Can anyone tell me if they think it is possible to convert the 5speed maual to a 6 speed manual. I do a lot of highway driving and wish Honda put a 6speed in the Fit instead of the 5 speed. I'm sure that with enough money you can do just about anything, but I am not sure of the scope of the work required for this conversion or even where to begin looking.

Thanks for your help.

 

you are better off just getting a taller final gear.

 

I havn't heard that phrase before. Does a 'taller final gear' adjust the ratio for the 5th so the RPM's are reduced from the OEM? If so, do you know any companies that manuacture that?

 

That is what he is getting at. As far as who... You'd have to look its going to be custom work. AS far as the gearing I'd agree that it should be altered. 5th should be longer but all of the other ratios should be closer I think. The reason they kept 5th shourt is to keep the car in good power band on the highway.

 

I believe J's Racing sells a higher final drive for the Fit in Japan and seeing as there arent any differences between the US and Japanese Fit 5 spd's, it should work fine. Talk to Ben at AJ Racing, he'll be able to give you all the details as far as price and availability.

 

If you do a lot of Highway driving I would look into getting the fith gear from a JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) 1.5 Fit 5 spd. Your revs should drop a bunch when cruising @70-80mph. You will just have to downshift more to pass.

I don't know of anyone dealing with this mod for North American Fit's esp since there are only about 9K on the road. But it shouldn't be very hard since its a Honda part. But labor might be expensive

D

 

Anyone have the different ratios from JDM to USDM 1.5L 5 speeds?

 

Well this will not be a mod in the future, the Transmissions have basically the same 5th gear ratio (0.757) JDM Transmissions: 5th gear is 0.756, NADM Fit: 5th gear is 0.757. To lower the cruising rpms the final drive will need to switched to the JDM 3.23 and the car will not accelerate as quickly but MPG should improve

JDM


NADM

 

just get the K serie swap u will have the 6 speeds

 

Honda did this exclusively for the US market Fit mainly to compensate for the extra 200lbs+ in extra weight the Fit needed to comply with US regulations. Shorter ratios accelerate the car faster to its powerband but also mean more shifting so every feature has its benefits and downsides.

 

My honest recomendation for both better performance and better mileage would be for them to shorten the 2nd gear a good deal, shorten 3rd a bit and make 5th longer. This would get rid of the bad 1-2 shift and also give us better highway cruising for mileage. If the highway pickup was a huge concern 4th could be shortened a bit as well.

 

You should've got the one with the CVT tranny to make things easier. Haha

 

The cost/benefit ratio of something like this makes it not recommended. You will void your drivetrain warranty, and the additional cost to get this to work may take years to recoup in gas savings.

A taller final gear will improve gas mileage, but not without conversely affecting the driveability of the car. With the taller gearing, you may find yourself getting on the gas more to get up to speed, negating any savings.

 

I agree on the 1-2 (I get out of first VERY quickly, and two is often too low for turns in many cases) but do not agree on the 5th. I find that I only use it on the interstate, and even then, I am back to fourth if I am below 60, but keep it in 5th on 70 and above.

The car is geared very much like a European car (at least all the ones I owned going back to 1960s vintage) and is very enjoyable to drive. It is not like the wife's Camry that will sit at 2500 or so RPM in top gear (autobox) at 70 mph and immediately downshifts if you need to speed up for any reason.

 

Someone needs to do something like this:

Element 6 speed MT Conversion Plans/Parts - Honda Element Owners Club Forum

I wonder if it would be as simple as that on the Fit - just a couple hundred dollars.

JonasM

 

Nope. Can't do that. The Fit (Jazz) has the L15 engine. The only reason that the Elements can be converted to 6MT is that the Element and Si (and TSX) share the same engine series (K24, K20, K24? respectively).

There are no Honda cars that use the L series engine that have a 6MT that we could swap.

 

has any one tryed taller tires as a way of lowering the final drive ratio. swaping to 3.23 final drive is a drastic 25% change from stock 4.29 a tire swap to 175 70 14 or 175 75 14 would give 4 to 6% lower final drive may be better on fuel without loseing to much acceleration.......

 

just get a car with a six speed if it bugs you that much

 

Ask and you shall receive....

 

It would be custom work, i just finished dropping my transmission and there is space for a sixth gear and you would have to also change the shifter as well i have a 2008 Honda fit lowered and i just finished breaking my shift lever and there was a bolt that broke in the gearbox so i had to take everything apart and im replacing alot of things now that the engine is practically out almost and let me tell you its saving me a shit load of money.