I think i may have blown out my struts?

[YarisSedan]

Hmm as of lately it seems like my car has much more bodyroll whereas it hardly had any before. My current mods are TRD springs, TRD swaybar, Megan racing lower mid and front tie bars and tannabe strut bar.

I live in the bay area and lately in milpitas where i live they tore up all the roads doing construction. Why they wait over a week to fix them i dont know. And part of my commute to work they broke as well. Some of the dips in the road where the old road vs the broken road its equivalant to a speed bump. So it slike im going about 60 and BUMP and the car almost bottoms out you can feel the car slamming against the bump stops. It feels like my car is going to break every time. At night its scarry cause i try to go slowly since my car is lowerd but i dont want someone to rear end me.

Now that everythings fixed i notice squeeking and creaking from my rear springs. But i took a turn i usually take and my car oversteered slightly so i tried to correct it and the car did a rockaby baby type of thing. Where when i correct it the body rolled back and forth a few times.

My question is this my car has only 18k miles do you think its likely i may have blown out my factory shocks already. I did not cut my bump stops when i put in my trd springs for fear of this happening. But i guess there may have been no avoiding it because of all the stupid construction.

Oh and to top it all off on my commute my front end was being constantly bombarded by all the loose gravel i have chips in my hood bumper, headlights and in my windshield too =(.

The road never seemed broken before to the point they needed to fix it but maybe they just recently got a huge grant from california so they needed to spend it on something.

[MUSKOKA800]

"My limited experience shopping at Auto Recyclers is that they charge 50% of new retail."

Yes, sounds like the OEM dampers may have retired.
OEM spec. replacements are available from KYB (see TireRack) and of course something more beefy can be had from TRD of Tokico.
FYI, TRD make no mention of cutting the bump stops in their spring installation instructions.
NOTE: I prefer to slow to a crawl when coming across pavement cut-outs. But then, I expect my car to last 10 years, hopefully without having to replace every bushing in the suspension. Hitting a 4" cut at 60 mph would be devastating, with any dampers in action considering our small diameter tires and short suspension travel.

[Loren]

If your dampers are shot, you don't necessarily get "more" body roll, it's just less controlled. If you quickly turn into a turn with blown shocks, the suspension will "flop" over onto the bump stops instead of holding firm and settling in almost imperceptibly. RR tracks or similar humps in the road are another good indicator. With good shocks, the suspension will absorb most of the bump, and immediately settle with no more than one bounce. Bad shocks will allow the springs to bounce twice or more.

Seems unusual for shocks to be blown after less than 20k miles, but anything is possible.

[ozmdd]

I've heard several stories of blown struts after not-very-many miles when running lowering springs on oem struts. The debate is never ending about cutting bumpstops, but I know that suspension travel relative to shock/strut travel is important in 4x4 applications, and riding on the bumpstops should thoretically be bad for a strut.

[YarisSedan]

Originally Posted by Loren

If your dampers are shot, you don't necessarily get "more" body roll, it's just less controlled. If you quickly turn into a turn with blown shocks, the suspension will "flop" over onto the bump stops instead of holding firm and settling in almost imperceptibly. RR tracks or similar humps in the road are another good indicator. With good shocks, the suspension will absorb most of the bump, and immediately settle with no more than one bounce. Bad shocks will allow the springs to bounce twice or more.

Seems unusual for shocks to be blown after less than 20k miles, but anything is possible.

Yeah thats what it felt like to me. If you ever have watched initial D when the main charcter feels soemthing unexpected and he makes that surprised face and there a pause in the music. Thats what it felt like when i made that turn. Like something didnt feel right i was about to loose control. Even though i have made that turn many of times as simular speeds. So i had to respond and try to regain control of the car.

The word bodyroll may be the incorrect terminology for what i experience but it was the only word that came to mind to describe what i thought i was feeling.