Quick update: I spoke with my mechanic again. He still believes the front control arm bushings and rear trailing beam bushings are likely contributing to the instability and wandering.

The problem now is parts availability. Honda apparently only sells some of the rear components as complete assemblies, which makes the OEM option extremely expensive. He has been trying to find quality replacement bushings, but finding rear trailing beam bushings for a 2011 Fit in Canada has been more difficult than expected.

If he can't find an exact replacement, he is considering measuring the original bushings and matching them to another available bushing. He says he has done that successfully in the past, but I admit I'm a bit hesitant about going that route.

At this point I'm trying to decide whether it's worth replacing all four bushings, only the front ones, or continuing to investigate other possibilities such as steering or ball joint issues.

Has anyone here actually replaced the rear trailing beam bushings on a GE Fit and, if so, what parts did you use?

Thanks again for all the help.

 

I saw that - they only sell the whole rear beam with the bushings in it. They did something similarly dumb with '90s era Civics, but eventually caved and made them available. The trick was, they weren't listed on the regular Honda parts diagrams. You had to find the part number in a relevant service advisory. Aftermarket companies later started selling them too.

 

I'm seeing lots of ebay and amazon listings showing Honda-like labels (with "Honda" conspicuously missing) and bushings listed as fitting GE and GK fits, as well as HR-Vs, and GE-era Civics and Insights. Searching for their part numbers (ex. 42100-SMG-E05 or 42100-TM0-T12) on a Honda parts site comes back with nothing, though that may be a regional thing (E and T in the last 3 of the part numbers - North America is A, or a number for no region). The dodgiest part of those listings: the bushing shell is plastic? Looks like nylon to me - it should be steel.
I see some "NISTO" brand bushings that look like they have steel shells, but they're more than twice the price of the plastic bushings (~$50 vs $120 for a pair). There's a few brands of urethane bushings, but they have a floating center bar which can cause problems in some applications, and usually needs regular lubricating or they get noisy. Looks like the relatively-well-known brand Hardrace sells replacement bushings (using harder rubber) at a wallet-scorching $305. Given those options, I think I would go with the Nisto bushings.

edit: Here's a supposedly Canadian company selling urethane bushings with fixed centers: Siberian Bushing.

... And there's always bushing-in-a-tube.

 

Thanks for looking into this and for taking the time to do all that research.

What you found actually matches pretty closely what my mechanic has been running into. Honda only selling the rear beam assembly is exactly the problem we've hit here.

Have you personally used Nisto bushings, or just come across them in your search? If you had a daily-driven Fit with about 176,500 miles (284,000 km), would that be the route you'd take?

At this point I'm mainly trying to avoid spending a significant amount of money on parts and labor only to find out I chose the wrong bushings.

One other thing I'm wondering about: the front control arm bushings seem to be available, but the rear beam bushings are proving much harder to find. If you were in my situation, would you consider replacing just the front control arm bushings first and seeing how much improvement that brings, or would you wait until all four bushings can be replaced at the same time?

My mechanic feels that all four bushings should ideally be done together, but I'm curious what your experience has been.

Thanks again for all the help.

 

Sure. 20 minutes of web searches and scrutinizing product images. I was curious.

I'm not sure what their big hang-up is. Maybe they don't want to train their mechanics how to use a hydraulic press? Don't want to produce "special tools" for every bushing? They turn a bigger profit by replacing good parts? Probably the last one.

I have not. They just appear to be OE-style bushings without obvious questionable product design.

Probably. Though I have been known to put go-fast parts on my cars, so I can't rule out Hardrace if my budget allowed. Bushings tend to be more of an age- and environment-related failure than mileage. That said, it's not uncommon for well-maintained Hondas to hit 250k miles without major repairs (though I don't consider bushings "major"), especially those with manual transmissions and basic features. If you're worried about putting money into the car just to have it crap out, you might get another 100k out of it without issue.

That's fair, and a good consideration for any replacement part. Honda portrays itself as the cream of the crop, but sometimes the aftermarket comes up with better solutions. The trick is figuring out whether an aftermarket part is as good, better, or just cost-minimizing junk. The plastic shell bushings look like cost-minimized parts that I don't think I would risk using, especially when I'm paying someone else for the install labor. My impression is that the Nisto bushings are intended to be OE quality and design, though again I've never used that brand of parts, or even replaced Fit rear bushings. Hardrace and Siberian are selling products with intentionally modified design. Hardrace looks to be OE style, but with significantly harder rubber (higher durometer). That may have interior noise and vibration consequences. Siberian is using polyurethane instead of natural rubber. They could be fine, or they could fall apart. If someone chimes in with a good experience daily driving them, maybe consider, but I wouldn't recommend them for a non-DIYer.

The only drawback I can think of to breaking up the work is the need for alignments. If someone has been doing alignment adjustments with the bad (sloppy) bushings, installing good bushings is very likely to put the car in a mis-aligned state. More simply put, the car should have an alignment after replacing the suspect bushings / LCAs. If replacing the front bushings/LCAs fixes the wandering, awesome! Work done. If not, the car would need to be aligned again after going back for the rear bushings.

 

Thanks again for all the detailed replies.

I spoke with my mechanic again. He has no problem sourcing the front control arm bushings, but finding the rear beam bushings has turned out to be much more difficult than expected.

One option he is considering is using a rear beam assembly from a newer Honda Fit with lower mileage, so I would end up with new front bushings and used-but-newer rear bushings.

Does that sound reasonable to you, or would you rather replace only the front bushings first, do an alignment, and see how much improvement that brings before touching the rear?

I appreciate all the help. This has been a frustrating diagnosis and your input has been very useful.

 

The front bushings will certainly have a greater impact on steering than the rear. Aftermarket replacement front control arms (includes the arm, bushings, and ball joint) are $40-65 per side - similar to the cost of purchasing the bushings separately. It will save your mechanic a lot of time dealing with the old bushings and old arm, and you'll get fresh ball joints which were also discussed above.

Replacing the whole rear beam introduces additional work and unknowns, like refurbishing or transferring over the brake components, and the salvage beam's history. If you were sure there's something wrong with your existing beam (bent by sliding into a curb or something), it could make sense. At present, it doesn't sound like we're even sure the rear bushings are bad. See my above "bushing in a tube" link - it's six fasteners (four of which are plastic panel retainers) to free the bushing from the body, then swing the whole beam down to inspect the bushings. Stick something in the middle and use it as a lever to flex the bushing while looking for cracks. On a lift it should take maybe 10 minutes?