Lifting a Jimny 5 Door. What worked and what didn't.

I could do two things

1) Buy a lift kit which would have shocks, springs, cross member drop, trackbar riser bracket or adjustable trackbar and a replacement brake hose for the short rear brake line.

or

2) Assemble a lift kit which need all of the above but one could mix n match stuff based on how one wants it to ride. Also totally worth it and fun if one has the basic idea on how to proceed.

Most lift kits come with same manufacturer shocks and springs and some manufacturers they pair the same set of springs with totally different set of shocks with different valving and construction that behave different, and vice versa, could cite various examples for both. Then there are vendors who cobble up a kit Eg: Bilstein+H&R, Bilstein+Eibach, Koni+H&R, KYB+Cobra etc. The "lift kit" business when done by brands are also sort of mix n match but the buyer is comfortable splurging on a branded "lift kit". A lifted Jimny because it is no track car and a lift kit needs to fulfill just three basic needs 1) improved handling 2) by which most owners mean minimise roll and 3) ride height. Then there are some who needs the lift 4) to be comfortable, 5) to flex and 6) have some more droop.

The most popular and well known springs and shocks kits for the Jimny come from either Japan or Australia. Kits and components also come from other countries UK, Italy, China, South Africa etc. but they are less popular and limited in choices than what is made available by Japan or Australia.

Edit 12/03/25: It is absolutely important to match the extended length of the shock and the droop it allows to the spring selected. Short springs with long travel shocks will unseat the springs. Thought this was understood but stating the obvious. Also applicable to extended brake hoses, ABS lines, vacuum lines etc.

Edit: 26/05/2025 Components used at a glance

• Taniguchi 40mm Springs (Made in Japan by Chuhatsu) with no levelling spacers
• Dobinson IMS40 monotube shock absorbers. Rebuildable, revalvable, gas pressure adjustable.
• Showa Garage extended rubber brake hose (Made in Japan by OEM supplier)
• Taniguchi rear trackbar correction bracket - Removed
• Replaced with Jimnybits adjustable rear trackbar with SuperPro bush
• HM4x4 front trackbar correction bracket - Removed
• Replaced with Jimnybits adjustable front trackbar with SuperPro bush
• Jimnybits caster corrected front radius arms with OEM bush. Made in the UK
• Jimnybits caster corrected rear radius arms with OEM bush. Made in the UK
• Extended front bump stop (Jimnybits + OEM hybrid)
• Extended rear bump stop OEM longer version
• Hardrace front crossmember - removed
• Replaced with OEM front crossmember dropped on one side

The problem

If I was to go with a lift kit especially one that is made for the or by the Australian brands which are meant to be used with a reasonably loaded Jimny it could turn out to be a little too stiffly sprung for a lightly loaded or no load Jimny. Except probably for the OME kit with their close to stock rated* standard springs and twin tube shocks.

* Rated - I usually mean spring rate but could also mean preload. Also used elsewhere in this blog in this context.

So what could work for a reasonably loaded Jimny with - metal bumpers, roobar, stuff for camping, towing, and a boot that is a kitchen - wouldn't work for me which doesn't have any of these and a spring rated to carry all these would throw me around inside the cabin. Except for the OME most Aussie kits even with their lowest rated springs maybe a tad too stiff for my use case.

The solution

Why not use an OME kit or a Japanese kit? Both are excellent options but one caveat.

Good shocks are expensive some not so good shocks are also expensive because market is blind. So when paying money to get a set of shocks either locally or imported to me it makes excellent sense if they are sort of lifetime shocks? Like if they can be rebuild and used again and again? Or at least the thought that the shocks are able to be rebuild and used for ever? It makes sense that one is not paying shipping and duty over the actual cost either directly or indirectly for a wear and tear times. It does to me.

Make that two caveats. When paying a lot it would be nice if the shocks were also mono tubes over twin tubes? Mono tube rebuildable?

So that ruled out the OME twin tube shocks available for the Jimny and the Kayaba/KYB made adjustable twin tubes shocks which almost all Japanese kits are clubbed with (pretty sure each would have their own custom settings). They are not rebuildable. The premium shocks sold by the Jimnybits of UK are adjustable and rebuildable, but they are hydraulic shocks and not gas charged to the best of my knowledge.

That brought me to the only reasonably priced rebuildable mono tube and that is the Dobinson IMS. Its not adjustable, which is a shame, because it could have been but then they wouldn't be able to sell their MRR shocks. Mrrrrrrr!

Dobinson IMS40 numbers

Front : Compressed 295 mm* (user on Aus FB group), Extended ~450 mm (measured myself from base of pin to center of eye).

Rear: Compressed 335 mm* (user on Aus FB group), Extended ~495 mm (measured myself from center of eye to eye).

Installing the shockers are not too difficult and I did it at home myself with the stock jack and couple of jack stands. Since the shocks sit outside of the springs no need to take out the springs either. The fronts were easy, the wheels have to be removed. The rears were also easy, no need to remove wheels even, but the rear RHS shock top mount bolt has little clearance available for a ratchet. A ratcheting spanner will be might useful here but I did not have one. So what needs to be done is to unclip the ABS wire holder clip from the metal clamp, which will give some space to get the hands in and now push and bend the clamp holding the wire upwards. This will give enough space to get a ratchet in.

* A note on compressed length measurements of Dobinson IMS:- Being  high pressure gas charged monotubes it is almost impossible to fully compress the shocks physically with hands and body weight. It can be done crudely with a jack with top mount bolted in the vehicle as I attempted it but the shock could bottom out and I wont know it (again being monotubes) so did not proceed further because of risk of damaging it. The compressed length numbers were shared by a Aus FB group user who confirmed that he got it from Dobinson.

The springs

Had to think long and hard about this and decided definitely not Australian except if it were the OME no load springs. At this point I was not very particular about having 5 door springs.

The Japanese have a lot of options when it comes to the springs from many manufacturers and different types. Taniguchi stood out. They were a very well respected name and the springs are made by Chuhatsu a top spring manufacturer which is also a Toyota subsidiary, and their spring catalogue looked well defined, each made for a purpose. So it was decided, Taniguchi it is.

Taniguchi had a few things going for it, one of which as I have already mentioned its made by Chuhatsu the other bits that caught my attention was they were dual rate springs with soft initial rates and that they had the Jimny lean taken care of by having different spring lengths on the left and right sides, both front and rear.

The dual rate spring with soft initial rate and stiffer secondary rate gives a very good ride at city speeds and over bad roads; at higher speeds the secondary rate which is stiffer than stock aids in good handling. Combined with the progressive IMS shocks the feeling is good on both city and highway. So the elaborate guessing game, sharing notes and mental math worked out great.

Edit 12/03/25: The selection of 3 door Taniguchi springs were not a random choice. These were selected based on the manufacturer provided specification to go with the IMS shocks.  If I did not have the IMS shocks I would not have selected the 3 door Taniguchi springs for my 5 door. Also I did not consider any option that did not have the specifications published or made available.

Lift height?

Higher it goes better ramp-over, approach and departure angle you get, but the clearance under the differential stays the same. I based my requirement on the minimum height I need to run 30 inch tyres. Those who have been there done that advised that I do not need to go higher than 40mm to 50mm with compression limited by bump stop for the tyre to clear the bodywork. I prefer not to raise C of G if there is a way around it, although I do intend to increase droop without adding height.

Supporting mods

Front caster angle correction - I didn't buy the caster correcting bushes instead chose the caster corrected radial arms. BUT, its a big irritating "but", the manufacturer doesn't have stock (informed after payment) and I've been waiting, as I type this for, more than 20 days. Neither their emails nor their quote had this mentioned and the website showed as they are in stock.

Edit: 09/03/25: The radius arms purchase was a tragedy, the vendor Des Sol, would not ship by the lead time they said they needed and neither would they give me a date on when they could ship, they couldn't or wouldn't give a reason either. So as am not fond of endless waits and a possible loss of Paisa canceled DesSol and asked for refund.

So new radius arms were bought, this was a tubular type radius arm and the only tubular type arm I considered buying and was actually my 1st choice if going with tubular type arms (but tubular type arms were my 2nd choice in my scheme of things and thus the Des Sol fiasco). The wall thickness of this tubular arm is a hefty 6.35mm and the welds are robotised and the tubes are seamless CDS. The rear sets are reinforced.

Edit 12/03/25: The radial arms were also selected after a lot of back and forth emails between various manufacturers. The I beam type radius arms were my first choice due to its construction. I asked for and got from most manufacturers (some did not provide and they were dropped) the details on the construction and the type of steel used for their radial arms. I was more concerned about the details on tubular arms than the fabricated I beam types. The tubular arms may look the same on a quick glance but each of them are made different - mainly in three areas 1) the steel used, 2) wall thickness and 3) tube diameter. The criteria I was looking for in arms were mainly 1) impact resistance and 2) fatigue resistance. I was not really worried about torsional strength as all of them used a tube with a fairly adequate cross section. All tubular arms were made from CDS and none were DOM, so no choice there really.

The bushes for the radius arms were bought from Maruti through the MGP dealer whom I am a patron of since 2010. I chose to use the front non-slotted bush for the rear also instead of slotted which the stock arms have. Also no poly bushes either as they are hard and does not have any "give" with little "flex" which the bonded rubber bushes provide. Axle side bushes are a bit shorter than chassis side bushes, but both are approximately 52.XX mm in diameter.

The new radius arms weigh 5.9Kg each at the front and 8.5kg each at the rear, with the genuine bush installed. The stock arms weigh 4.9Kg each at the front and 5.8Kg each at the rear with bushes installed.

New radius arms installed, the springs do not look like bananas anymore. The front and rear springs sit straighter and the lower rear shock mount and the bolts bolts line up perpendicularly to the hole unlike how it was when the axle was not caster corrected at the rear. Both front and rear axle are moved slightly outwards as the arms are slightly longer than original which is intentional by design.

Front cross member drop - Same story as above and again same manufacturer as above and so the BUT still holds because they are to ship together. They are a pain.

Edit: 09/03/25: Again a tragedy as it was a combined purchase with radius arms from Des Sol. I don't think I shall be buying anything from Des Sol again. 

The crossmember took a long time was because I did not want the el cheapo crossmember relocation brackets. I did not want to buy aftermarket cross members that sit low losing precious clearance. So was thinking about which one to get after the Des Sol fiasco and that is when I got this Hardrace piece for very good price. Originally I did not want to go with the inverted question mark "¿" type cross member* by Hardrace or Neoplot but the price was very good. 

* Credit where its due, Neoplot is the original "¿" crossmember. Hardrace copied Neoplot's design idea but used a single large diameter tube, instead of Neoplot's twin tubes. Wouldn't buy neither Neoplot nor Hardrace for their original prices.

Brake flex hose extension - I like the OEM rubber type extended brake hoses. Why rubber type? Easy to inspect. Proven hassle free application for a daily driver. So bought a set of four from Showa Garage and they are sorted.

Photos of the front RHS hose getting replaced at home and the brake being bled. I changed the front hose before the springs went in and so in the picture below IMS is paired with stock springs.

In the below photo stock rear LHS brake hose (center) is seen stretched tight as axle drops further down with IMS 40 shocks.

The rear hoses were done at the garage.  The original Jimny hoses are TVS-Girling the replacement hoses are made in Japan by a brake OEM and sold by Taniguchi. The rear short LHS (center location) hose and its replacement and the rear RHS hose and its replacement below in the first and second photo respectively.

Edit: 11/03/25: Some lifts only need the rear short (center) hose to be replaced with a longer one as the shocks included does not allow much droop. If so it is best to buy a new OE rear RHS brake hose and use it to replace the center short hose.

Rear Panhard bar / trackbar correction - All JB74 or Gen4 3 door trackbar risers fit the 5 door rear axle, there is misinformation about this on team-bhp that it does not fit. All Gen 4 Jimny's have a captive nut on the stock trackbar axle mount.

The rear trackbar is corrected with the Taniguchi riser bracket. This was installed around 6 days after the lift as I wanted to see the difference it makes in controlling the roll.

Edit: 26/05/25: On 27 April replaced both front and rear trackbar correction brackets with adjustable trackbars from Jimnybits.

On the table Jimnybits front and rear adjustable trackbars (and a spare front trackbar). These are made from 25mm dia tubes with wall thickness of 5mm. Stock tubes are 22mm dia front and 25mm dia rear with wall thickness of 2mm. The reason for  purchasing Jimnybits trackbars are due to 1) they take OEM bushes or OEM replacement bushes like from Superpro. The OEM bushes are not yet available from Suzuki for the front but for rears its available, 2) They are not turnbuckle style adjustment so the trackbar length cannot be adjusted in situ, one end has to be removed from the mount so no concern of adjustment going for a toss even if locknut comes loose and 3) I prefer a trackbar to have no threaded ends meaning I like a non-adjustable trackbar but I'm forced to have one so prefer one with just one threaded end rather than two like turnbuckle types. 

The decision to remove the rear bracket is to lower the rear roll center, ouch! The decision to install the rear trackbar correction bracket was to raise the rear roll center (and also correct the axle location). Raised rear roll center helped minimise the sway going around corners and generally made for a better ride in town pottering around. But at higher speeds the raised rear roll center had a tendency to push the Jimny towards oversteer slightly, the turn in was also quicker. While its fun in a sedan its not something I want in the Jimny when driving fast. How fast do I go? As much as the Jimny would do.

So the correction was made to have the rear trackbar correction bracket removed and go for adjustable trackbars - to center the axle to the chassis. This lowered the rear roll center and the difference in ride and handling is very evident. Now it rolls slightly more pottering around town (but still a lot better than stock due to better suspension), the tendency towards oversteer is gone, response to steering is slower similar to how it was like stock. In short the lifted Jimny now doesn't pretend to be a sports car going around corners. They do that in Japan!

I first thought the tendency towards oversteer after installing the rear trackbar riser bracket was my imagination. This was a fairly common mod on a lifted Jimny and no one mentioned it. I dug a bit deeper into this based on what I experienced and read about handling characteristics with the raised rear roll center on live axle vehicles which confirmed I wasn't imagining the oversteer. There is more on this on technical forums related to NASCAR racing, what's common about NASCAR and Jimny? Rear live axle rear with a Panhard bar. 

Bump stops - Strictly necessary for the IMS lift because the compressed length of the IMS shocks are longer than the stock Maruti shocks. You need the bump stop to engage the axle before the IMS shocks bottoms out, or risk damaging it. An additional 15 mm extended bump stop will be enough but can use longer if they are cone types.

For the front I used an Alto rear bump stop, part no 42251M75F10, which is longer by about 20mm. This will be changed to a cone type progressive longer bump stop.

For the rear bump stop I used an extended bump stop very similar to the original Jimny bump stop. No need to fiddle with spacers etc. for the rear. The additional height is ample.

Edit 11/03/25: The part number for the OEM stock extended bump stop is 42110M77A10 and can be sourced through MGP store. It is Maruti Eeco's rear bump stop. By design much better than block type bump stop rubbers.

Edit:09/03/25: I was not really happy with the front bump stop done on 02/02/25 so it had to be re-done. Read about it here.

Good to have supporting mods

Front trackbar correction - For Jimny what applies to the rear also applies to the front as both axle layouts are identical. So ideally both should be corrected together. But people usually skip this citing draglink and the trackbar need to be parallel to have bump steer and doing both has its set of problems, more so with serviceability of imported wear and tear parts. I shall probably be going forward with front trackbar correction without touching the draglink. But lets see how the bump steer is.

Edit: 01/04/25 I would prefer if the front trackbar correction even for a 40mm lift is moved up from good to have to mandatory category either by means of an adjustable trackbar or by means of a relocation bracket. I noticed that after the lift the axle has slightly shifted to the right (RHD) pulled by the trackbar. This did not create any major problems whilst driving it but it did not feel as right as it did before.

An adjustable trackbar can center the axle but it will not level the trackbar but it will keep trackbar and draglink at whatever factory parallel settings it came with. Repositioning bracket can level out the trackbar to the axle but will disturb the factory trackbar to drag link parallelism, but I decided to go with a repositioning bracket for the correction. Taking this route will give two choices one could either drop the frame side bracket or raise the axle side bracket. Raising axle side bracket will also raise the roll center (like we did at the rear) but dropping the frame side bracket won't. But but both methods will level out the trackbar with the axle. My choice was dropping the frame side bracket.

The repositioned trackbar bolted further away from its base and original point now due to increased leverage puts more force on the original bracket base where it is welded to/bolted to the frame or axle. Because of this the the trackbar repositioning bracket needs to bolstered additionally than just bolting the bracket at the original mounting location. This is applicable for both drop brackets or risers installed on frame and axle respectively. This is also valid for the rear trackbar repositioning bracket. Some manufacturers do take this into consideration when designing repositioning brackets for both frame side or axle side.

The installation was not straight forward and it took more time than I thought it would take when I started out. The problem was due to how the bracket was made and one part of it interfering with the front chassis crossmember tube in the side of the chassis where it protrudes out. This was an unexpected road block as I was hoping for a simple bolt on installation. So anyways decided to get the Dremel out and see If I could do it but looking at the thick metal did not have high hopes. Anyway roughly marked the area to be removed - and with a lot of patience and a very hot to hold Dremel and a number of cutting discs - the thick metal piece was finally cut off with precision then grinded down to smoothen it out with Dremel grinding wheel and hand file. So far on this page this bracket is the first part that  would not fit out of the box and needed to be modified to be able to fit.

Did a trial fitting and found that the little stub I left on the bottom also need to be removed and that was quickly done without much effort. Once done the bracket bolted up but with some difficulty and crushing my RH pinkie when the no 17 spanner slipped and its swollen now.

The front Panhard bar / trackbar was never flat (almost) like the rear if you look at a stock Jimny. The front trackbar sits at a slight angle to the axle even stock. With the correction bracket bolted up the trackbar now sits like how it sits on a stock vehicle. The front axle is now back to its original position in relation to the frame.

The installation is not final but I am leaving it as is for now. I have to do some corrections and changes and one part a reinforcement plate you see in the first photo of the bracket is not yet installed due to interference with the lower LH nut. This will need to be addressed shortly.

Edit: 26/05/25: On 27 April replaced both front and rear trackbar correction brackets with adjustable trackbars from Jimnybits. The decision to remove the front trackbar bracket was due to the decision to remove the rear trackbar riser bracket. I can't have the rear trackbar riser removed and leave the front trackbar lowering bracket in place which will mess up an already messed up roll center.

Let me get this out of the way, the decision to replace the front trackbar correction bracket was not due to the bump steer, it was about as bad or as good as not having the bracket. Bump steer occur when the trackbar and draglink does not lie parallel to each other as they drop down to the axle. In the photo above with correction bracket the front trackbar and the draglink is almost parallel with each other. The drop with the bracket is not huge to cause any considerable bump steer infact it feels about the same as having an having adjustable trackbar. There was always a minor bump steer (almost unnoticeable if you aren't looking for it) when lifted whether you have the stock trackbar, dropped trackbar and adjustable trackbar.

In the photo above correction bracket removed and adjustable trackbar installed. If you notice the front trackbar with NO correction bracket, i.e., in stock configuration, does not lie parallel to the draglink. So there's that.

Rear caster angle correction - Whilst an incorrect rear caster angle does not affect steering; correcting the rear caster has its benefits. It corrects the drive shaft angle and also twists the axle forward so the rear axle fittings such as shock mounts and trackbar mounts are back to being level like the stock configuration and will be easy on the bushes and fittings.

Edit: 09/03/25: Done. As the plans for radius arms changed decided to do the rear too along with the fronts. I am glad that I did this and did not keep for later.

Prop spacer - Good to have and almost a must have for radius arms that extend the wheelbase slightly. It will keep the slip joint in the front prop shaft happy. The rear prop shaft is a CV type and for reliability and to prevent CV boot failure its good to put one there also. Not required for arms that do not push out the axles. The rear would be done soon, I had only one spacer today and the front needed it most. This is a 1cm spacer.

Extended vacuum hose - The springs I bought came with a set of extended vacuum hoses. I checked the full droop allowed by the IMS shocks and the vacuum lines were tight, but not stretching, but anyways it was decided to install the extended lines since we had them at hand and when additional droop is implemented then the stock lines wouldn't be enough. The ABS wire clamp was lifted to compensate for the additional droop. Same can be done with vacuum hose but since I had the lines decided to use them. Picture installed as in above.

Did I miss any?

Will update if anything changes or if I recall something. Installation was done at a garage close to my home which I have been frequenting since many years and Vinayagaprabhu as always did a really good job and he listens.

And below is how it looked with just the IMS shocks and Taniguchi springs, before the Taniguchi trackbar riser was installed.

The original radial arms and crossmember removed from the Jimny and now put into storage along with the rest of the stuff. Cast iron hockey sticks.

Wheel Alignment - I haven't got a wheel alignment done ever since I've got the Jimny not even during periodic service, which is from July 2023 as on date. Don't fix it if it aint broken. A 40mm lift is not going to change anything except the steering draglink pull, which doesn't need an alignment center to fix. If it drives straight, tracks straight with arms off the wheel and have no unusual wear patterns on the tyre its good enough for me. Have got the wheel balancing done periodically.

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