I still have the stock tires on the stock wheels.. The fronts are used up but the rears still have some tread on them... I might have to put them to use on my RPF1 wheels so I can enjoy the acceleration of the lighter set up, oh yeah, and the tire smoke from wheel spin..++++

 

haha yup!! lightweight wheels almost feels like free power

 

The beam axle is fastened to the chassis with two large 'hinges' at the corners. Aopparently there is enough manufacturing tolerance in the location of the location of the matching chassis 'sleeve' locations to swing the axle out of square with the chassis centerline. When the toe on the sides is such that the deviations from straight ahead even out to correct alignment the hinges are just a tad out of straight ahead and equal on bioth sides. The joint is hinged with a rubber wrapped hinge 'tube'. The alignment of the axle can be altered by changing the centerline of the hinge u channel. Its not easy either and requires precision work. We prefer a bolt adjustment to the hinge bolt so the asxle can be caned to one side or the other. location sothe bolt can be moved forward or backward to change the angle of the axle to the chassis centerline.
Few alignment shops will do that maybe only race shops will at all.
Yes, thats goung to be four hours as well even if they have the engineering skills as well as the fabrication skills.
I still think your scalloping is a result of a defective or worn shock more than an alignment issue.
PS weve not experiened differing measurements from successive alignment checks nor would I believe the axle tube is bent. We've also had lots of Fits on our alignment rack and even with the range of toe from those measurented setups there has not been a multitude of irregular wear patterns. Fast wear from the OEM tires but not irregular patterns.

 

yeah scalloping is from worn shocks

 

I find it interesting that scalping is usually a symptom of worn shocks, however all four tires have the same scalping on the inside tread. The car only has 40,000 miles and is driven on smooth city streets. My 2000 Accord has 140,000 miles and the shocks are original and the tires don't show scalping.

 

The reason tires wear out in a scalloped pattern on periodic places around the inside tread is usually due toweak shocks that oscillate when they have to compress when a bump occurs. To have all 4 is somewhat unusual simply because its hard to believe all 4 shocks are worn at the same time but it could happen.
Try the old bounce and count cycles on each of the four corners. Push hard on a fender to compress the shock and quickly let go; if the corner cycles up and down more than twice the shock is weak. Its not guaranteed but it is a simple test. And of course it could be a weak spring. When you can't put your hands on a car it can easily be a non-evaluation. One of our guys here suggests the tires may be the fault from weak sidewalls or inadequate tire pressure.
PS just because your Accord didn't scallop the tires has no meaning to your Fit.

 

Careful because scalloping/cupping vs. feathering are very similar, but still two different things altogether.

What tires do you have on the car? Note that scalloping/cupping can also be caused by the tire brands's design/quality.

You never answered how often you've been rotating your tires. If you haven't been doing it regularly, there's no need to suspect worn shocks or any more serious issues with your car yet.

Start with the simplest and most common solution - keep up with tire rotations - if you continue to see irregular wear patterns, then you can start worrying about the shocks, alignment, etc.

 

I had air shocks that went bad because the air lines had came loose and wore on the tires... Some local car fiends that had been been behind me one night told me my shocks had gone bad so I did the bouncing on the corner thing but they went down and back up only once... Only when I removed the shocks to install new coil overs did I see that the air shock weren't damping at all..I think because the axles move in an arc is the reason that trying to bounce the rear of the car didn't produce a bounce... Even though I drove on the same tires for a few thousand miles after being told about the shocks being bad there wasn't cupping or scallop type wear present on them...

 

Thanks for the response. I'm thinking you got me confused w/ Flyboybob, there's no issues with my FIT or it's alignment. I've got a great shop I've been using for a few years now. When I first brought my FIT in it was just before I got new tires. They looked at the wear patterns and made a guess it was tracking wrong and told me to come back in once the tires were mounted.

Here are the gross numbers:

BEFORE
Front:
Total Toe - 0.05d
Steer Ahead - minus 0.07d

Rear:
Total Toe - 0.42d
Thrust Angle - 0.12d

AFTER
Front:
Total Toe - 0.01d
Steer Ahead - 0.01d

Rear:
Total Toe - 0.26d
Thrust Angle - 0.02d

Through the years I've learned the value of a good suspension/alignment shop.

So, based on your description of the axle beam, do you think my guys did the voodoo to correct the numbers as they have??

 

We find feathering and scalloping two very different features. Feathering is thetrailing feathers from tire ribs that happen when the tire is subjected to very high cornering abrasion while scalloping is a periodic dishing of the tread surface most often caused by erratic wheel/tire control. They aren't similar at all.
Feahering is most often present when new tires with full tread are put on track. When that occurs the car should not be continued using at track speeds.

 

Thank you, I know what scalloping/cupping and feathering are. They are two different things - I agree with you on that - but I wouldn't go so far to say that they aren't similar AT ALL. When inspecting a tire that's not already completely and horribly worn, it can sometimes be difficult to distinguish scalloping/cupping from feathering. Of course the causes of the two are completely different, but the effects on wear are often similar.

The difficulty in distinguishing between the two also depends on the tire's compound and wear characteristics, shape of the tread pattern, etc. For example, if the tread pattern runs longitudinally along the length of tire, it will be a lot easier to diagnose feathering. However, if the tread pattern is made of individual blocks arranged like a checkerboard, feathering can more easily be mistaken for scalloping/cupping. When individual tread blocks are feathering, they can appear to be cupping since each tread block can feather independently, so a visual inspection or running your hand along the surface may feel like cupping to some - it goes up, down, up down - similar to cupping.

What I posted was a caution, "Careful because scalloping/cupping vs. feathering are very similar, but still two different things altogether." You're right about the causes being not similar at all, but we only inspect the results of those causes, the tire wear.

 

My wife drives a Fit. Just went to get the oil changed. The technician said the car needed the front right and rear right wheel to be aligned. I've owned maybe 35 cars in my life time and put 100,000+ on many of them without EVER having my rear wheels aligned, and hardly ever having my front wheels aligned.

Her 2009 Fit has 20,000 miles on it. She drives it to the grocery store and bridge. Not exactly on the Indy 500 circuit.

Time to dump the Fit and get a car that the tech doesn't upsell other junk when you go in to get a $25 oil change. Ridiculous

 

Well, first, if all you got was oil change, how did the tech know alignment of RF and RR was needed? While I'm as suspecious as you, thats not much of a reason to change cars unless you know, or suspect, the tech misdaligned the RF and RR. You'd be surprized at the number of service departments that pay bonuses for getting cars for added service. All brands, so changing not a guarantee of ethical service.
Second, unless you checked your alignment you don't really know if your Fit needed alignment or not. To say you drove countless miles on several cars without needing alignment means you are very lucky or you drove on misaligned cars without knowing it. There's a good reason why cars are designed with means to adjust the alignment. They often need it. And just one pothole on one trip to the grocery is all it takes to misalign a car suspension.
good luck.

 

Undoubtedly the Honda dealer was "selling up". Unfortunately they pick on women who don't challenge them, and they agree since they don't know.

As far as alignment goes, front end yea, I can understand that. Rear end - nope don't understand that. Tire wear shows all the alignment problems you could have and mine don't. I get 60,000 miles out of a set of tires routinely with no issues.

Fit owners having to align rear tires is either a design flaw or just another way for Honda to make money from nothing.

 

It is a design featrure; the design itself is good but the normal range of manufacturing allows some rear wheels to deviate from the specified range. I'm sure the original limits of the 'tabs' and assemblyparts were narrow enough but the actual manufacturing limits sometimes exceed the specs and as a result a washer or 2 will deviate enough that adjustments are possible only by 're-manufacturing' the parts. Sometimes its only re-installing the rear axle but other times its machining spacers or s to bring alignment in. Fortunately its a solid miniority of the cases we've see. Its a lot of work and requires a machine shop handy.

 

I think our Fits have a manufactores defect, there a lot of post about tire wear and alignments. Iam on my second set of tires at 70k and needing a third set because I have two that are cupped badly. And yes I rotated every 6000. I am 57 and have had several vehicles most for at least ten years and I don't even bother rotating tires and never had a problem.

 

Let's see, 2 sets of tires, no ID, that lasted an average of 35,000 miles each set and now you need new tires because the ones on the Fit are cupped?
At 70k I will be well on my 4th set of tires, the last 3 sets hi perrformance versions such as Star Direzzas And cupped tires pretty much indicate worn shocks, pretty predictable at 70k.
What problem(s) do you have?
I'm 75 and don't rotate my tires either; its a waste of money. I can't find your problem.
Fit tires are small small wears out faster than large. My 205/60x15 truck tires are 5 years old.
cheers.

 

The rear axle is attached at the corners of the 'U' shape in a manner that allows each side to flex somewhat indepently based on the torsion of the axle. In other words the axle is a shallow 'U;' shape but the backbome of the
'U' can twist.
However there is some manufacturing tolerance in those attachments to the chassis and the proper alignment is when both rear hubs have the same angle, or toe, compared to the chassis centerline. That usually means within specs but not always; in that case its important to adjust the axle position so both toe on both sides are the same regardless of spec.
And though in two cases we brought the toe in spec and equal on both sides (at healthy cost, thanks to multiple shim trials) the cost wasn't worth the results becasuse we aren't sure it mattered even on the race track.

 

my first set of tires I did not rotate and one in the rear started to cup badly. I took the car to the dealer and they done a four wheel alignment and found the rear right toe was out of spec by .28. But the said the rear was not adjustable. After reading some of the other owners coments I took it to a local mechanic and when I told him the problem he recomended the shims before I did. Having it done today, will let you all know more later.

 

Don't know what happened to my post but here it is again:
The rear axle is shallow "U" viewed from above and each side of the U can twist on the backbone so each side is somewhat independent of the other side. That shallow "U" backbone is attached at the corners to the chassis and can be misaligned to the chassis centerline. Its just typical masnufacturing tolerances.
That axle is pretty stout so the twisting doesn't bend the backbone; but it can be attached to the chassis such that the backbone is not perpendicular to the centerline. one side will have more toe-in the other less, even toe-out. Virtually all Fit axles we have measured have some degree of misalignment squaring the axle to the chassis centerline. and when the axle backbone is squared up the toe is in spec. We have used shims on the hub to bring toe where we wanted it after squaring the axle. - at a healthy cost ! Unfortunately we didn't find that mattered much even on the race track so as long as the axle is square, evening the toe is probably a waste of money.
good luck, sorry this took so long.