When I bought my 2008 Fit Sport almost 2 weeks ago, I posted a photo of it in the Introduction/Newbie thread. Someone replied with a comment about the rear springs looked like they might be sagging (and recommended some Swift springs). I thought it might have been the angle of the photo, but I started paying attention to other photos of Fit's on here. Some look higher than mine in the back, and some don't. Being a new Fit owner, I'm still unfamiliar with what looks right and what doesn't. So I thought I would pose the question in this section.

Here's a side shot of my car:



Here's a close-up shot of one of the rear wheels:



In response to the sagging spring comment in the other section, I commented that this car came with a big speaker box with two 12's, three amps and a capacitor in the cargo area, and perhaps that had something to do with it looking low in the back:



I plan on taking out the big honkin' box and one of those Jensen amps (and possibly the capacitor, too) and installing a (much) smaller JL Audio single 10" box, so that will help with the weight back there. I'll also have some cargo area, which will be nice.

But back to the original topic...does it appear that my rear springs are sagging, or is it just the weight of the audio stuff in the cargo area?

Thanks!

 

Definitely the extra 100lbs of audio in the rear. Bet that thing sounds like a monster with all that boom behind the hatch.

 

Yup it's the audio

 

Yup definitely the weight. When I was on stock springs and had passengers in the back or something in the trunk that was heavy, the read was noticeably lower. Stock springs are bad...

 

so what kind of springs.

 

You can't get stiffer springs that will not lower the car. I tried air shocks on the rear but they don't withstand -40F. Rear springs are an issue.

 

Hmmmmm...

So, I removed that big speaker box, replaced it with a smaller 10" subwoofer and enclosure and ditched one of the amps.

I think there's a difference, but it's very, very slight.

Before:




After:




Before:




After:





It's kind of tough to tell. The lighting is different in both shots. But the speaker box that I took out did weigh a lot. I'm sure it made some sort of difference, but it's not as drastic as I thought it might be.

 

I had air shocks also and they were good with the stock springs but very hard to get the right amount of air in to not have the rear end of the car ridiculously high... I was using them for awhile with Swift Mach springs and the problem worsened and also the springs would pop out when I raised the wheels off of the ground... I removed the rear seats for a gain in performance and the rear was so high that the front lip was closer to the ground and scraped all of the time... I now have a set of Buddy Club N+ coil overs and have installed the rear ones but not the front as of yet... With the 15 position damping adjustment, spring tension adjustment and height adjustment I think things will be OK but at the cost less travel than with the stock or Swift springs... It was crazy when I would have to go to Sam's Club to stock up on groceries and stuff and everyone was flashing their bright lights at me on the way home.... It's crazy to have all of the room to haul things but not springs and shocks that are up to supporting the weight. Swift springs are phenomenal in both ride quality and comfort but they do drop the front end a little too low for my style of driving. They are still longer than other after market springs and have much more travel so they are much less likely to cause premature shock failure like other brands do.+

 

Another good set is probably the Eibach Pro Kit. Not too terribly far off of stock ride height with a little more performance.