What brand of street shocks do you have?

[Red]

For street use, not for racing, not for track.

I ask because at 95,000 miles my original shocks are worn out and I'm not happy with the replacement choices in the US.

Toyota OEM shocks are not longer available here for both axles.

TRD "street" shocks are available according to TRD, but the part numbers they give the dealers are invalid.

Which leaves four companies:

Bilstein--damn pricey for non-competition use.

Monroe--not known for high performance

KYB--too many people have said they are not very durable

Tokico--maybe better, but the company is hard to reach and hard to get answers from, I've always felt a company that doesn't want to deal with customers, or can't deal with them, is best granted their wishes.

And yes, the stock shocks kept me happy for all these years. Just replacing them with something equally firm and durable would be fine. What's everybody using?

[kid]

just got me the greddy/trust type s setup.... you kann use it for street and track

[Red]

Don't want track, don't want adjustables, don't want spring sets, just plain old OEM replacements for street use. (Boring, huh?<G&gt

[Plex]

Just get some freaking Tokico Blues if you dont care about performance... they're like 120 or something on ebay.

[Red]

Plex, the original GTS was a performance option, believe it or not. OEM grade *is* performance, compared to an AE86.

I just don't need competition. I've done that, and that's just not what I'm doing with this car. And, I think I already said why I don't want Tokico: an unresponsive company and a less than stellar recommendation from users.

As I'm writing...I just got a callback from a TRD dealer who knows what he's doing. Apparently TRD shocks are still available, under $200 for the set. The trick is, to find a TRD dealer who knows how to call TRD apparently.

[NoHachi]

At that price I would go TRD, though chances are that they are just rebadged tokico blues for double the price. Otherwise koni yellows are a good option 2. If you use them the way they are intended (full soft) they are actually quite nice street shocks that come with a lifetime guarantee.

What bad recommendations did you hear from other users about the blues?

[Red]

I half suspect you're right about the rebadged, but there's no way to know without watching the delivery trucks.<G> And unless there's a waiting line in the paint booth, I'd expect rebadged to be "in stock" all the time without the problems that TRD usually has here. Could be that Tokico makes the TRD, but does something to a different spec. (Like Purina makes many supermarket brands of dog food here, some the same, some not.)

The Konis are tempting, but I'm from the "KISS" school. If there's no adjustable parts and valves in a shock, there's less parts to fail in it. I don't really want to start pulling the shocks and rotating them, as Koni shows for the yellows in this application.

What I've heard about the blues is that they're not very durable, or not very distinguished (ride). Hard to say what that means because you never know who it is coming from. But reaching Tokico on the phone or by email was very difficult, and once reached, they said the guy who could answer my question was in Japan on vacation, no one in the US could read the Japanese data base...and no one ever called back.

I'm old fashioned that way, if no one can work the phones or the mail, to me it says "bad management" and that says bad product.

Heck, I can call GE or 3M and in one phone call get everything from refrigerator spare parts to nuclear turbines (GE) or any division from industrial adhesives to NASA-spec electrical connectors (3M). These guys at Tokico sell what, hydraulic cylinders? And don't have an English data base at a US distributor? Nah. Two guys in a basement can do great stuff--but I want to deal with a well-run organization that doesn't depend on two guys not getting hit by the same truck.

I actually worked for a small company once where the two company owners would not take the same elevator in their office building. Just in case the elevator crashed, so at least would be left to run the company. (Aside from that they seemed perfectyl normal. Treated the help well, too.<G&gt

[Mux213]

Red Wrote:Nah. Two guys in a basement can do great stuff--but I want to deal with a well-run organization that doesn't depend on two guys not getting hit by the same truck.

Hey Red, you do realize you're posting on this forum right

I think the above perfectly describes AEU86 and me and Art.
Luckely we are rarely in the same place so getting hit by the same truck is not likely

Maybe crashing while driving in the same hachi can happen though.. hmmm

[robokill]

red get some koni red they are good and trust me your hachi will be long gone before those shocks stop working!

[matt mead]

TRD = KYB

i run kyb agx and they are perfect