Review on Bilstein (24-184991) 36mm Monotube Shock Absorber: Superior Suspension Performance by Chris Ostby

To be honest the trim looks a bit rough and seems like it's missing the proper dust seals, but my Tacoma drives much better now. I recently bought a 78,000 mile truck and have driven it about 3,000 miles already. I suspect it had original shock absorbers that were worn out, so I expected a dramatic improvement. My trusted mechanic recommended them over KYBs, which are decent shocks on their own. Everyone agrees that Bilstein is even better and lasts longer. I am happy. The instructions that came with it were in German and English, but intended for all sorts of uses and (for me) confusing to almost useless. I haven't changed shock absorbers in a long time, so I watched YouTube videos explaining how to change shock absorbers. All the ones I've seen covered the 4WD fronts which was more of a hassle than my 2WD. (Replacing shock absorbers on 4WD vehicles involves fiddling with the ball joints, lowering the lower control arms, then leveling them and possibly moving the anti-roll bar to the side.) I used 2 rear jacks and a small jack to fine-tune the height of the rear axle , which makes rear installation very easy. (The concave side of the cup washers faces the bushings in case you didn't notice when you removed them.) Next, the struts went under the front end. When I removed the front wheels I was happy to see that changing the front shock on a 2WD was very easy. New brackets and bushings included. Use the included nuts on the top shafts of the front shocks, which I believe have a different thread pitch than the stock shocks. The only thing that annoyed me was trying to get the bottom two bolts (on each front shock) far enough to secure them. Maybe a jack would help, but I solved the problem by extracting a longer screw (of the same diameter and thread pitch) from the spare parts, which was slightly hand-screwed from one side. I then tightened it just enough to allow one of the provided screws to be hand tightened into the adjacent hole. After tightening it about halfway, I removed the makeshift longer screw and installed another intended screw. If this sounds confusing, it might make more sense if you're at this point. Note that Bilstein has hex sockets at the top of the upper shafts to keep them from turning with the nuts when you tighten them. You will not find hexagonal contours on the sides of the shafts like on standard dampers. Tighten the top nuts 3/4" from the tops of the shafts. They're self-locking, so they stay in place. Replacing a shock is pretty easy if you're at all mechanically inclined. These tips can save you some trouble if you're new to the job I should probably give those 4 stars for the minor discomforts I mentioned but now I'm enjoying my ride so much I'm giving them 5.