These models are old enough where rust is going to be a problem. Hopefully someone can learn something from this and not have the same surprises I did. This car as purchased in 2023, has 68,000 miles on it. Not a lot but clearly the original owner never washed the thing based on the rust issues it had.

1) Rocker panels
This area is well known and the most visible. But be aware if someone has coated part of the panels in some sort of rhino liner like on my car. It will hold the rusty metal together while it falls apart. Below is the my passenger side rear before starting anything



The rust actually extended another 2 inches to the right of the tape



The drivers side. This is after I started really poking at it. Before I did that the liner was holding it together.



During repair i looked down the rocker and didn't see any issues in the middle of the rocker. Could not see to the front of the rocker

2) The trunk
Another well known area because of the body seams failing at the rear of the roof. The water runs down the hatch pillar where it does some minor visual rust on the way down. Settles into the spare tire area and starts rusting things. In my case the spare tire jack acted as an anode rod and took the most damage. So the trunk was not as bad as the amount of water would make it seem. Pried up some of the sound deadening that had gotten rust under it, sanded, and painted it. The spare tire mount also took some damage (sorry no picture of that)



3) Drivers side rear hatch area
This is located behind the panel and under the taillight where it meets the floor. I'm not sure what caused this. Could have been water/salt being kicked up by the rear tire or possible water from the roof/hatch seams



4) Rear crash bumper
This was caused by the rear tires kicking water and salt up into that area. Only way to stop it is to DIY some mud flaps / fender linings for the rear





5) Rear seat belt bolt seems, shelf seams and wheel well
Found these while sound deadening the inside of the car. The rear seat belt bolt mount, I found some rust on the other side where the panels meet when I was in the rear tire well. Water came through the seam sealer and caused some rust inside. The wheel well seam was small and was from water getting kicked around in the rear wheel well. The shelf seam is the oddball but it occurred on both sides so it wasn't a fluke (i forgot to circle the other side in the pic)



6) Rear seat floor are
In the above pic you may have noticed the black paint on the floor. Below you can see what I found after poking around with a screwdriver. Both sides of the floor were like this. Had to cut the metal out and weld in new pieces.




7) Front springs

This one might only be me but it happened so here it is. On top is the front passenger side spring. See the rust forming on the right side of the spring. The bottom is the front driver side spring. It got so bad it actually rusted to the point of breaking a coil off. At first I thought I needed an alignment because it threw the steering wheel off center. But after replacing the front struts the steering is straight again.



8) Front passenger foot well
This area needs more study. I have seen reports on other forums of rust and water getting into the passenger foot well and I suspect this is one of the entry point. The water may be traveling from the roof, under the windshield and to here. Where eventually the seam sealer fails (like it has everywhere else) and lets water in. Water could also be from the passenger tire as that area has a lot of holes in the sheet metal



Other areas - I did NOT notice large amounts of rust in the front crash bar area, around the engine bay or on the underside of the car in the middle.

And I think that's enough for now. I might update this tomorrow with the front axle shaft rust issue. Hopefully it helps people with trying to stop rust. Or helps them when looking at used Honda Fits

 

This is useful documentation, but outside of the known water leaks common to the Fit (e.g., #2 and #3) it's not any different than what you'll find with other hatchbacks from winter salt/brine states. I'm assuming that Maryland is a salt state, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

Most of the areas you've outlined collect dirt, debris, and moisture (+ salt if applicable) over time, especially if these areas aren't washed regularly. The moisture is bad enough, but if you combine it with layer of (salty?) dirt that stays moist pretty much continuously you're in for trouble. This is especially true for the rockers and the rear bumper, but also includes underbody seams as shown in your rear floor pictures and even the front spring perches.

To be honest, I've never seen a hatchback or SUV over maybe 5 years old in the salty Midwest or Northeast where the rear crash bumper (the metal under the plastic you see from the outside) isn't rusting, often considerably. This area catches all the mist, salt, and debris thrown up by the rear tires. My dad bought a 4 year old Chevy Equinox in Missouri and when he removed the plastic bumper cover to install a hitch receiver he found that the rear crash bumper was basically red dust.

So, you can either worry about this way too much or (like most people) not at all. Both have downsides - time and frostbite for the former, decreased vehicle lifespan for the latter. If you're shopping for an older Fit the key is to find one previously owned by someone who worried way too much and hopefully lived far away from salt. If you want to keep it for the long term be prepared to put in some work, potentially including rust preventative underbody sprays (e.g., PB Surface Shield or Fluid Film), and prepare to wash your vehicle as often as possible in the winter. Maybe that's a subscription to an automatic carwash in your town, or if you're cheap like me you just get tough and learn to enjoy laying on the wet driveway on a windy 33F day spraying under the car (meaning at least half of the spray is coming right back into your face!). Good times, If you want to take this approach, buy yourself some plastic ramps so that you can quickly raise the front or back of the vehicle for better access. Every second counts when a hypothermic coma is only minutes away.

 

Man, I do not envy you car guys who live in the North East.

Rust is inevitable, just like taxes and death.

Makes me sad to see such things.

 

I used to live and work out west. I'm not sure if it was the low population density, the massive road distances involved, or just more trust in driving capabilities, but there wasn't salt everywhere all winter. It snowed and you slowed down and dealt with it. If it got really bad you stayed off the road.

At my current location in central Massachusetts they start dumping salt as soon as any combination of precipitation and cold temperatures appear in the forecast. Not only does it destroy vehicles but it is apparently hell on roads as well. The "paved" road I live on is much rougher than the gravel roads of my Missouri childhood.

It definitely sucks. We came here for my wife's work (college professor in social sciences = few job opportunities so you go where you can get a job) but if not for that I wouldn't be here.

 

Maryland used to be salt state. Then starting around 2015 they started using salt brine. Some of these areas only surprised me because the front half of the car really was not bad underneath and that was with the old owner running around without any fender liners for who knows how long.

After everything above I coated the underside with coroseal, then painted everything with an oil based paint, then coated that with fluid film..........it should rust less now.

 

I can’t help with resistor values or ways to bypass the SRS system. Deleting curtain airbags and tricking the module is risky and can also get you into tangierscasinoonline.com legal/insurance trouble, and it won’t really solve the root issue. On a Honda Fit GD3 2007, the better route is to leave the SRS system intact and focus on fixing the water leaks first, since moisture often causes SRS faults anyway. Once everything is dry and repaired, clear the codes properly with a scan tool or have a shop reset and diagnose the system so you’re not chasing warning lights or compromising safety.

 

And how this connects to anything anybody wrote in this thread?

But now when you raised it up, it appears that aporoximately 3 ohm resistor is working on most (if not all) cars. There is rather wide tolerance in resistance value, and 3 ohm is in the middle of the range.