noob question...

[wowitswil]

can someone please help me........i wanna get springs but would i need to change the stock struts as well......someone told me that they will go within a year or so if i get tanabe/tien etc.....but someone else also told me if i get trd springs i aint got nothing to worry about.......thanks.....

[yarisugi]

You can just buy the springs and use your existing shocks.
When your shocks do give out, just buy it at that time.

[H3LlIoN]

and no, buying the trd specific drop springs will not prolong the life of the stock stuff as compared to an aftermarket company straight across the board. Now, if you put a spring on there that lowers the car more than the trd, then yes, that could kill it faster, but like what dude said...worry about that when you cross that bridge.

[Indianspringsaz]

Do the blue shocks change the feel of the car or is it really just a length difference?

[MUSKOKA800]

NOTE: Both Tokico Blues and TRD Sportivo's are the colour blue.

They're the same length as stock but offer a huge damping increase.
Increased damping is desireable to control the stiffer lowering springs. Stock dampers can be utilized but your ride quality may actually be decreased. It will look better, but it may also make you barf as you pogo down the turnpike (low budget ricer style).

My advice, do it right the first time and save $ in the long run.

[ozmdd]

Welcome to the forum! Lowering springs will shorten the life of your struts up front, but the size of the drop has a major effect on that wear-out time. A small drop (1") doesn't seem to put terrible strain on the struts, so the early-failure seems to be minimal. The bigger (2") drops seem to wear out struts in a year or less.

Its not a big deal to try spring-only, and then move up to struts later, so long as you don't mind a couple hours of work and another visit to the alignment shop. I highly recommend buying an "unlimited" alignment from NTB or firestone, so you can have it realigned without paying again. the NTB 3-year plan is $150.

Another reason to try spring-only at first is that you may find you want to get more aggressive than struts can allow; IE: coilovers. MANY people on this forum have gone from "I only want a minor drop" to "I want some serious body control" in a short time, and you will have wasted a lot of money on struts if you end up feeling that way. You can always add Tokico Blues in a year or 2, but if you buy them now and decide to upgrade later, you'll regret the $$.
I've gone down the same road I suggest to you; I went with NF210 Springs on OEM struts and loved it. 6 months later, I want to go all the way to coilovers, so i'm glad I didn't invest in sport struts. Of course, I autocross and do time trials in a ddition to using it as a daily driver.
On the flipside, if you think you'll be satisfied with a mildly sporty ride that is still comfy and affordable and you don't expect to get into competition, then you'll be totally happy with some drop springs and the very-affordable Tokico Blues that Garm sells.

Hope that helps!
(BTW - I'm selling my 1.1" drop Tanabe NF210's if you are interested...coilovers are OTW!)

[advocate]

+1 for Tokico blues for the daily driver

[supmet]

Originally Posted by H3LlIoN

and no, buying the trd specific drop springs will not prolong the life of the stock stuff as compared to an aftermarket company straight across the board. Now, if you put a spring on there that lowers the car more than the trd, then yes, that could kill it faster, but like what dude said...worry about that when you cross that bridge.

I would say stock struts might last a little longer on TRD springs than aftermarket of the same drop, only because they have a progressive spring rate, which sort of does part of the job of the strut. I'm not saying they'd last years longer, but maybe a couple of months.

Lots of people have put springs on their car without struts, and lots of people do both at the same time. Its not gonna kill the car, and you can always get struts later. I say get springs, and save 6 dollars a week, and when your struts go a year later you'll have money for tokicos.

I just saw garm is selling tokico HTS for only 579