Also, is it worth it to try to make sure the boot was installed underneath?

 

Just finished this job on my Gen3 (2013) Prius. Some notes:
- For the lower bolt, do NOT tighten it until it's back on the ground. Once on the ground, bounce the car a few times and then tighten the BOLT, not the nut. 66 foot pounds.
- The top bolt/damper can be accessed without removing all the trim on later Gen3 models. There's a little access panel, very convenient.
- When torquing the top bolt (18 foot pounds) it's almost impossible without an extension tool. Remember to re-calculate based on extension tool length to avoid over-torquing (see attachment)
- For the top bolt, Toyota spec calls for 1324 adhesive / threadlock. This is almost identical to Loctite BLUE.

Torque Extension by Wes_33073 posted Jul 1, 2022 at 11:22 AM

 

The tip about having the car on the ground and settled before torquing caught my eye. And yeah, that's what they say in this Repair Manual excerpt:

 

bumping this thread - anyone have issues with headlight leveling after rear shocks were replaced? the repair manual says you need to initialize the headlight leveling ecu after reinstalling the ride height sensor, but i'm not sure if it's totally necessary to remove the ride height sensor in the first place. i'm thinking you can leave the sensor on the axle-beam while the shocks are being replaced, but please correct me if i'm wrong before i go and start this job.

 

I’ve disconnected one end of it, just to work it’s elbows, redistribute the grease, no apparent ill effects.