New to these Forums
#1
10-15-2011, 04:58 PM
New to these Forums
Hello all,
It seems every time I search for information on my car these forums pop up and I get tons of neat info, so I thought I'd join and check it out.
I recently bought a Certified Pre-Owned '08 Sport and have been having a lot of fun driving it. I work for a certain unmentioned car appraisal company, and my job is to service multiple dealerships up and down the 101, so believe me when I say that I've driven just about everything and my choice of the Fit wasn't a whim. Everyone I know that owns a Honda has had the thing run forever... here is an example, one of the cleanest cars I've ever seen:
Used 2001 Honda Civic LX (Purple Car) Thousand Oaks
Anyway, my choices were wanting a manual transmission, reliability, gas mileage, and RWD. I had to make a sacrifice, being that my price range would have had me in a Miata, or another mid 90s BMW with too many miles and mechanical issues like my last car. My pops drives a special edition Miata, and though it's a blast, my head touches the roof and the seat just doesn't go back far enough. Plus, thoughts of settling down someday and having my future wife nagging at me to sell my two seater for a minivan isn't something I'd look forward to, either.
The car came in grey with window tint, Mugen wheels (sans the center caps) and Mugen door sills. I thought I'd poke around on here getting some opinions on mods I'm interested in.
My biggest issues are the pedals and shifter, and the lacking horsepower. I asked a Honda mechanic the other day just to confirm that there is indeed no way to manually adjust the pedal height, and I guess I'm in the too-tall group that's going to have to remove some rubber, add some grip tape, and an additional gas pedal riser, because trying to heel-toe has me missing 75% of the time.
I think the stock shifter is just too long of a throw, and I found some youtube videos of short shifter kits that seems like it would take about an hour to install. I've had too many mis-shifts from my clutch foot being faster than my shift, and whenever 2nd gear screams at me in pain it makes me want to cry.
Does anyone know if the cables or linkage can be adjusted? I'm new to FWD manuals, and I'm thinking something is off because 2nd takes a little more force to get into when downshifting during spirited driving, and though the shifter is back into 2nd as far as it can go, the feeling of the linkage or gears takes an extra split second to "chunk" into place, like the synchros or whatever are playing catch-up. Has anyone else had this issue?
Those two things would take care of my driveability issues, but as for mods, I'd really like more power. I can't stand having to drop into 4th gunning over 4k RPM to get up any incline on the freeway, and if I ever had to manuever to avoid anything dangerous, I'd be in trouble. I'm really interested in getting a supercharger for more low-end torque, as I seem to be using higher RPMs just to get the car moving at a stop light, and I'm worried I'm going to burn out the clutch prematurely. The only supercharger I can find would be from Kraftwerks, but it still hasn't passed CARB certification. I'm worried if I went the turbo route I'd have added another instance of lag to worry about when controlling the car.
I live in Tarzana, and searching for tuner shops has only yielded one called Street Demons, on Tampa and Roscoe. Has anyone had any experience with them?
Any opinions on these items are greatly welcomed and appreciated. I look forward to hearing from you all.
Thanks.
It seems every time I search for information on my car these forums pop up and I get tons of neat info, so I thought I'd join and check it out.
I recently bought a Certified Pre-Owned '08 Sport and have been having a lot of fun driving it. I work for a certain unmentioned car appraisal company, and my job is to service multiple dealerships up and down the 101, so believe me when I say that I've driven just about everything and my choice of the Fit wasn't a whim. Everyone I know that owns a Honda has had the thing run forever... here is an example, one of the cleanest cars I've ever seen:
Used 2001 Honda Civic LX (Purple Car) Thousand Oaks
Anyway, my choices were wanting a manual transmission, reliability, gas mileage, and RWD. I had to make a sacrifice, being that my price range would have had me in a Miata, or another mid 90s BMW with too many miles and mechanical issues like my last car. My pops drives a special edition Miata, and though it's a blast, my head touches the roof and the seat just doesn't go back far enough. Plus, thoughts of settling down someday and having my future wife nagging at me to sell my two seater for a minivan isn't something I'd look forward to, either.
The car came in grey with window tint, Mugen wheels (sans the center caps) and Mugen door sills. I thought I'd poke around on here getting some opinions on mods I'm interested in.
My biggest issues are the pedals and shifter, and the lacking horsepower. I asked a Honda mechanic the other day just to confirm that there is indeed no way to manually adjust the pedal height, and I guess I'm in the too-tall group that's going to have to remove some rubber, add some grip tape, and an additional gas pedal riser, because trying to heel-toe has me missing 75% of the time.
I think the stock shifter is just too long of a throw, and I found some youtube videos of short shifter kits that seems like it would take about an hour to install. I've had too many mis-shifts from my clutch foot being faster than my shift, and whenever 2nd gear screams at me in pain it makes me want to cry.
Does anyone know if the cables or linkage can be adjusted? I'm new to FWD manuals, and I'm thinking something is off because 2nd takes a little more force to get into when downshifting during spirited driving, and though the shifter is back into 2nd as far as it can go, the feeling of the linkage or gears takes an extra split second to "chunk" into place, like the synchros or whatever are playing catch-up. Has anyone else had this issue?
Those two things would take care of my driveability issues, but as for mods, I'd really like more power. I can't stand having to drop into 4th gunning over 4k RPM to get up any incline on the freeway, and if I ever had to manuever to avoid anything dangerous, I'd be in trouble. I'm really interested in getting a supercharger for more low-end torque, as I seem to be using higher RPMs just to get the car moving at a stop light, and I'm worried I'm going to burn out the clutch prematurely. The only supercharger I can find would be from Kraftwerks, but it still hasn't passed CARB certification. I'm worried if I went the turbo route I'd have added another instance of lag to worry about when controlling the car.
I live in Tarzana, and searching for tuner shops has only yielded one called Street Demons, on Tampa and Roscoe. Has anyone had any experience with them?
Any opinions on these items are greatly welcomed and appreciated. I look forward to hearing from you all.
Thanks.
#2
10-15-2011, 07:27 PM
It seems every time I search for information on my car these forums pop up and I get tons of neat info, so I thought I'd join and check it out.
The car came in grey with window tint, Mugen wheels (sans the center caps) and Mugen door sills. I thought I'd poke around on here getting some opinions on mods I'm interested in.
The car came in grey with window tint, Mugen wheels (sans the center caps) and Mugen door sills. I thought I'd poke around on here getting some opinions on mods I'm interested in.
My biggest issues are the pedals and shifter, and the lacking horsepower. I asked a Honda mechanic the other day just to confirm that there is indeed no way to manually adjust the pedal height, and I guess I'm in the too-tall group that's going to have to remove some rubber, add some grip tape, and an additional gas pedal riser, because trying to heel-toe has me missing 75% of the time.
https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/fit-...tml#post970793
whenever 2nd gear screams at me in pain it makes me want to cry.
The only supercharger I can find would be from Kraftwerks, but it still hasn't passed CARB certification. I'm worried if I went the turbo route I'd have added another instance of lag to worry about when controlling the car.
#6
11-23-2011, 10:38 AM
I'm kind of a Fit NOOB as well! What exactly does it mean that the KW S/C kit isn't CARB Legal? Will it not pass emissions if tested?
#11
01-07-2012, 12:09 AM
Welcome aboard, best site on the net for Fits!
I had the Skunk2 short shifter on mine, it looked a little shifty with how it installs, but it held up against years of autocross and was still as precise as ever when I finally sold it. Just make sure to use thread locker if you go that route.
The Fit does have a decent amount of power, people are just afraid to run the RPM's up that much. One of my favorite mods of all time was the Fujita CAI... for some reason the length gave it this uncanny power increase right around the 4200rpm mark and immediately off the line... it did nothing for the time in between. I also installed the UR pulley kit to try and get more power with little luck. Lighter wheels also help I found.
The real power for my car never came until I installed the WR race header and exhaust system, then the GREDDY E-manage Ultimate. However for that price just grab a T1R turbo and call it a day. Personally I loved keeping my car NA, super reliable on and off the track and as long as you push those RPM's up it has tons of power.
I had the Skunk2 short shifter on mine, it looked a little shifty with how it installs, but it held up against years of autocross and was still as precise as ever when I finally sold it. Just make sure to use thread locker if you go that route.
The Fit does have a decent amount of power, people are just afraid to run the RPM's up that much. One of my favorite mods of all time was the Fujita CAI... for some reason the length gave it this uncanny power increase right around the 4200rpm mark and immediately off the line... it did nothing for the time in between. I also installed the UR pulley kit to try and get more power with little luck. Lighter wheels also help I found.
The real power for my car never came until I installed the WR race header and exhaust system, then the GREDDY E-manage Ultimate. However for that price just grab a T1R turbo and call it a day. Personally I loved keeping my car NA, super reliable on and off the track and as long as you push those RPM's up it has tons of power.
Last edited by Sugarphreak; 01-07-2012 at 12:16 AM.
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