When you bolted everything back together, was your vehicle on stands or on the ground? As has been listed on this site, many tighten on the stands, then again when on the ground after the vehicle has "set" itself. Did much of what you did to our 2008 many years ago. As many here have experienced, there is a great satisfaction / frustration quotient when doing work on our vehicles.

Suggest two things to check.
1.] were the struts replaced correctly? There is a slight difference in the angle that the strut has when attached to the rotor. Might have to rotate that strut 180° to get it to hang correctly. Had to do that in my job when I had problems reattaching a new strut to the rotor.
2.] when jacked up & on safety stands, remove wheels & tires. KEEP HANDS & FINGERS IN SAFE LOCATIONS TO DO THE FOLLOWING - Slightly loosen everything you replaced, if feasible, then give a good yank on each rotor. If things were not reassembled correctly, you may hear a clank & see the assemble settle back into its original position. If you've ever done drum brakes, you'll know what I'm talking about. Once all the springs, pins, & shoes were assembled, grabbed both shoes & gave a slight twist to "set" everything, then replaced the drum.

One further piece of recommendation. In the future, take several "before" pictures of your problem area. Use them to compare how your repairs are progressing.

Hope this helps. Keep us updated so as to help others who may encounter this same problem.

 

As has been listed on this site, many tighten on the stands, then again when on the ground after the vehicle has "set" itself.

This is always Good Practice.

I'd be prepared with sources of camber adjustment hardware before bringing it in for alignment. Here are some of the components you might need. TROUBLESHOOT FIRST!

Amazon.com

 

Just heard back from alignment shop. They say it is unalignable for the following reasons:
“The rtabs are cockeyed and not pressed in properly, and the struts appear too short for the vehicle, causing excess negative camber”

The struts are the same and were not replaced, and I feel like the rtabs were pressed with care regarding depth and orientation… and how could they affect camber anyway?


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Just heard back from alignment shop. They say it is unalignable for the following reasons:
“The rtabs are cockeyed and not pressed in properly, and the struts appear too short for the vehicle, causing excess negative camber"

They may just be saying the trailing arm bushings are "not pressed in properly", because that would affect toe, not camber. And if it did affect camber, it wouldn't be enough to make it THAT negative.

Also, how old are the struts?

 

Pictures would help for trailing arm bushings. First thing i would do is measure ride height. Weak rear springs are the main reason for negative rear camber. If ride height is too low you can jack up under the rear crossmember to proper ride height and see if the wheel looks how it should. If so, then i would replace the rear shocks and springs. Assuming you don't have a bunch of weight in the back.

You can space out the rear upper control arms from the body to increase camber. You don't have to replace them, just shim behind them for negative camber. Look at the upper control arm bushings as well. The more worn out they are, the more negative camber will be.

 

Thanks for this tip. I will try it out. It does look lower in the back, so I guess I’ll have replace the rear struts. I was hoping to replace them when I get her lifted, but looks like I’ll have to get something basic for now.
Unfortunately I don’t have any pics of the RTABs, but I pressed them in until the edge lined up with the outer lip of the trailing arm. Have you ever been able to back them off slightly using a hammer?



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So far we’ve established my rear struts are probably donezo, causing excess negative camber.
Now I am Bumping because I am now trying to figure out why my rear toe is still very out.

I’m unable to adjust any further (same with the alignment shop). The compensator arm still has room to move medially on the driver side, but on the passenger side it is completely maxed medially. Both rear wheels are toe out.

As the alignment shop said, the RTABs are “cockeyed” and not pressed correctly. I pressed to the correct depth when installing, and it seemed to be going in uniformly. Could this still be my problem? Is there an easy fix?


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You need to get the camber straightened out first. Camber effects toe, which is why camber is your first adjustment on an alignment.

 

You need to get the camber straightened out first. Camber effects toe, which is why camber is your first adjustment on an alignment.

That’s really good to know!
Now here’s the thing, I plan to get the crv lifted in the near future, which I would require new struts for. In this case, would you recommend getting new, cheap struts in the back right now, or just temporarily making due with the shims to correct the camber?


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^^ Could you do the lift NOW? The money would be less in total....

 

I thought about it, but it would require more time to research and then replace both front and rear struts, which I don’t have at the moment. I also want to get new tires and space the wheels all at the same time, so it’s just more work and research than I can tackle at the moment.


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The shocks job is to prevent the tire from bouncing while driving. It does do a lot on traction.
If you cut the springs to lower the vehicle the shocks don't push it back up to what it was before.
The problem is elsewhere.

Check the end of the spring location where it should sit on the strut assembly both at the top and at the bottom.
Mine were out of rotation so the spring end was not sitting on the resting place (lack if better terms) changing alignment. Can't recall if + or -.

The other thing that can be snooping on you is that the suspension bushing may look good but once you remove them you will see the bushing is offset, again mine had that problem.

A word of advice, don't buy dorman lower control arms.I got 2 and they were listed and etched as the right parts but they were 1/4" shorts giving me a really bad positive camber. I lost a set of tires before finding out..

 

The shocks job is to prevent the tire from bouncing while driving. It does do a lot on traction.
If you cut the springs to lower the vehicle the shocks don't push it back up to what it was before.
The problem is elsewhere.

Check the end of the spring location where it should sit on the strut assembly both at the top and at the bottom.
Mine were out of rotation so the spring end was not sitting on the resting place (lack if better terms) changing alignment. Can't recall if + or -.

The other thing that can be snooping on you is that the suspension bushing may look good but once you remove them you will see the bushing is offset, again mine had that problem.

A word of advice, don't buy dorman lower control arms.I got 2 and they were listed and etched as the right parts but they were 1/4" shorts giving me a really bad positive camber. I lost a set of tires before finding out..

Thanks. Good advice I will take a look again when I’m under the car. Out of town now, so I’m just thinking if I can preemptively order new parts and have them arrive by the time I get back home.
I’m not really sure how the spring could have gotten twisted like your describing since all I did was unbolt the bottom for more movement of the control arm. Either way, I’ll take a look…


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I bought the cheap autoshack brand loaded shocks all the way around from amazon. Not sure how long I've had them on, but i have no complaints. I know they have been on at least a year. Comparable to monroe oe spectrum in my opinion.

 

I tried to hold off by placing some shims, but it didn’t get the camber to where I want it, so I caved in and bought some new rear struts. Real good deal on Amazon which included rear end links for total of $88. Detroit Axle. Seems to get good reviews.
I’ll install this weekend and report back.


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Bumping thread fo seek help on rear toe issue. I am currently maxed out on toe-in, but still noticeably toe-out.
I know it has to do with the RTABs.
Does anyone have any suggestions for how I deal with this? I really don’t want to push the RTABs out and start over.


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I just realized.
Did you used oem style rta bushings?
They go in a specific position. Because of the void space

Solid Urethane bushings just pressed them in and that's it.

 

I really wish I went with the simple push in urethane bushings. Guess I didn’t know they even existed before ordering the oem ones with metal housing.
The ones I got said they are compatible with gen 1 Honda CR-V. But now I don’t know if I pressed them in too much, or too little.
I hope this makes sense: the driver side toe adjustment bolt is in the middle of the rack, but I’m unable to adjust the toe in further.
The passenger side adjustment bolt seems to be pushed as far in as possible, like there’s no more room to adjust toe in, but the wheel itself is toe out.

Thanks for the advice on the sway links. I think I did mine on Jack stands.


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Really need pictures. Also, did you put the vehicle on the ground after doing the work and roll it back and forth? The suspension will not be where it is supposed to be when you first let it down just from the friction of tires on ground not letting it settle. You have to roll it back and forth first to get any kind of accurate reading, even just looking at it.

I can't see the trailing arm bushings throwing toe off that much, but i guess it is possible if they aren't pressed in far enough, or too far. It really all depends if you absolutely know it wasn't like that before you did the trailing arm bushings. Other than that I would be looking into adjustable toe arms.

The factory type trailing arm bushings move around quite a bit. They are just a pivot point. I can't see it toeing it out unless they are very obviously not installed correctly. Should be fairly easy to start the trailing arm bushing bolts. If you had to pry them around to line up the bolt holes, then they are probably not in right.

 

Gonna install new struts tomorrow and will try to remember to take pics while I’m there. I did more that roll that car around; I’ve driven quite a bit and still have this toe issue, especially on passenger side. Definitely wasnt like this before.

I see what you’re saying with the bolt holes. Truth be told, we did have to finesse the bolts into place when we were installing. We were confused because it was only one bolt hole that didn’t seem to line up with the bushing on each side.

I do see some readjustment for the RTABs in the future. Do you know of a way to slightly adjust their positioning without completely removing and reinstalling them? Wanna make sure I exhaust my options before pursing the expensive adjustable toe arm route.


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Check to make sure you didn't install the trailing arm bushings backwards also. The longer portion of the cross pin goes to the inside. Just a thought.

 

Any bushing that is made to twist benefits from the procedure.

Back when 'civilians' were allowed to tour the Corvette factory, it was noted that the suspension bolts were kept loose at the suspension assembly station...then the car was driven over rumble strips to the next station, wehere they were tightened (with a driver still in the car).

 

Well, I did all of the above. Still no cigar. Camber is still negative even with new struts. I am officially tapping out. Mechanic will deal with my car now. He is on the way to get a new rear trailing arm and we are probably gonna repress the RTABs, since those seem to be the source of my headache.


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Job is done. Here’s what was done:

Bolts connecting upper rear control arms to chassis completely shredded the threads, probably because I was bolting and unbolting them while the control arm was still attached to the rear trailing arm. He drilled and rethreaded the holes to the next size up. He then got the junkyard trailing arm and pressed the bushing from my trailing arm into it at his shop.
Turns out I bent my trailing arm when installing the RTAB. I mean, I knew I did, but I didn’t think I did in a way that would affect anything.
Toe seems to be zeroed just by eyeballing, and camber is still a tiny bit negative, but that may be able to be fixed at an alignment shop. Overall rear end ride quality very tight and stable.

Take-aways from this ordeal:

• working on suspension is much more complicated than it seems.
• do not touch bolts that are under axial tension; unbolt the item causing the tension before touching them to avoid damage to threads.
• RTABs need to be done with extreme care. If you have your own press, it’s best to remove the trailing arms to do the job right. Only way I would recommend using the hand held press tool while the trailing arms are still on, is to have the car on a lift so you can see everything clearly.

Hope this helps someone in the future.


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Thanks for posting the resolution(s)!