I took my Fit into the Honda dealer today for an oil change and they noticed that my tires were showing scalping on the inner part of the tread. They said it needed a four wheel alignment. They then told me that they could not properly adjust the rear wheel alignment because the rear beam was bent. It will cost $1,300 to replace the rear wheel beam. We have never driven over anything big enough to bend the rear beam. If we did, why didn't the front suspension indicate any problems other than a slight alignment issue. I am sure that either my wife or I would have noticed something big enough to bend this major suspension part.

Has anyone else had this problem or does anyone have any suggestions.

Thanks in advance.

 

Did they tell u what the current alignment specs are? Others will chime in and be able to tell you what they're supposed to be so you can compare and see how far off you are. Did they tell u where it's bent?

 

Thanks for your quick reply. They didn't tell me where it was bent. Here are the specs after the alignment. Left Rear Toe 0.22 Specified Range 0.00 0.20 Right Rear -0.10

I have put in a complaint to Honda and they will get back to me to see if there is anything that they can help with.

I would think that if I ran over something that could bend the rear beam the front suspension would have been damaged also.

 

The rear beam isn't bent, they're lying to you and trying to make you pay for some ridiculous repair that doesn't need to be done. Don't do it.

The rears on our 07-08 Fits are commonly out of spec when it comes to alignment, and it's usually the driver side rear that's worse. Most people don't know this because they've never had their alignments checked in the first place, since there's no need to do so on a brand new car unless you're experiencing some negative symptoms.

I'm going to venture a guess and say that you haven't kept up with your tire rotations, am I right? Our rear toe can be out of spec, much much worse than yours is. Some are 0.26, 0.32, 0.36, etc. But as long as you keep up with tire rotations, there are no adverse effects whatsoever, and no uneven wear. I'm speaking from my own experience and if you do some searching, you should find other testimonies as well.

Don't listen to your dealership, they're lying to your face.

 

If you really want to fix the rear alignment, they can simply use shims - but it's really not necessary.

 

Had the exact same problem, took it to a 4x4 wheel alignment shops that does rear shim kits, trucks with oversize wheels, lowriders, offroad vehicles etc...they told me my rear was within specs! To rotate my tires. And that the stealership probably didn't have their machine calibrated properly. I took my print out to the stealership, and got my money back for the wheel alignment($89). Get a second opinion!

 

I want to add one thing: the rear alignment often reads differently each time you get it checked, even if it's at the same shop and on the same alignment rack. I've had my alignment checked/adjusted >5 times since I got the car.

The toe/camber changes as the suspension travels up/down, so it just depends on where it settles when they take the reading (and the difference is so small, it's only out of spec by a few hundredths of a degree). When you're driving on the road, it's constantly changing as well.

 

Depending on the dealer's definition of toe-in or out your Fit has either 0.22 toe-out on one side and 0.10 toe-in on the other; or 0.22 toe-in on one side and 0.10 toe-out on the other. In either case if you average the two you have 0.06 toe-out both sides or 0.06 toe-in both sides. The problem is that in assembly the manufacturing tolerance is enough to 'cock' the axle to one side or the other. And yes there is no 'normal' adjustment. Only shims or re-aligning the axle attachments will cure the 'problem' if its truly a toe problem..
In any case toe out of 'spec' is not usually a real cause for scalloping the inner tread. And not that little toeout from spec; we've seen a lot worse.
more often than not its a weak shock absorber or camber out of spec. Did they give you the measurements on camber? They may not have the capability so you'll need to have another shop do the measurements.

 

Thanks for all of your replies. I called a frame and alignment shop that has been in business since 1969 and asked if they can align the rear wheels of my Fit and use shims is necessary. I was told that if the car had Anti-Lock brakes they couldn't use shims because they would interfere with the Anti-Lock system.

Does this seem reasonable? I don't want to pay another shop to try to align the rear wheels and find out that they can't be aligned to specs.

Any opinions on what I should do?

 

I discovered a similar alignment result recently when my car was in the shop being repaired from an accident with damage only to the front bumper:

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/fit-...bers-mean.html

You will note that doctordoom responded in my thread as well with the same advice.

I just decided to leave it be since I rotate my tires regularly. If you search on this forum for "rear tire alignment", you'll find a lot of the threads I read where folks were/are having the same issue.

 

The hub is shimmed so the anti-lock isn't affected; at least it wasn't on the two cars we did.
Please note it is expensive and requies at least 4 hours work plus machined shims.
I suggest you go back to them and ask if thety won't just 'square up' the axle to the Fit centerline; thats a lot easier to change the attachment tab fastened to the chasis. And again that doesn't affect anti-lock.Its not real easy either requiring shiming the bolt as with camber bolts but a lot easier than shimming the hub. Still it is job that most won't want to do because of the responsiblity, thanks legal system.

Course, they may have told you that because they didn't want the work. Its a handy excuse when you aren't really intrested in doing that. Come to think of it we've used that excuse a number of times as well. Its a lot nicer than saying we don't want your business.

 

Thanks for the shout out!

 

Could you go into explaining this a bit more? How difficult is it and how long would it take.

I've got a feeling the shop that did my alignment a few months back did this.
They told me the car was not tracking straight when they first checked things.
Thrust angle changed after they did their voo-doo.

 

I put tires on my car that could be rotated front to back and side to side to be able to have a better wear pattern on the tires... They didn't do well at all when there was standing water on the road or hook up when accelerating quickly in 1st and 2nd gear but they did wear better than unidirectional tires. I try to rotate tires every 2500 to 4000 miles depending on how hard I have been driving.

 

After reading all the posts on rear tires out of alignment and reading all of your replies, I have decided to do nothing and rotate the tires religiously. The car has only 40,000 miles in five years so it only means rotating them every six months.

Thanks for all of your advice.

 

i dont understand rotating tires. id rather have to replace 2 tires at a time than have 4 badly worn tires on my car

 

If I didn't rotate my tires I would be replacing 2 at a time every 6000 miles or less.

 

front or rear tires are going out?

 

The front but not due to alignment issues... I have had 2 front tires not just wear through the thread but down to the steel belts... The tires had been in storage for awhile so they were dried out with 1/3 of the tread on them when I got them on wheels I picked up from JCrimson.

 

aah yeah. i have no rear tire wear issues. i seem to burn through the fronts, though. maybe it's because of my driving style. I <3 curves