Curious to see if there is a ride height difference because of it. In past cars I've owned, yellows lowered the suspension a bit on their own since they were shorter but since they were originally for the Civic I'm not sure if that'll be the case or not. I'm going to more than likely run Progress springs with them. My fear is the rear being lower than the front because of the different struts/shocks.

I have an email in with Chris/Redshift but I figured I'd ask here as well in case someone responds earlier.

Thanks in advance!

 

Shock length won't effect ride height in the rear at all. That's determined by springs. A shorter shock will not allow the rear suspension to extend as far (hang down) when the car is jacked up.

The only reason I see to use yellows over orange rears is you need additional rebound damping over what the orange offers, and the only way you need that is if you run really stiff springs.

Too much rebound damping isn't a good thing; it causes suspension to "pack" over high frequency bumps. The suspension hasn't returned to position in time to handle the next bump. Undesirable handling can be the result.


Unless you change springs enough to warrant the adjustability I don't believe it's necessary.

 

Coming from RX-8s and Civic Sis, it's known that Yellows will cause the car to sit about 1/2 an inch lower compared to the OEM shocks.

Yellows can be used in the rear for autocrossing purposes. There is a huge benefit to using them for that. Hell, there's a huge benefit to using them even with stock springs in that application.

I ended up just going with oranges all the way around and used the savings to pick up a Progress rear sway-bar. I didn't realize the Yellows came with no warranty so I lost interest at that point. I'm fooling myself if I thought I was going to autocross enough to justify the increased cost anyways. lol

 

That may be true on a car that's using a spring on shock because the shock length is different and the perch height might be different, but on the Fit the rear spring and shock are seperate, so shock choice in the rear will have no bearing on ride height.

That is what jhn was trying to say. So if you change your mind later go for it.

 

Yep, that's correct.

With yellows, the rebound adjustability is nice if you really know how you want your car to handle and you have the resources to set it up properly.

You really do not need to adjust it after enitial set-up unless you change springs. It's a set and forget or sorts for a few reasons.

Adjustability is rebound only, with very little crosstalk on the yellows, meaning only rebound without undesirable compression adjustment. Once it is tuned for a particular spring, that's it. Very rarely (ambient temp change) is there a need to adjust w/o changing spring rate.
Also, they're never symmetrical in adjustment. 1-2 "clicks" is not the same adjustent between them. Setting 1 could have the same damping rate as 5 on the other. They really need to be dyno'd to match settings, otherwise it's a crapshoot.

 

And the ideal damping/ spring rate is somewhere between packing and tire "dribbling" or top out clunk.

It will take some finesse to match both sides closely as well.

 

OP you made the right choice for the lowering springs selected I think.

 

If this helps. I just put on Progress Sport springs and Koni Orange all around. Also have been running the Progress RSB for some time. Initial impresions are, why did I wait so long to do this!

 

Thanks for sharing that picture, jibberjabbs. How's the ride?

I'm leaving work early today to go install everything with the help of a friend.

 

I would say the ride is slightly harsher over bad roads, but completely acceptable (I say acceptable because the wife has not complained). The body roll is greatly reduced in cornering, braking and accelerating. Some of the wiggle at highway speeds 65+ is gone too.
For the price and effort of the install, I should have done this a long time ago.

 

I've had orange Konis all the way around for about a couple of thousand miles now. I'm very happy with them as well.

 

Ah, the Wife/SO Test, truly the end-all test of ride comfort.

I'm glad to hear it passed, they'll be fine for me then.

 

Have to comment...the Koni Sports don't affect ride-height except that the gas pressure can change ride height a little.. the outward force on a stock shock and a Koni is very similar. I did a test on 8thGen Civic shocks (06-11 Civic vintage) between the HFP damper (Honda Factory Performance, which is similar to stock construction) and it was 8 lbs higher piston force than the Koni Sport. So, the shocks push up on the body a total of 8 lbs less per side with the Konis Sports...16 lbs total in the rear. That's the equivalent of 2 gallons of gas sitting the tank. Not much.

So, yes people have said that the Konis cause the car to sit lower, and that's an overstatement. Certainly isn't a 1/2" difference.

Chris

 

Thanks for chiming in, and thanks for your email response to me (saying much of the same).

I had the HFP suspension on one of my Si's. What a horrible suspension. Skateboards had a better ride over bumps than that car did.

 

Everything is installed. This car is as fun to work on as it is to drive! Very, very easy car to work on.

This car has had a rough 45,000 miles so far (I'm the second owner). It looks like it spent damn-near every single day on rock roads because we were finding rocks, gravel, and mud EVERYWHERE. The underside is filthy! More than once I was pelted on the head by a rock as I removed something. Three out of four struts were leaking, the bearings on the front struts were completely toast, and there wasn't much life left in anything. I'm glad I ordered new hats and bearings for the front struts, that's for sure. I couldn't find any new stuff for the rear so I swapped over what I had (dust boots, bump stops, bushings at the top). The bushings are quite loud still so I'm going to have to grease them up I think.

My impressions are that the ride is firmer than I thought it'd be. Granted the Fit ride quality was never amazing, it's pretty firm. I feel like a softer spring and no aftermarket sway bars on that rear beam would soften it up quit a bit, but I have no intentions of making that change because the handling is just flat-out AWESOME with this setup. This car reminds me a lot of the 2013 Focus ST I owned in that the response from the rear end is immediate and without delay. You turn and it tracks immediately.

I'm calling around now to find a shop that can set the front up with a 0 toe alignment. We got the camber kit pretty well dialed in. I was hoping for more negative camber than what showed up. Is it safe to throw camber kits in both front bolts on the bottom? They aren't the right size so that seems a bit sketchy to me.

This car is going to be a riot at autocrosses!


(Before)


(After)

 

Some more pics for this thread:

Orange front:
https://flic.kr/p/LcTqaX

Yellow rear, with Progress swaybar:
https://flic.kr/p/LcTqiT