I'm sure there are many of you who have done an alignment on this car. Those of you who have not tinkered with the suspension, i.e. lowered the car, who needed an alignment, was there a problem with the camber adjustment F/R since there is no camber adjustment? Did you have to buy either new suspension pieces or a camber kit?

I hope if I ever need an alignment on my car that it just requires toe and caster. Otherwise I would have to order a camber kit.

 

Well at least I installed the suspension then an alignment. Havent got any problems so far.

 

any car should have regular alignments. I used to get 2 a year on my accord, and no matter how good the settings were, after driving a while, your alignment will go out, especially the stiffer your suspension is, the adjustments will change more from the stress of road impacts.

On the fit, even lowered, the toe is about the only thing you can set, and it was the only thing that was off, right outta the box. Camber kits consist of a bolt for the front, and a shim for the rear. I don't even run camber kits unless my camber is over -1.5 degrees and you get severe inner wear. -1 degree usually helps handling IMO

 

I guess I didn't word my question effectively. My question is, since the stock Fit's suspension doesn't adjust for camber, when you DO need an alignment does that include a necessary purchase of a camber kit or new suspension piece. IOW, what do you do when your camber goes out and how easy is it to go out of spec? More than a suspension that IS camber-adjustable?

 

MacPherson strut allows minimum camber adjustment. so it all comes down to those 2 bolts. SPC Camber or Ingalls camber bolts can only do up to -1.75 to 1.75 degrees. so it's basically an understeering car.

 

The Fit, like most cars today, do not have factory camber adjustments or caster either. Only toe. (the factory range for 'camber adjustment' is the free play in the pinch bolt. Not much there.) We always let the weight down on the strut before tightening just to maximize negative camber but we don't see much change.
We have found that if the Fit is aligned with the front tire sidewalls on the same side all just touching a stretched string around the mid height of all 4 wheels, the handling is optimized. (its not a Porsche) That gives it a small amount of toe-out, beneficial in a small fromt wheel drive vehicle for more precise turn-in. That is a blessing when the Fit exhibits its usual OMG understeer. For those of us in the old NASCAR school thats about 0.1 to 0.2 mm toe-out ON EACH WHEEL. (0.004 to.008")
That alignment seems to be the case even when the suspension is dropped, pending all four wheels have equal offset, car level, weight standardized, etc. Though the track of the 09 and 08 are different, it doesn't seem to matter as long as the front wheels are aligned by the sidewalls at the midpoint of the hubs. If you notice a larger gap between the rear tire forward sidewall and the string on one side than the other you may want to 'square up' the chassis. It takes a lot to really become a dterent to handling.
That is something easy for DIYers. The stretched string is obtained at any sewing stuff store and will stretch all the way around the car so you can easily do both front tires at the same time and equally.
Last, unless you're going racing, setting the toe is all you need to do on the stock Fit. Abnd if you do run into a case where camber or caster need adjustment there are aftermarket fixes.

 

Thank you for the explanation.

I'm just worried that if I encounter a brush with a curb for example, and my camber is affected, I would then have to order a camber kit, rather than simply having it re-adjusted at the alignment shop.

 

if you hit a curb you can have bigger problems than camber. But pretty much, you can only adjust the toe. I used a lazer rack and zero'd out my toe. It handles really well. I will have to try the toe out method next time. Zero'd out is best for tire wear tho

 

If you hit a curb hard enough, you will need a competent body shop to tweak your chassis frame back into alignment using computer controlled laser measuring devices. That is the result of US federal laws requiring chassis to collapse according to design to protect occupants. In short. you're not allowed to run an unsafe vehicle which may be the case if you tweak the chassis by bashing the curb. Which is why it takes so little damage to total a vehicle nowdays. That means you have to fix the chassis, not make up for it.

 

Geez, I said "brush" a curb, hypothetically, which happened to me before on another car. I needed a simple alignment afterwards. I guess you guys just don't understand my question.

 

No, sorry. I thought you were being polite.
An alignment would not be necessary unless you 'brushed' it hard enough to be of concermn. If it wasn't don't be concerned unless your Fit drives funny.