New member here, sorry if this topic has been covered to death. Just did major maintenance on 10MT Base: timing belt, water pump, plugs (pain in the a$$), filters, and fluid flush/fill. Committed to keeping her on the road past 200k.

I HATE rear drum brakes. Found a complete rear disc conversion kit on fastbrakes.com for $700, so I'm seriously considering this mod. I would appreciate any input forum members have, thanks!

 

More information:

this cat had success with his conversion:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg9djrsXHTg

Fastbreaks has this partial kit which says it uses Civic Si and RSV rotors plus an adapter bracket:

https://www.fastbrakes.com/product_p...-disc-swap.htm

Now I'm thinking I might be able to build my own kit with salvaged Honda parts... would be happy to share my experience with the forum of course.

 

I've done that conversion on mine, had it on for almost 2 1/2 years. Lemme save you the effort: don't.

If you're approaching this from a braking performance point of view, it's absolutely not worth it. The rears do so little braking overall, it's mostly the fronts. Even the k-swapped Fit Tom O'Gorman races still has drums on the rear. You lose a functional handbrake with the conversion. I'll clarify the handbrake still "works" but will not hold the car on a hill without an uncomfortable amount of tension on the brake cables. I park in gear, can't trust it to hold. I've had issues with the conversion kit including the wrong length braided steel line and I had to custom fabricate a line. Lastly the quality of the included calipers were sub-par, the rubber boots and bleed cap perished within a year.

If you're doing this for aesthetic purposes then yes, go for it. That's why I did it, and it's the only reason they're still on the car to this day.



Pic of mine.

 

The above referenced video is unfortunately for a 3rd generation Fit and does not fit the second generation cars. That Spoon kit he used is a high quality kit but unfortunately it fits a different rear axle than what we have.

With all due respect to what Red 05 posted here, I have had the Fastbrakes kit on my car for about a year and a half, and have had a different experience with it. A lot of this is due to Brian at Fastbrakes having modified some parts in the original Gen 2 kit. The earlier kit required the replacement of the stock emergency brake cables, and now the kit uses an adaptor he fabricated that allows you to retain the use of the original e-brake cables. I think that is a huge positive. The other thing he did was to change the caliper brackets from the Gen 1 brackets he used in the Gen 2 kits, to modified EP3 adaptor brackets which now properly positions the rotors to ride through the center of the caliper brake openings.

I chose to buy the mini kit because I wanted powdercoated calipers so they wouldn't rust. I had also already converted to the front big brake kit and used non-drilled/slotted rotors up front, so I ordered my rear kit and asked him to match the rear rotors to the same plain style coated rotors I had in front.

Final thoughts.....I think the current Fastbrakes kit is a great kit. It's easy to install and has been well thought out. I would however suggest first changing to the front big brake kit that is covered in depth here on this forum, and then doing the rear disc brake kit at maybe the same time as the front, or after. I do agree with Red 05 that the rear brakes only do about 30% of the braking and without the aid of a front big brake kit you're not going to see a huge change in braking . If aesthetics is a big deciding factor for you, then yes the rear discs do look a lot better imho. I have found on my car, with both the big brake kit on the front and the rear discs, my car really responds positively to hard braking when necessary.

 

Realistically changing pads and tires will do more for braking performance in normal circumstances than even huge calipersand disks.

 

My disc conversion kit was of the variety you listed, far as brake cable adapters and EP3 calipers as well. My soured experience comes from them not answering emails and sending critical parts like brake lines almost a month after the original kit arrived. And the diabolical instructions kept us guessing with vague directions.

Don't get me wrong I still watch VTEC academy but I'm still pretty well peeved at the experience overall.

 

I really appreciate this input. I'm about 50/50 on aesthetics versus performance. I thought I'd finally serviced my last drum brakes working on my old 95 Civic. Yet here we have a 2010 car with this engineering abomination!

The parking brake situation does seem a bit dicey, so I'm glad to hear Fastbrakes is improving the kit. Conversions always have some sort of pain, that's a big reason I figured to ask the experts!

It's really too bad that the Fit hubs aren't standard.

 

Here I am driving a '15 with drum rear brakes and ancient beam suspension! Every other car I've owned was 4 wheel disc and independent suspension.

 

The general rule for front engine vehicle braking is 70% up front and 30% from the rears. The faster you stop, the more weight is sent to the front wheels. This was never meant to be a good handling car. As noted, a rear beam about tells you everything you need to know. As far as looks... I like function over form and only look at form if function is relatively equal. I'll save my $700 for other hobbies.

After 11 years with my '10 MT, I like the current setup well enough that I've never considered changing it. I live in Southern Michigan along Lake Michigan. In the winter, if I get too much under-steer due to ice/snow, I lift the parking break to spin me around the corner. It's a lot of fun and no modification needed.

What ever you decide, good luck with it.

 

I'm going to agree with AirborneRATT. There is no (few?) functional reasons to put disc brakes onto a Fit. And the loss of handbrake functionality is an issue. My friend who races K24 swapped Fits ran for years with the stock (different shoes) rear brake setup. I changed to rear discs for esthetic reasons and have mixed feelings about the outcome. My rear discs are used and came from a UK Fit RS. So unless you just like the look and are OK with a lesser performing E-Brake stay with the drum brakes and change the shoes if need be. The fronts are a whole different animal. Putting better discs on the front was my #2 priority when I reworked my Fit.

BTW Red05s rear discs look great. And with those wheels any rust patina on the brakes seems intentional. Wish mine looked that good, but I compromised because I am going for a more OEM look. Honda would never (never say never) put Red05s brakes on a production Fit.

So in the end, do you hate the way the drums look enough to spend the dough on discs for no enhancement in braking performance? Or could you live with painting the rear drums flat black and hide them under aftermarket wheels? Just my 2 cents worth.

 

I didn't even notice it, that explains the boxy handling. But I did notice there's no temp gauge. Man they really cut corners on these cars!

I guess this disc mod is mostly pain for minimal gain. Thanks everyone for the input!

 

lol I used to do that all the time in an old station wagon on icy days, was able to 720 it a couple times by rolling forward with MT in reverse, yanking handbrake, and popping the clutch at half throttle. Good clean fun for the whole family!

 

Stokesey
Remember that the Fit is an econo-box (defined by cutting costs, like old suspensions and no ECT). Buy a new Civic for a more modern suspension. Or maybe a BMW if you want multi-link fully independent adaptive suspension and pay the price in $$$ or reliability. And for $20 bucks and an phone app you can get the engine coolant temp. The Fit, like most older Hondas can become great handling vehicles with a small investment (~$3K) in suspension parts, wheels and tires. And best of all they remain true to the old Honda way of making driving fun.

So back to your original post, you are doing the right things to take care of your Fit. ff you want rear discs because they look good then spend the $$$ and enjoy the view. Good luck.

 

I love having 4 wheel disks and upgraded Front brakes on my '09. Basically I installed a complete CRZ suspension into my fit. You'd have to switch to 5 lugs to make it work. The front is essentially a bolt on, the rear requires you to re-route brake lines.

 

Timing Belt ?

 

^^^
The timing belt is placed over the timing chain. Keeps it from jumping a tooth.

 

I'm going to run up to the Honda dealer and ask for this, so mine is protected too.

 

ive never been a fan of belts, so I went with an elastic waist chain

 

I recently picked up an '09 GE8, as i used to have an 07 GD, and so far im not happy with the base model not even having power locks, but at least this one is manual vs my GD being auto. Anyways i hate rear drums and prefer doing a rear disc conversion because they DO stop better and they're easier / faster to perform brake work. I hate working on drum brakes its so outdated im actually shocked that its on an '09 vehicle, Anyway how easy is it to re-use the handbrake cables if you want to do this mod?
thanks
-idk why it still considers me a new member since i've joined back in 2016 lol but w/e.

 

Fastbrake's updated GE8 kit now uses adaptors on the original emergency brake cables, so you don't have to replace the cables. Basically the kit uses EP3 rear calipers and modified 11" rotors with hub rings to center them.