Dad and I have spent a bunch of time driving the fit over the past few weeks while we were car shopping for his new ride.
I've noticed some rattling from the front right over bumps.... and I don't love how hard the brakes bite right now..
we went through the record book my dad keeps, every fill up, every oil change, every tire replacement and rotation, the one trip to the dealer for the window switch safety recall... and the front brake jobs its had over the years and we realized just that.. the car has ONLY had front brake jobs.. the rear drums have never been touched.. and the fornt brakes are glzed like hell.. they're at least 8mm thick if not more and they were done at 100k miles.. yes 50k miles ago.. dad is pretty easy on this car....
So I loaded up the rock auto parts cannon, new strut mounts, new front sway bar links, rotors and pads, drums, shoes, drum brake hardware... and i threw in a pair of SPC camber bolts for good measure.. struts are still working great.. my dad has driven this car like an old man.. go figure... I give it a year before I need new shocks.. but i don't need new shocks or struts today.. so i'm skipping them... we'll grab some prestone DOT4 while i'm at it as well.... as long as it's flushed fairly regularly.. it will be fine to run on track.. and its dirt cheap.. not going to put SRF in at this time..
The rattling over bumps, is that strut mounts?
In reply to mr2s2000elise :
I'm not sure, literally everything is original and so i tried to grab everything I thought I may need. I skipped on control arms for now. But those are also cheap and fairly simple to swap.
mr2s2000elise said:
The rattling over bumps, is that strut mounts?
It was on my daughter's '07.
Tonight I decided i wanted the headlight back to clear.
above is a photo of the car a few weeks ago, headlights weren't bad, but they're no longer clear.
passenger side was the worse one.
O'Reillys had the nicer 3M kit with the power drill pad on sale for $13..
started with a 500grit cut, then followed with a 800 grit follow up
Followed by a wetted 3000 grit polishing pad and the 2 wipe down with the included wipes
we'll see how long it lasts.. for $13 it doesn't have to last forever..
In reply to spacecadet (Forum Supporter) :
I have the same kit. I get about 6-7 months before I do it again
question for you - I need some wheels for my si sedan. What did you run on hazmat? Since its same chassis ?
In reply to mr2s2000elise :
Hazmat has a set of TL wheels with a 235 45 17 tire on them.. but don't make the mistake i did and get that much sidewall.
My recommendation to you is to find a set of 17x7.5 and run a 225 or these TL 17x8 and run a 235 40 17.
these 5 spoke TL wheels are and ET45 i do believe and they were like $100 each shipped on amazon..
I'm running a 10mm bolt on spacer behind them to clear the brembos without running extended studs.
Loved my fit. Can haul way more than my outback. Spec fit looks like a fun class
a stack of parts arrived the other day.
but i haven't moved them from their space on the floor since they arrived.
also, Honda Fit GD3 chassis have front sway bar endlinks.. actually its the ONLY sway bar on the car.. but the front sway bar enlinks are a FOOT long.
I don't want to replace the stock radio, i don't like to invite people to bash my window in, no matter how cheap the aftermarket radio is.. so I want to limp this radio along as much as i can.. it doesn't have a aux input.. so i have to make do with a FM transmitter..
FM transmitters have gotten a lot better in the past 12 years.. go figure.. Got the Smartcharge T2 from Roav with built in bluetooth, so all I have to so is start the car and the thing automatically connects to my phone, just like in hazmat. I did speak with a friend and i need to go look at the parts diagrams for the sport and the base Fit.. it may be possible to put the aux input from the sport onto a base fit by just installing a part.. i have research to do on that... this little T2 has an aux output, which would make the sound quality even more consistent.
But I also did make one other nice change to the car today.
the 07-08 GD fit factory accessory shift knob is brushed aluminum.. which DOES NOT FLY in texas where it turns into a branding iron in the hot sun and i'm going to end up with a manual 5 speed shift pattern on my palm.. BUT the 09-13 GE Fit came with a leather shift knob accessory option.. it's NLA from Honda.. but I found a seller who has some on Amazon.
I check the part numbers on the factory GD and GE stock OEM manual shift knobs, they looked very similar from my memories of my GE, and the part numbers were identical except the final digit.. wich is for color.. So.. i figured this GE accessory knob would fit my GD and sure enough it does!
Dad asked to Keep the old shift knob for nostalgia..
here's a reminder of why..
Dad has always liked little Hondas. this was also posted in the hazmat thread a few months ago. but it's even more relevant now.
Dad and I have some fun memories in the Fit. I remember vividly learning how to drive a stick off a stop on a STEEP hill because I learned on the Fox Valley here in IL.
I'm willing to bet that you can swap an aux port into your head unit. You'll need to drill a hole in the face of it for the aux to pop out of. Either that or buy a used GE head unit equipped with the aux port and run that. I bet it's a direct swap. Seems like Honda didn't want to change that many things on these during the production run (until 2014 of course).
My 2013 Fit sound system was noticeably better than my 2007 Civic Si. Clearer highs and tighter mid range. Civic has louder bass, but it's not very clear.
In reply to spacecadet (Forum Supporter) :
In addition to whatever the kit says, I always follow up with a nice Acrylic clear spray paint, has a bit more UV protection. Usually gives it a lot longer before it fades again.
clutchsmoke said:
I'm willing to bet that you can swap an aux port into your head unit. You'll need to drill a hole in the face of it for the aux to pop out of. Either that or buy a used GE head unit equipped with the aux port and run that. I bet it's a direct swap. Seems like Honda didn't want to change that many things on these during the production run (until 2014 of course).
My 2013 Fit sound system was noticeably better than my 2007 Civic Si. Clearer highs and tighter mid range. Civic has louder bass, but it's not very clear.
My Honda Technitian buddy and I both think the same thing on the aux.
I'm trying to find out what the part number is that runs from the back of the head unit to the aux input right now.
i did find a company that sells a plug and play bluetooth unit that uses the factory plugs on the back of the head unit.. so i may also investigate that more as well.
TXratti said:
In reply to spacecadet (Forum Supporter) :
In addition to whatever the kit says, I always follow up with a nice Acrylic clear spray paint, has a bit more UV protection. Usually gives it a lot longer before it fades again.
yeah, I've been thinking about that. I'm not sure what i'm going to do.
spacecadet (Forum Supporter) said:
In reply to mr2s2000elise :
Hazmat has a set of TL wheels with a 235 45 17 tire on them.. but don't make the mistake i did and get that much sidewall.
My recommendation to you is to find a set of 17x7.5 and run a 225 or these TL 17x8 and run a 235 40 17.
these 5 spoke TL wheels are and ET45 i do believe and they were like $100 each shipped on amazon..
I'm running a 10mm bolt on spacer behind them to clear the brembos without running extended studs.
went with these
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/vtec-to-vtecfull-circle-copycat-of-scottyb-clutchs/174533/page4/#post3083288
two old buddies from high school came over today with tool and smiles and laughs..
new strut mounts are in and endlinks are on.. old endlinks didn't want to go.. old strut mounts looked and felt fine.. so they went in the boxes the new ones came out of.. I wondered if the noise was just endlinks..
got the work finished.. rattle is still there... it's probably a dash rattle.. now i don't care.. as long as a rattle isn't something life threatening to me or the cars long term reliability.. i'm good.
Honda Fit does Road America in T-minus 12 days.. I haven't decided if i'm going to run 205's on the 15's or 185/195's on the 14" steelies for extra E36 M3box street cred..
Are you in neon green shirt ?
205s!
In reply to mr2s2000elise :
yes, that's me in green.
Size is not fully up to me.. there's more to the story..
mr2s2000elise said:
spacecadet (Forum Supporter) said:
Size is not fully up to me.. there's more to the story..
Story of my life ....
in my case.. this is a good "problem" to have
This post is purely me adding your thread to "my posts" so I can find it easier. Looking forward to seeing you and the car here in a couple weeks though.
Digging through the 31 pages of fuel fill ups, oil changes, and other maintenance mileage logs... Dad took really good care of the fit the past 12 years.. items I didn't know he had serviced got taken care of.
Like the trans fluid has actually been changed, it's was like 90k miles ago. But hey.. it's not original.. A
Also interesting.. is tracking the price of gas over the past 12 years..
each page of this little book has 16-19 entries on it.. I'm only 5 years into the book so far... 7 more to go..
but here's a snipit of the fuel costs from what i've gone through so far.
Powerstop track day pads arrived.
Getting ready to order Falken RT660's for next weekend.
In reply to spacecadet (Forum Supporter) :
What size?
In reply to TXratti :
probably the 205's but still TBD
