2001 Corolla rear suspension blown out

[Joe89]

Hey all, so I recently drove from Wyoming to Arizona for a month long vacation. So I had a bunch of junk loaded up and on the way here I noticed that I was bottoming out really bad in the back for really big bumps. Once here, I noticed that the rear end seemed to be sagging real bad. So I finally took the chance to jack the rear end up, and sure enough one of the struts is leaking (I think that's the name for it, the shaft in the center of the rear coil spring). So I wanted to get a few opinions from everyone. First off, would this be what's causing the sagging? I know it would cause the bottoming out, but not sure about the sagging while parked with no weight in it. Also I wanted to know how long I could go with this. I'm planning to head back to Wyoming in about a week, and can't decide if I should replace the suspension here in Arizona or wait until I'm back to Wyoming. It's about a 900 mile drive (mostly interstate) but I would be loaded up with some junk. The main reasons I want to wait, are it's a lot nicer to work on things in 80 degree weather rather then 110 degree weather. Also I have my corolla book that will have all the torque specs back in Wyoming. What's everyone's opinion on what I should do?

 

[Joe89]

Well I decided to go for it and wait until I got home to change out the struts. I bottomed out quite a bit but it didn't seem to cause any damage to anything. One of the tire did look like it hadn't worn quite properly, so that could be from this but not entirely sure. Anyways, I made a video of how to change out the rear struts (the struts I bought online came with new coil springs so it's all one unit). Cheers!

 

[samzchang]

Thank you very much for sharing this, may I know where did you buy the new strut assembly and how much you paid? I noticed there is ABS line connected to my strut as well, but didn't see the ABS line in your video

 

[Joe89]

So here's a link to the rear strut's that I bought and installed https://www.1aauto.com/strut-and-spring-assembly-pair/i/1assp00006?f=389895&y=2001 If you want to go cheaper you can buy just the strut's then install your factory coil springs (assuming that they're still good) onto the new strut's. Doing that was only about 50 dollars cheaper, and I would have to borrow the special tool to remove the coil springs from my local auto store and it just seemed like too much of a hassle to me. Yeah I just have the break line attached to my rear struts. When you say ABS line, are you talking about the electrical for ABS?

P.S.- I've had these struts installed for about 4 months and have put about 8,000 miles on them and haven't had an issue. I really like them so far, not that they make the ride any smoother then the stock ones, but they're not any worse and they were a pretty good price. Plus the corolla rides 10x better then when one of my rear struts was blown out.

 

[samzchang]

Thanks a lot, Joe for sharing this. It will be very helpful to my old buddy corolla. I live in Toronto, Canada. I proposed my corolla that if it treat me well in the coming winter, I will install him a new set of struts. Besides the metal brake line attaching to my struct, there is also another like, I assume it is ABS, and should be. I will try to upload some picture here to seek advice. thanks.