UPDATE 06/12/2026: Looking back, I chose the wrong springs for how I actually use the 4Runner. At the time, I had plans for a rear bumper, swing-out tire carrier, extra camping gear, and additional weight that never materialized. The OME springs worked, but they were simply too stiff for a mostly stock-weight 2WD daily driver. After years of chasing ride quality and handling issues, I ultimately replaced this setup with a Dobinsons IMS lift kit and softer springs that better matched the vehicle's actual use. You can read about that upgrade in my Dobinsons IMS Lift Kit install article.

The front struts were surprisingly straightforward. Three nuts on the top hat, one lower bolt, and everything comes apart without too much drama. Along the way I learned a useful trick involving a bottle jack under the upper control arm to help manipulate the suspension during installation. Once the first side was installed and the truck was lowered back onto the ground, I knew immediately the lift was going to make a dramatic difference. The driver's side sitting on the ground was actually higher than the passenger side still hanging on a jack stand. That felt like a good sign.

After both front struts were installed, I rolled the truck out of the garage for a better look. Not going to lie—I briefly considered driving it around with only the front suspension installed just to see people's reactions. The rear suspension was less cooperative.

In hindsight, this was entirely my fault. Having spent most of my life working on Fords, I somehow made it to this project without owning a metric deep socket set. As it turns out, Toyota engineers were apparently very fond of metric deep sockets. After removing the spare tire, sway bar links, and lower shock mounts, I spent an unreasonable amount of time fighting the upper rear shock hardware. The space was cramped to begin with, and lacking the proper tools turned what should have been a simple task into a test of patience.

Eventually the shocks came out and I removed the original springs. The passenger side went together fairly easily thanks to the geometry of the panhard bar allowing the axle to droop farther on that side. The driver's side, however, had no interest in cooperating. Once again, the bottle jack came to the rescue. Even with the extra droop, I couldn't get the spring and trim packer installed together, so the trim packer was officially removed from the plan. With the springs in place, I installed the new shocks and slowly tightened the upper bushings until everything looked correct. Once the remaining hardware was torqued and reassembled, it was finally time to see the results.

And the results were substantial.

Before the lift, I measured from the ground to the center of the fender and recorded 34.25 inches at all four corners. After installation:

• Front: 37.5 inches

• Rear: 38.0 inches

Just over three inches of lift transformed the appearance of the truck. I was relieved to see the rear rake wasn't nearly as aggressive as I had feared, especially after skipping the trim packers. Even with the relatively small factory tires, the stance looked significantly better than stock. As for ride quality? That would take some time to evaluate. At the time I was mostly focused on how much better the truck looked sitting in the driveway.

The remaining tasks were simple enough: weld on the panhard correction brackets, schedule an alignment once everything settled, and finally buy the deep metric socket set I should have owned before starting the project.