Alignment Pins and Bushings for 1998 Subaru Forester S

A suspension arm pivots on a bushing, and where that bushing sits decides the angle the wheel ends up at.

Move the pivot a few millimeters and you change your Subaru Forester's caster or camber without touching the arm, the strut or anything else.

What a Subaru Forester Alignment Bushing Is

An alignment bushing looks like an ordinary arm bushing with one difference. The inner sleeve is machined off center rather than concentric.

Fit it and the bolt no longer sits in the middle of the bushing. The arm's pivot point moves by the amount of that offset, which rotates the arm slightly and changes the angle of the hub at the other end.

Nothing else about the suspension has to change. The arm is the original, the mounting points are the original, and the correction comes entirely from where the bolt now sits within the bushing.

That is why these are the quiet option for geometry correction. The car looks standard underneath and the alignment reads where it should.

How an Offset Bushing Changes Caster or Camber

Which angle moves depends on orientation, and that is the part people miss.

A control arm has two inner pivots, front and rear. Move both the same direction and the whole arm shifts inboard or outboard, which changes camber.

Move one pivot forward and the other back, or offset only one of them, and the arm rotates in plan view. That swings the hub fore or aft at the outer end, which changes caster and alters how the front tires find grip through a turn.

The same bushing can do either job depending on which pivot it goes in and which way the offset faces when it is pressed home. The listing for your application specifies it, and getting it wrong means the correction goes the wrong way.

Some kits are supplied as a matched pair with the orientation marked, which removes the guesswork.

Single and Double Offset Bushings

Two levels of correction exist and the choice comes down to how far out the car is.

A single offset bushing moves the pivot by a modest amount, which suits a car that has drifted out of specification with age or been lowered moderately.

A double offset bushing moves it further, using more of the available space within the housing. These suit larger corrections, cars lowered significantly, or platforms where the factory geometry was marginal to begin with.

The limit is set by the housing itself. The offset can only be as large as the bushing body allows while still leaving enough material around the sleeve to carry the load.

Beyond that, adjustable arms are the next step, since they change the arm's length rather than working within the original bushing.

Caster Correction on Radius Arms

Radius arms run fore and aft, locating the axle or hub against braking and acceleration loads, and they are where caster correction most often happens.

Caster is the angle of the steering axis viewed from the side. More positive caster gives stronger self centering, more steering weight and better straight line stability, and it adds negative camber to the outside wheel through a turn.

Because a radius arm controls fore and aft position, offsetting its bushing rotates the hub or axle in exactly the plane caster lives in. A small offset produces a meaningful caster change.

That makes radius arm bushings the standard route to adding caster on platforms that offer no factory adjustment, and the usual correction after a lift has reduced it.

Vehicles that wander at highway speed or fail to self center after a corner are frequently low on caster, and this is the part that addresses it.

Control Arm Bushings and Anti-Lift Geometry

Control arm bushings do the same job in a different plane, and some go further than alignment alone.

An offset bushing in the lower control arm's rear pivot changes caster, camber, or both depending on the design. That is the conventional caster bushing correction most cars use.

Anti-lift and anti-dive bushings take the idea further. By moving the pivot to change the arm's angle relative to the chassis, they alter how much the nose rises under acceleration and dives under braking.

The effect is a car that stays flatter through weight transfer, keeps its geometry more consistent when it matters, and puts power down with less of the front end unloading.

On a front drive car that is a bigger handling change than the camber figure alone suggests, since the front tires are doing the steering and the driving at the same time.

Pins, Sleeves and the Hardware That Goes With Them

A bushing is half the assembly, and the hardware through it matters as much.

The inner sleeve or crush tube takes the clamping load of the bolt, so the bushing itself is never crushed. A worn or corroded sleeve lets the joint move no matter how well the bushing fits.

Alignment pins and the bolts through these joints are high tensile and are frequently seized into the sleeve after years of service, which is why kits often include new hardware.

Where a kit supplies pins and sleeves alongside the bushings, use them. A new bushing on a pitted old sleeve wears quickly from the inside.

Check the housing bore carefully before fitting anything. Scoring or distortion there means the new bushing will not sit square, and a bushing that is not square does not hold the correction it was bought for.

Why Polyurethane Matters More on a Subaru Forester Alignment Bushing

This is the argument for these over a factory replacement, and it is worth making clearly.

A standard rubber bushing deflects under load by design, which means the arm moves and the geometry changes as the car brakes, corners and accelerates.

On an ordinary bushing that is a comfort decision. On an alignment bushing it defeats the purpose, because the correction you paid for only holds while the load is low.

Polyurethane holds its shape properly under cornering load. The pivot stays where the offset put it, which means the alignment reading on the rack is the alignment the car actually has when it is working.

The trade is more road noise and vibration reaching the cabin, which is the usual exchange for precision.

The correct lubricant matters alongside the material choice. Silicone or PTFE based grease rather than petroleum, which degrades polyurethane over time.

How Much Correction to Order

Matching the bushing to the gap is what makes this work, and guessing is what wastes the purchase.

Start with an alignment printout showing the current readings at each wheel. Without it you are correcting an unknown quantity, and these are a press fit rather than something adjusted on the rack.

Compare each reading against the manufacturer's specification, noting whether the car is out on camber, caster or both, and by how much at each wheel.

Choose the offset that covers that gap with margin rather than one that just reaches it, since suspension settles and readings drift.

Check the readings on both sides of the car. Cross camber and cross caster differences cause a pull to one side even when each wheel sits within its own range, and correcting only the worse side can make that worse.

If the car is also being lowered, do the drop first and measure afterward, since the readings before the change tell you nothing about what the correction needs to be.

Fitting Subaru Forester Alignment Bushings

These are a press fit, which means proper tooling rather than a hammer.

The old bushing has to come out and the new one go in square, and a bushing press does both while supporting the housing. Hammering distorts the bore and cracks aluminum arms.

Orientation is critical and it is the step most often rushed. Mark the correct position before pressing, since once it is home, getting it out again to rotate it is another full operation.

Torque the arm bolts with the vehicle on its wheels at ride height rather than hanging. A bushing takes its set from the position it is clamped in, and one clamped at full droop is preloaded from the first corner.

Have the alignment set afterward without exception, since the whole point of the part is changing what the alignment reads.

When an Offset Bushing Is Not Enough

Worth knowing where the limits sit before ordering.

A bent or damaged arm will not be corrected by adjusting around it, and bringing one angle into range leaves others out.

Worn ball joints and tired bushings elsewhere let the geometry move regardless of where it was set, so those come first.

A large ride height change can move the geometry beyond what an offset can recover, and adjustable arms are the answer there.

And a car that will not hold its alignment between services has a movement problem rather than an adjustment problem, which no bushing solves.

Find Alignment Pins and Bushings for Your Subaru Forester

Alignment pins and bushings sit within the Whiteline bushings lineup.

Select your Subaru Forester to see the offset caster and camber bushings, radius arm bushings and alignment hardware available for it. Check your current alignment readings before ordering so the correction matches the gap, and have the car aligned once they are fitted.