Celica Forums General Discussion Engine and Performance 7th gen suspension

Note: I deleted other thread in General forum and decided to rework the subject in the proper forum.


Can any one tell me what the suspension on the seventh gen. GTS is set-up like? More so I am looking to find out whether we are running on shocks or struts or both if it's possible.
I went to a local shop and the guy asked me name and model and year of the car and I told him, he said after that it is running on struts and I was inquirering about getting some shocks or struts and lowering springs put in to replace my stock ones. The question at hand is is it shocks or struts or both that the Celica runs on? I want to get things done correct the first time, currenly I am having him check out the Tokico HPK (Advanced Performance Handling Kit) which is Tokico Premium shocks/struts and lowering springs and I want to make sure if I get the kit installed that I will not experiance premature wear on the suspension such as when one replaces the springs and leaves the shocks stock.. this naturally shortens the life of the shocks significantly and I do not wish to do this.
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Just by doing a search online now I see that the Tokico struts are essentially struts with shocks, I know they are pretty similar but it seems to be all in one and I am thinking it should also be safe to use this set-up without problems.

Here's what our specs state:
Independent MacPhereson strut front suspension with stabilizer bar;
double-wishbone rear suspension with stabilizer bar

Here's a link that explains how the rear suspension works:
http://www.performancetrends.com/SuspAnzr.htm

It looks like we have struts on our cars. Hope this helps.

to my understanding, struts are 'shocks' for the front

Struts are simply springs and shocks (should be called dampers) that are incorporated with one another.

from what the aftermarket companies go by I believe the shocks are for the front, and the struts are for the rear... KYB, KONI, Tokiko

Hm thanks. It seems like struts it is then.

Yeah struts are in most all front wheel drive cars (located in the front suspension). But some cars have shocks in the back and some others also have struts.