Things You Should Know Before Lifting Your 3rd Gen Toyota Tacoma
A lift is a great way to add some much needed ground clearance and style to your Toyota Tacoma, but lifting it isn’t as straight forward as it may seem. There are a ton of different ways to lift your truck and some problems you may run into. Before lifting your Toyota Tacoma, check out what to watch out for and consider below.
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Basic Lift Methods and Their Differences
When choosing a lift for your Toyota Tacoma, the two most basic types of lift are spacer lifts and mid-travel suspension lifts. Each of these pretty much does the same thing of adding ride height but they are perform very differently.
Spacer lifts utilize “spacers” that are commonly placed on top of your stock coilovers. You can buy a wide range of different sized spacers to get the ride height that you want. Since spacer lifts are just adding something onto your existing stock coils, they aren’t actually adding any suspension performance and can actually cause more harm and a stiffer ride. They are a cheap and easy way to get the desired ride height you want but since you are still using stock suspension components, the higher of a lift you go the more stress you’re putting on them. Spacers are specifically made for the front and rear and are super simple to install. Rear spacer blocks add some ride height to the rear of your truck bed and usually stiffen up the leaf springs. Rear spacers can also contribute to axle wrap and faster leaf spring wear and tear.
Mid-Travel suspension lifts consists typically of front and rear shocks, front coil springs, and new leaf springs. While it typically costs a lot more than a spacer lift, it’s the best way to not only gain ride height but also to upgrade your truck’s suspension performance. Depending on the types of shocks, the coil spring’s spring rate and other aspects, you can get a very different type of ride to suit your needs. Shocks are typically valved either progressive or digressive. Digressive valving is usually rougher on small and large bumps but upgrade your handling around corners and g-outs. Progressive shocks are typically better at small and large bumps but give your truck a little more sway around corners. You can also get linear shocks which are typically the best just “all around” performance.
The spring rate in your coils also plays a part in your ride quality and weight carrying capabilities. A higher spring rate will hold more weight but provide a rougher ride if you just have stock weight. A lower spring rate does the opposite and can’t handle as much weight but will give a very plush ride the lower you go. For comparison, the stock spring rates for the 3rd gen Tacoma is 710lbs but the shocks are valved softer for on-road comfort.
Lift Heights
When lifting your Tacoma, you can pretty much get any lift height you want with the proper configuration but just because you can lift your Tacoma 6+ inches, doesn’t mean you should. Typically, the best lift height on a Tacoma is 2-2.5 inches to keep your trucks other suspension components such as your stock upper control arms and cv axles from being too stressed. Usually going up to a 3inch lift will require aftermarket upper control arms to be aligned properly.
In the rear, the lift height from either new leaf springs or a block can lead you to more trouble. Taller lifts in the rear can lead to driveline vibrations and other weird feelings/noises.
Common Lift Problems with the Toyota Tacoma
Since a lot of people lift their Tacoma, including me, there are a lot of common problems that we all see that seem to directly come from lifts. Since pretty much every Tacoma is built a little bit differently, you may see all of these problems or none but it’s better to prepare for them so you can handle them swiftly and know what to do if the time comes.
Drivers Side CV Axle Vibration
Probably the most common problem that most see after lifting their Toyota Tacoma is the infamous drivers side needle bearing failure. If you have this problem, you’ll notice a weird vibration in your steering wheel that feels like you are swerving on and off a rumble strip. A way to test if this is because of your needle bearing, put your truck into 4HI and if the vibration goes away, then it’s the drivers side needle bearing. The stock Tacoma CV axle bushing is a needle bearing and a lift can cause it to grind and break off and cause vibrations.
The way to fix this is to replace the drivers side CV axle needle bearing with a 8” CV Axle Clamshell Bushing. A popular choice is the ECGS Clamshell Bushing, but I bought the Yukon Gear & Axle Bushing off Amazon so that I could get it in faster.
Driveline Vibrations
This usually comes from lifting the rear of your truck. Drivelines are very delicate when It comes to the angles in which they operate and any difference in them can cause your driveline to vibrate while driving. Typically these can be fixed with axle shims, a cb drop kit, or if you want to go all out, a single piece driveshaft.
Upper Control Arm Wear and Tear
Once you lift your Tacoma, it puts strain on your upper control arms due to the elevated angles. This usually isn’t very noticeable until it’s bad or you notice you aren’t getting as much down travel without your upper control arms hitting your coils. There are a ton of aftermarket upper control arms out there and typically come in either ball joint or uni-ball.
I currently run the Element Hard Parts Chromoly Ball Joint Upper Control Arms and have been happy with their performance. Read my full review here.
Sway Bar Relocation
If you decide to go with new shocks and coil springs, sometimes they are larger than the stock ones, this can lead to your sway bar coming in contact with the coilovers. A simple fix, that most coilover sets come with is a Sway Bar Relocation Kit.
The sway bar relocation kit bolts into the factory sway bar holes and gives you new mounting points for the sway bar that push it further away to eliminate the rubbing.
Clunks/Squeaks/Weird Noises
Have you ever heard that saying that “Race trucks make race truck noises?” Well if you haven’t, they do. Many of the aftermarket suspension parts out there available for your Toyota Tacoma are made for offroad performance, this means that they are specially tuned to offer the best performance off the road and it can cause a lot of weird on-road noises and performance. Typically, a good spray down with something like Fluid Film temporarily solves the issues, but always make sure that you are keeping up with your maintenance and greasing the moving suspension parts regularly.
MPG Decrease
When you lift your truck, it changes the whole aerodynamics that the engineers that created it were going for. This means that you will have a lot more wind drag since you are higher up which can slightly decrease your miles per gallon.
Bump Steer
Depending on the valving of your shocks, spring rate of your coils, and your alignment after your lift, you can experience more bump steer than you're used to.
Bump steer is what you experience while going over uneven terrain or parts of the road that cause your steering wheel to want to turn with them.
A good alignment from a trusted shop should help you get this under control.
If you want to read about some of the things I’ve experienced personally after lifting my tacoma and the things I’ve done to fix them, check out this article.
Does a Bigger Lift Mean Bigger Tires?
Ah, the age old question posted in forums about the Toyota Tacoma everywhere. The simple answer is NO. Lifting your Tacoma does not necessarily mean it is clearing space for larger tires. The Toyota Tacoma has independent front suspension and there are a lot of moving parts that make it difficult to tell if putting 33’s on your truck are going to rub or not.
It also depends on tire sizing as every tire is a bit different. If you choose to run 33” All-Terrain tires, you might rub less than someone who runs 33” mud-terrain tires as mud-terrains are generally a little bigger due to the large tread blocks.
To be really honest, you most likely will rub if you decide to run larger tires, even with a lift kit. That’s just how Toyota’s IFS works. With the right amount of trimming, a cab mount chop, or even a cab mount relocate if you want to have the most clearance, you can pretty easily fit larger tires even on a stock truck.
After Lift Upgrades
So after you lift your Tacoma, you may want to look into upgrading more of your suspension components to make sure they can handle the wear that your new lift kit may throw at them. Some of these upgrades are pretty simple while others require a lot more work. Here is a list of things to consider upgrading after your lift to keep your truck happy.
More Important upgrades
If you just want to minimize wear and tear and get your truck back to normal after your lift, I would consider upgrading:
Upper Control Arms
8” CV Axle Clamshell Bushing (Replaces Driver Side Needle Bearing)
Other Notable Suspension upgrades (Depending on Your Truck Usage)
Spindle Gussets
Sway Bar End Links
Tie Rods
Welding your Cam Tabs