I'm the third owner of a 2007 Limited V6 AWD, and I love this car. It spent its first 10 years with Ohio and Colorado owners, so I caved in and had the rear control arms epoxied under the recall. In hindsight, that's where I should have stopped and left well enough alone.
But I wanted adjustability, so I bought replacement arms made by a company called SPC. Installed them myself and had an alignment done, which was within specs except for -1.9 on camber for both wheels (-1.8 is the outer limit of spec). I was OK with that. But I was not OK with the clunking sounds I began to hear when making turns. Mostly they were 90 degree turns with a change in road elevation, either up or down, like backing out of the driveway or pulling into parking lots. This noise never happened before the new arms.
I looked around under the car and found the ball joint end was contacting what I think is the rear trailing arm under these conditions. Both sides. It was clear that the dimesnions of the SPC part were different from OEM in some areas. I tried to live with it a while, but I knew something wasn't right.
So I ordered another set of arms from rockauto, this time from Beck Arnley. Before installation I compared them carefully to the OEM arms, and they were identical in the key respects. Put them on, got an alignment, and the car was back in spec except still slightly out in negative camber.
You can see the difference between the SPC arm and the OEM arm. The key aspect in all this, I think, is the extra length of the tapered spindle on the SPC arm. The SPC arm never seated fully into the hole because of this extra length. It was torqued to spec, but the ball end was too far back from the mounting surface. You can see how the taper would seat farther out than the OEM one. This resulted in too much play in the ball joint and clunking.
So I learned a couple of things for the umpteenth time: always compare the dimensions of a new part with the old one/OEM. And it's often best to leave well enough alone.
I've enjoyed this forum and learned so much valuable info here. I hope my experience will save a fellow Rav owner from repeating my frustration.
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But I wanted adjustability, so I bought replacement arms made by a company called SPC. Installed them myself and had an alignment done, which was within specs except for -1.9 on camber for both wheels (-1.8 is the outer limit of spec). I was OK with that. But I was not OK with the clunking sounds I began to hear when making turns. Mostly they were 90 degree turns with a change in road elevation, either up or down, like backing out of the driveway or pulling into parking lots. This noise never happened before the new arms.
I looked around under the car and found the ball joint end was contacting what I think is the rear trailing arm under these conditions. Both sides. It was clear that the dimesnions of the SPC part were different from OEM in some areas. I tried to live with it a while, but I knew something wasn't right.
So I ordered another set of arms from rockauto, this time from Beck Arnley. Before installation I compared them carefully to the OEM arms, and they were identical in the key respects. Put them on, got an alignment, and the car was back in spec except still slightly out in negative camber.
You can see the difference between the SPC arm and the OEM arm. The key aspect in all this, I think, is the extra length of the tapered spindle on the SPC arm. The SPC arm never seated fully into the hole because of this extra length. It was torqued to spec, but the ball end was too far back from the mounting surface. You can see how the taper would seat farther out than the OEM one. This resulted in too much play in the ball joint and clunking.
So I learned a couple of things for the umpteenth time: always compare the dimensions of a new part with the old one/OEM. And it's often best to leave well enough alone.
I've enjoyed this forum and learned so much valuable info here. I hope my experience will save a fellow Rav owner from repeating my frustration.
