We Fiddled With Our Toyota 4Runner TRD Pro's Suspension. It Helped, But Not Enough

• Our 2025 Toyota 4Runner TRD Pro's ride quality is too harsh.
• Luckily, this 4Runner's Fox QS3 shocks are adjustable.
• Want to make tweaks to your TRD Pro's suspension? Prepare to get dirty.

However, there may be a solution: The shock absorbers at each corner can be adjusted to be firmer or softer. This is great news and (spoiler alert) adjusting them makes a noticeable difference. But it's not quite as dramatic — or as easy — as you might hope.

Shocks vs. springs

I just said the springs were stiff, so what does adjusting the shocks do? To answer, I'm going to grossly oversimplify suspension technology; if you already know, go ahead and skip this. 

In between the body of a vehicle and the wheel is a spring. This spring allows the wheel to move independently of the vehicle's body. When you go over a bump, the spring compresses instead of the entire vehicle's body moving up and down. The problem is, springs are bouncy. So when you're done going over the bump, the spring will want to bounce up and down.

Shock absorbers are designed to prevent all those extra bounces. But they aren't perfect. If they're too soft and don't resist enough, your car will still bounce up and down over bumps like your grandma's ancient Oldsmobile. If they resist too much, well, you have our Toyota 4Runner TRD Pro.

The Fox and the 4Runner

The TRD Pro's suspension includes special Fox QS3 off-road shock absorbers, which have a lot of fancy technology built in that make them ideal for an off-roader like the 4Runner. That includes three different settings. According to Toyota, 1 is softest, 2 is medium, and 3 is stiffest. Toyota says the first setting is mainly for driving around town, the second is for light off-road duty and "general use," and the third is for things like high-speed off-road driving, such as on desert roads. 

Oddly, there's no electronic way to adjust these, which is strange because Fox actually makes electronically adjustable shocks. In this case, you have to crawl under the 4Runner and manually turn a dial on each one. I suppose there's some advantage, since you can individually tailor the suspension by setting the front and rear differently. Luckily, the 4Runner's ride height makes the shocks easy to reach, and the knob isn't too difficult to turn.

Putting it to the test

Toyota delivers the TRD Pro with the shocks set to 1, ostensibly their softest setting, but still stiff enough to have us constantly complaining about the 4Runner's ride quality. The idea that this was the softest setting frankly scared me. How much worse would 2 be? What about 3? 

I decided to face my fears, running the 4Runner on a familiar and fully paved road. I started with the suspension at 1, then ran it again in 2, once again in 3, and finally switched it back to 1 as a gut check. My route included residential areas, winding roads, uphill and downhill stretches, freeway-ish speeds and varying surface conditions that included the infamous Portuguese Bend landslide area in Southern California, which is constantly under repair.

Setting 1: This is soft?

My first loop went as expected. The 4Runner transmitted every large and small road imperfection into the cabin. Even simple patches in the pavement caused a quiver throughout the truck. On sections where the road undulated, the body was controlled to a fault; imagine whoop-de-dos on a rollercoaster, but in a bad way. Even areas I considered smooth in other vehicles felt rough.

Over the landslide area, the 4Runner was almost comically harsh. The suspension was unyielding against the broken pavement and sharp drop-offs. I had no worries it was hurting the truck — after all, it's made for tougher stuff than this. My spine, on the other hand ... 

Setting 2: Defying expectations

My curiosity was satisfied, so I pulled over to a safe spot and crawled under the 4Runner to switch the shocks to their setting 2. The difference was immediately apparent. Toyota says the 1 setting is softest, but within a couple of hundred feet, it was clear 2 was far more comfortable. I still felt small impacts like pavement cracks, but they were more subdued. The body bounced and leaned more on larger bumps and in corners, but not in a way that would induce car sickness. 

On the landslide area, the 4Runner was much more tolerable. The bigger bumps and more harshly broken pavement still upset the cabin but not nearly as much as in the earlier setting. Later, I noticed the difference even more on the freeway, where the 4Runner was simply more comfortable overall. 

Setting 3: Mixed bag

This obviously made me eager to try out setting 3, so I pulled over once again, climbed under the truck, and twisted all four knobs. Out on the road, I expected 3 to be even softer, but it turned out to be a mixed bag. The difference between 2 and 3 was far more subtle than 1 and 2, for starters. Both 2 and 3 were about the same as far as ride quality was concerned. It seemed as though the 4Runner might be leaning a bit more in corners, with additional squat to the rear under acceleration, and dive under braking. Even the Portuguese Bend stretch felt largely the same. I was left wondering if 3 might be more noticeable in off-road situations, which means I might have to take it out to the desert to really stretch its legs. 

After my stint at 3, I switched it back to 1, and the 4Runner resumed its pounding and jittery ride. I didn't even bother finishing the entire loop, instead pulling over again and clicking all four shocks to the much more satisfying setting 2. 

Other opinions

Now, I want to be clear about something: Adjusting the shocks does not turn the 4Runner into its more plush-riding Lexus GX 550 cousin. It simply makes it less uncomfortable, but still not great. 

Others on our staff issued similar backhanded compliments. Director of editorial content Steven Ewing put the initial break-in miles on our 4Runner and hadn't driven it since. Getting back in, he said, "The retuned suspension does make a difference; the 4Runner is noticeably more compliant, especially on the freeway. It's still super rough around the edges, but this update has at least moved the 4Runner out of my 'I never want to drive this again' purgatory."

Senior reviews editor Brian Wong more or less agreed. "After the suspension adjustment, the 4Runner does seem to ride a bit better on the highway. But there are still plenty of problems, especially with how busy it feels at speed and how it doesn't even do a good job of keeping the cabin isolated over potholes or road seams like many other off-road vehicles. Improved? Yes. Solved? Far from it."

Finally, editor Jake Sundstrom put it most succinctly: "Is it better? Sure. I'd be in better shape if I dropped 20 pounds, but I'd still be in for a lecture the next time I went to the doctor. The 4Runner has merely gone from 'horrible to drive' to 'very, very bad to drive.' So, I guess that's directionally correct."

Tough to love

Which brings me to the core problem: While my experiment may have mitigated one of our complaints, we still have plenty to grumble about with the 4Runner. The exhaust is too loud. The rear seat is too small. Its tires howl on the freeway. The interior has too much hard plastic for the price. The Lexus GX 550 costs about the same and is better under most circumstances and much nicer inside. I want to like this 4Runner because I'm smitten by the styling. But I have to admit, I was happy to turn over the keys when I was done.

Photos by Keith Buglewicz