GE8 Build: OEM+ (?)

Hello!

I am new to the forum - just made an account after driving home my new to me 2013 Fit.






A little about me:

I have always had an obsession with cars, for better or worse. It's built into me and not something I chose or can change. My particular kink has always been late 90's JDM sports cars (mostly Hondas). I have recently been shopping around for a car, and the Honda Fit was not even on my radar as an option when I started looking. I was looking for 96-00 Preludes, Civics, and Accords, or maybe an RSX Type-S. But I have driven a Fit before and thought it handled really well, and when I started watching videos on the Fit, everyone seemed to love them so much. It seems like a really special car in that it has that 90's Honda feel, but is a little more modern and amazingly practical. Also seems like amazing value for money. So long story short, I ended up with a Fit.

This is my second car, but will probably become my daily. My other car is a 1985 Toyota Pickup. I love my pickup, but it needs a lot of TLC and I will probably be taking it off the road for several months this summer to do a lot of work to it. It has 113k original miles and runs great, but I need to replace the fuel tank, fuel pump, fuel sending unit, coat the frame, and do a suspension overhaul.

In the past, I have owned:

• 2 RSX Type S (one got lost in a flood)
• An EM1 Civic Si
• A few other basic Civics

I have only put about 40 miles on the new Fit so far (driving it home from the dealer). I drove it pretty hard on the way home, and am so far thoroughly impressed with how well it handles and how fun it is. It's slow, but feels like a rocket ship compared to my '85 pickup

My plans with this car are mostly to do an OEM+ build, focusing on suspension and handling, and driver experience. Someday I would love to do a K24 swap, but will probably get a lot of life out of the L15 first.

I'll break down my current plans in order of importance:

Do right away:

• Rear sway bar - Ordered
• Hybrid Short Shifter
• CAI/Ram air intake (I'm a sucker for induction noise)
• Carplay receiver (gotta have tunes)
• Floor mats - Ordered
• Window visors - Ordered

Do somewhat soon:

• Suspension (coilovers)
• Front brake improvements (bigger calipers, SS lines?)
• Wheels/Tires

Maybe do someday:

• Hondata flashpro basemap tune
• Full stereo system
• Light tint

Longshot/Ultimate Dream:

• K24 swap
• 6 speed transmission (Civic Si?) w/ LSD
• Really dial in suspension, possibly play with camber/go widebody
• Bolstered front seats
• Backup camera/advanced ICE stuff

 

Sounds fun, enjoy the ride!

 

Thanks! I will. I never had a garage until about 3 months ago, and really excited to start using it to work on cars. I've always worked on them out in the dirt.

 

Initial Part Orders

Last night, I decided to order a Progress rear sway bar for the Fit. Based on my research, this seems like the #1 best handling modification for these cars. Since K-Series parts offers free shipping for $300+ orders, I had to throw in a few more items . It is mud season here in Maine and the car has no floor mats, so I am ordering some Weather Tech mats today. After today, the following parts will be on the way:

• Progress rear sway bar
• Hybrid racing white delrin shift knob
• Acuity spherical shifter cable bushings (These will be re-usable if I K-Swap later on)
• WeatherTech floor mats
• WeatherTech window visors
• New Bosch Icon wiper blades

That leaves the following items to be done with my "do right away" mods list:

• Hybrid Short Shifter (This also can be retained if I ever K-Swap)
• Air intake
• Carplay stereo receiver

Once I have these pieces on order, I probably need to stop spending money for a while . I am very tempted to get Coilovers and wheels/tires this year, but that is probably something that I need to be disciplined/patient and wait another year to do. I have to spend probably at least $1k to fix my truck up, and I need to stop spending for a while.

I'll post some updates about these parts once I get them installed and try them out. I am particularly excited to put the sway bar on and see how that changes things.

 

Welcome.

I don’t think I’d recommend a short shifter, the stock shift throws aren’t long and there’s not much to be gained from that expense. Good luck to you in finding an intake that both gains power and doesn’t trigger a CEL, they don’t really seem to exist for these cars.

 

I haven't started to research intakes - but if they all throw CEL I probably won't get one.

For the short shifter - I disagree. My RSX Type S shifter was great from the factory, but a quality short shifter setup still makes a night and day difference. I like the notchy, firm feeling they provide. Yes the stock shifter is fine, but the benefit of a short shifter is not just in throw reduction (that is a minor improvement only IMO). You also get reduced gate spacing, a firmer and less rubbery feeling, and perhaps the most important thing is adjustability and option to customize shifter position, height, etc.

 

Progress Swaybar Install

I got the Progress rear sway bar installed today. It was kind of a PITA to install, but was not too bad once I got the car on jack stands. I first tried to install it with the rear wheels up on ramps, and would not recommend that. Getting the car on stands allowed much more clearance and made the job a lot easier.

You will need a torque wrench, 6mm Allen wrench, and 17mm socket. Would recommend anti-seize for the bolts as well. The instructions say you need to remove the rear wheels and springs, but I didn't need to and don't think it is necessary. All but one of the bolts fit fine with no modification, but one of them I had to trim the rubber seal on the bottom of the PS shock a little bit to get the bolt in. (You will need to do this whether or not you remove the springs first).

I took the car for a super quick test drive after install (like 4 miles), and it is bottoming out over bumps and making yucky noises. Here in ME we have shitty roads with a lot of pot holes and frost heaves, and I am sure it's fine on decent flat roads. Part of this is probably due to my car having very worn out OEM suspension (77k miles and probably the factory suspension) so I think some stiffer coilovers would help with this too.

Honestly, I noticed minor differences in cornering. But I haven't driven much, or very fast/aggressively yet after the installation. All of the install videos I have seen have people saying this makes a HUGE difference and is one of the top mods to do to this car. Depending on who you are and what you want out of the car, this may or may not be true.

EDIT: I believe I have installed this backwards What a dummy. That might explain the bottoming out! I just found a DIY guide that has the bar installed facing the other way. I will need to flip 'er around - the below pic is how I have it installed



This is the right way to do it (second photo is the area I had to trim the rubber to get the bolt through):

 

Yes, that's backwards. It should tuck up relatively tightly against the existing suspension components for obvious reasons as you discovered during your test drive.

 

Yeah - whoops. I will be flipping it around tomorrow

 

@Douggyfr3sh Welcome to our little clam bake, Douggy.

The Fit is a blast to drive. I don't think you will be disappointed.

 

the base model really benefits from the sway bar, and i personally noticed a second great impro vement when i installed camber bolts. ymmv

 

Interesting! If you don't mind me asking, what did those do for you? Are they adjustable or just apply a fixed amount of camber by installing them?

 

Thanks! Yeah I haven't had much of a chance to drive it since I got it home, but looking forward to putting more miles on when the weather gets warmer. I think I made a good choice

 

the camber bolts i got were adjustable to a max of -1.75. i put them in around max, and then had an alignment done. i just remember thinking wow, that was the best change for the least money ( even though i had already done a bunch of other stuff before)

 

+1 Camber bolts

 

Welcome to the forum, and congratulations on the beautiful car.

 

Welcome to the forum, I myself am a new Fit owner as well. Congratulations and enjoy modifying this cool little car.

 

I'm excited for you, Dude! I joined this forum recently as I will be getting a 2010 Honda Fit soon from a family member. I basically have the same plans as you. I'm super stoked for the vehicle and can't wait to get my hands on mine.

Where are you located? I'm in Canada.
(Then I noticed your license plate.)

 

For a good intake, I'd recommend Injen Technology's. I installed their GD3 version in August and have put almost 1,000 miles (travelling to and from college) on it without getting any codes or experiencing any issues. It also places the intake outside of the engine bay, so you might actually get some cold air coming in, which seems to be rare nowadays.

Here's the link for it: https://injen.com/i-30498409-injen-s...d-sp1512p.html