I have a 2002 Camry SE, and I replaced the 4 struts (a tough job!). Now the car does not ride smoothly. Whe coasting in highway congestion at about 15-30 mph the car undulates up and down. Also, after stopping the car now bounces/rocks front to back. I bought the struts from a parts store. When installing the struts I noticed the extension shafts of the replacement units were 2" shorter than the original units (the strut bodies were the same length). The store said they would probably lenghten once installed. I have since talked to Toyota and they said there are struts specific to the SE model, but they won’t tell me how long they are. I can live with the bouncing, because putting new struts on would take about 12 hours. However, could this damage other suspension components or the tires?
Yes, this can be rough on other suspension components (ball joints for example) and tires not to mention changing the handling of the vehicle drastically.
Unfortunately, you should have stopped then and there when you noticed the new units were shorter rather than installing them.
Lengthen once installed? Now that’s funny.
If it were me, they would come back off and go back to the parts store for the correct part as part of a redo job.
A quick look at several auto parts site does not differentiate about differences between models I did a pair of front struts on a Camry several weeks back and no one asked me if it was an LE, SE, or anything else.
I assume that by “extension shaft” you mean the shiny central rod that connects the strut to the body of the car at the top of the strut tower. I’m not sure that its apparent length is significant. As I understand it, it’s attached to a piston inside the strut cartridge. The length visible when the strut is being installed isn’t really all that relevant because it is going to be pushed well down into the strut cartridge by the weight of the vehicle once it is mounted. I wouldn’t discount it entirely, but it wouldn’t be the first thing I’d suspect.
It really sounds like something is not put back together properly. As I recall there is an annoying small vertical torsion bar on each strut on our 1999 LE. I’m not entirely clear on their function. If you have something similar on your SE, perhaps one somehow popped loose after you reinstalled it or has broken. That might cause bouncing. As would loss of one of the strut mounting bolts. I have trouble imagining one falling out, but it won’t do any harm to check.