[bitfun]

2009 Rav-4 Base model

For a bit now, we have been experiencing some pretty gnarly sounding clunks from the rear right of the car when going over bumps (Even very small bumps), sometime when turning, sometimes while going straight. I jacked up the rear and was able to rock the right rear tire back and forth and heard some slight noise while rotating the tire, so I jumped to the wheel bearing and replaced it, thinking that was for sure the issue. It wasn't. The clunk is still there. And, I can still rock the wheel (11 and 5 position) so it didn't solve that issue either. I jacked up the rear and looked again, all of the bolts are tight. The only thing that stood out was that MAYBE the trailing arm bushing didn't have grease in it. I looked but couldn't find a zerk so I'm not sure if this is a maintainable thing or not.

When my wife gets home I'll have her rock the tire while I feel the various components back there, but until then, anyone have any ideas for what I should look at specifically? The shocks and struts are new, less than 20k miles on them.

 

[DL175]

Check your sway bar links.

 

[bitfun]

Good call. Those both definitely need replaced. That doesn't explain the tire movement, but it probably explains the noise (The one on the right is completely shot)

 

[bitfun]

Wife came home and gave things a wiggle. I can't isolate the movement to any one location - The entire arm is what's moving when the tire is rocked. Thoughts? It's hard to get a video of the movement, but I tried. This is only happening on the passenger rear. Driver's side rear has basically no movement or noise.

 

[Bigphil555]

Had clunking on the rear of ours, it was the sway bar links - not difficult to replace

 

[Foryota]

Wife came home and gave things a wiggle. I can't isolate the movement to any one location - The entire arm is what's moving when the tire is rocked. Thoughts? It's hard to get a video of the movement, but I tried. This is only happening on the passenger rear. Driver's side rear has basically no movement or noise.

If the entire lower control arm is moving, you may be into bushings on the inboard side. Pretty straightforward to change, but best to remove the coil spring first, to avoid death. (Only a little “tongue-in-cheek.”)

Superpro USA lists a number of bushings, but very few for the rear inboard you may be limited to OEM-style rubber bushings. I also need to get some, as the extra stiffness of my new rear springs has overpowered any remaining strength in the original rubber bushings.


2012 RAV4 Base FWD.
Upgraded to large front brakes and 3rd row rear springs.

 

[bitfun]

Yeah, the springs are from the Northwoods Performance lift kit. Been in there for a year and a half or so. The entire arm is definitely moving and my gut was saying maybe the bushing was worn, but it's difficult to really see what kind of shape it's in.

 

[Foryota]

Yeah, the springs are from the Northwoods Performance lift kit. Been in there for a year and a half or so. The entire arm is definitely moving and my gut was saying maybe the bushing was worn, but it's difficult to really see what kind of shape it's in.

My RAV is the newest of the 4.3s, with a build date of December 2012. If it’s due for bushings with my lift kit, I guess we can reasonably assume all the others likely will be too... just wish we had a urethane bushing option for the inner and outer for the rear.


2012 RAV4 Base FWD.
Upgraded to large front brakes and 3rd row rear springs.

 

[bitfun]

If the entire lower control arm is moving, you may be into bushings on the inboard side. Pretty straightforward to change, but best to remove the coil spring first, to avoid death. (Only a little “tongue-in-cheek.”)

Superpro USA lists a number of bushings, but very few for the rear inboard you may be limited to OEM-style rubber bushings. I also need to get some, as the extra stiffness of my new rear springs has overpowered any remaining strength in the original rubber bushings.


2012 RAV4 Base FWD.
Upgraded to large front brakes and 3rd row rear springs.

What bushings did you end up going with? I can't even find them OEM...

 

[Foryota]

What bushings did you end up going with? I can't even find them OEM...

I haven’t yet. And I just discovered that I need some up front too, so I may try to track down a kit of some type. I have a hard time replacing perfectly good control arms and ball joints just to get new bushings.


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[bitfun]

Kind of where I'm at now, as well. I still haven't replaced the rears, and now have a bushing needing replacement in the front, so was going to tackle them all, but for the life of me I can't find that bushing anywhere. It's driving me nuts, and I, too, have no interest in replacing a control arm just to get the bushing...

I'm thinking maybe this is why I didn't replace them 10 months ago when you suggested that as a possible culprit...

 

[Foryota]

Kind of where I'm at now, as well. I still haven't replaced the rears, and now have a bushing needing replacement in the front, so was going to tackle them all, but for the life of me I can't find that bushing anywhere. It's driving me nuts, and I, too, have no interest in replacing a control arm just to get the bushing...

I'm thinking maybe this is why I didn't replace them 10 months ago when you suggested that as a possible culprit...

Same. I’m going to look for a kit. Maybe Energy Suspension or something, I’ve seen their name on the forum a lot.


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[bitfun]

Yeah, I looked at Energy Suspension (I have lots of their bushings on my 4Runner) but I don't see anything there for a Rav4, unfortunately.

I did find these https://whitelineperformance.com/collections/auto-bushings/products/w63472-bushing-kit - But I'm not sure if those are the correct part for this application or not, because I haven't crawled under the Rav4 yet to see if they look right.

 

[neuropr]

About the inner and outer bushings of the arm:

I was in contact with SuperPro recently, and they explained to me that they don't create a an outer bushing for our Rav4's because the rear suspension is designed to include some little flex in this area. However, there are some aftermarket poly bushings available online , for example: https://siberianbushing.com/part/1-06-3023

About the inner ones, they told me that this particular bushing already have a stiff, quality rubber. They usually don't produce bushings for areas that have no difference from rubber to poly. Again, you may find aftermarket poly ones, but do not know if they're still available: https://siberianbushing.com/part/1-06-2061

*I see they have distributors on CA and US

 

[Tacomarav4runner]

2009 Rav-4 Base model

For a bit now, we have been experiencing some pretty gnarly sounding clunks from the rear right of the car when going over bumps (Even very small bumps), sometime when turning, sometimes while going straight. I jacked up the rear and was able to rock the right rear tire back and forth and heard some slight noise while rotating the tire, so I jumped to the wheel bearing and replaced it, thinking that was for sure the issue. It wasn't. The clunk is still there. And, I can still rock the wheel (11 and 5 position) so it didn't solve that issue either. I jacked up the rear and looked again, all of the bolts are tight. The only thing that stood out was that MAYBE the trailing arm bushing didn't have grease in it. I looked but couldn't find a zerk so I'm not sure if this is a maintainable thing or not.

When my wife gets home I'll have her rock the tire while I feel the various components back there, but until then, anyone have any ideas for what I should look at specifically? The shocks and struts are new, less than 20k miles on them.

GF’s 2011 Rav4 also had very loud clunking noise randomly, especially in reverse. After checking everything I found a rock between the rotor and the heat shield. After picking it out, no more problems! You can see the pebble in the picture. Pull your wheels off and push/pull on the metal heat shield behind the rotor. If you hear an ugly noise that’s your problem.

 

[bitfun]

Ours is definitely a suspension clunk (And has been ongoing for more than a year now)

 

[jabraham]

Has anyone found the culprit yet? I'm having some kind of clunking from the rear and can't seem to narrow it down. I've unloaded everything from the rear, changed the drive shaft and sway bar end links and it's still clunking. I've changed the shocks and upgraded to the third row springs but I can't remember if it was clunking like that before or not. I also checked the exhaust piping but it doesn't seem able to move far enough to be banging into anything. I looked at doing the sway bar mount bushings when I did the end links but it looked rather difficult to get to the top bolts (maybe someone knows an easier way to access sans dropping the fuel tank). Will check out the control arms soon and see if I can see any play, it's clunking loud enough I'd think it'd be easy to spot but so far I haven't found the culprit.

 

[Foryota]

Has anyone found the culprit yet? I'm having some kind of clunking from the rear and can't seem to narrow it down. I've unloaded everything from the rear, changed the drive shaft and sway bar end links and it's still clunking. I've changed the shocks and upgraded to the third row springs but I can't remember if it was clunking like that before or not. I also checked the exhaust piping but it doesn't seem able to move far enough to be banging into anything. I looked at doing the sway bar mount bushings when I did the end links but it looked rather difficult to get to the top bolts (maybe someone knows an easier way to access sans dropping the fuel tank). Will check out the control arms soon and see if I can see any play, it's clunking loud enough I'd think it'd be easy to spot but so far I haven't found the culprit.

It’s funny you mention the bar mount bushings. Our 2017 Golf had a weird noise which turned out to be just that - and it developed around 1.5 years old. I might check mine for that in a couple of weeks.


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[jabraham]

For the record the sway bar mounts were not it. Although not exceptionally easy to access the upper nut, it can be done. The bushings looked fine when I pulled them out but I replaced them anyways. All of the rest of the bushings seem to be fairly tight when pried but something is still clunking. I might try the lower control arm bushing next as they're hard to see when checking the bushings out. I figure if I replace everything then eventually I should find the problem.

 

[jabraham]

At long last the culprit has been found. The rear adjustable toe control arm ball joint had failed. Which is interesting as it's the SPC version. This is the last part I removed of course as it's less than 2 years old and I wasn't looking at anything that had recently been replaced. I let SPC know and they're interested to see what may have happened since it sounds like they rarely have to warranty these. To be continued...