Tuesday, April 27, 2010 - 12:00 am, by: Tom Lanyon(Toml)
OK - so I replaced the front air struts in my UCF11 with new Toyota parts (48080-50010 & 48090-50010).
However, once pumped up, the struts wouldn't go down again!
I've traced the issue back to the air fitting on the strut. The fitting seems to be different on the new strut compared to the one I took out. There's only a slight difference; the old fitting was more sunk into the strut and the newer one protrudes further out and doesn't have the same countersunk hole for part of the connector. I'll try and get some pictures.
This is a problem, as the strut has a rubber check valve inside and this different fitment means the air line doesn't extend far enough into the strut to open/release the check valve.
As far as I can tell, the old and new strut are the same part number, so I can't believe that they fit differently.
Is anyone aware of a change to a new front air-strut fitting on the UCF11s? Was there an accompanying change to the air lines running from the height control valve?
Am I going to run into the same problem in the rear with the new struts I haven't fitted yet?
Cheers, Tom
Tom Lanyon Tinkerer SA Supra MA71 + Celsior C-F V8
Sunday, May 02, 2010 - 03:06 pm, by: Tom Lanyon(Toml)
OK I took a few pics with the new struts still in the car; hopefully we can see the differences.
First, the front air tube connector looks like this:
The old strut connector. You can see below that it only protrudes 8-10mm from the strut.
Hopefully you can see here that there's two 'levels' in the old strut fitting - the first level is flat and the next is threaded. Compare this to the first pic of the air tube connector and you should understand how this fits.
Now the new strut. The end of the fitting protrudes over 15mm from the edge of the strut, so its much longer than the old strut. Also you should be able to see that there's only a single 'level' inside the fitting, the threaded level comes all the way to the edge. This is the same thread as the old strut, so I can screw the first level of the air tube connector into the new strut, but the second level comes up against the outside edge. Hopefully this makes sense.
Sunday, May 02, 2010 - 04:41 pm, by: Tom Lanyon(Toml)
Hi Bob,
I have considered this - but I'd need to confirm that Toyota have actually updated the air lines to a newer version. I believe they have the same part number.
In the same way that the new struts I have are the exact same part number as the old struts, but they have a different connector!
I have asked a local Toyota dealer if they can see from their parts guide whether there was any revisions to these parts, but they "checked the part numbers of both the struts and the height control tubes but neither shows a supersession".
The new air tubes/connectors are $430 and $330 AUD for the front left and front right, so I don't want to just buy some and test them, because I will not be able to return them if they're no good!
Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - 11:25 am, by: Tom Lanyon(Toml)
Hi Bob,
Yes!
Thanks to some gratuitous input from Rich on these forums, who pointed out my newbie error on the air connector, this problem has been resolved!
It turns out that there is simply a separator/spacer between the air line connector and the air strut. If you look in my first photo, above, of the connector... the point where the fitting changes to a different wrench size actually separates at this point.
Once I'd removed this extra piece, the air fitting connects perfectly! I also replaced the little rubber o-rings on this connector with new ones from Toyota for good measure.
It's understandable that this piece comes off with the air connector, as the torque required to separate the two was much more than was needed to disconnect the outer piece from the struts!
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