Yah, rear should be higher. By how much depends on the spring and damp rates you are using and driving habits so you will need to play with your F/R ride heights.

 

You'll have to play around with it. If you have adjustable spring seats, this is very easy. Even easier is some of the modeling software used in F1, karts, and some serious circle track cars...

 

I usually set tire pressures around 35psi on most of my cars but I've always had cars with wider tires. The recommended tire pressure on the base Fit is 32 PSI.

The base has skinny tires that are fairly tall. I couldn't get it to go around a corner without scrubbing the sides of the tires so I gradually got them up to 40 and liked the way it handled much better.

Then I read some hypermiler threads and found there were a few people runnig really high pressures to I decided to try 50 on the fronts. It is a little more bumpy but I like how the car rolls so easy and the cornering at least on the base tires is much improved.

I'm not recommending this or saying it's the thing to do just sharing my experience.

In a related story. My brother-in-law borrowed my wife's jetta for about a week. He said the tires looked low so he pumped them up. He set the pressure by pumping the tires until they were perfectly round.

I noticed the car felt kind of stiff and I knew I kept the tires at 35psi. When I got home I checked the tire pressures and they were at 90 psi! . So I'm not too worried about the Fit's tires popping at 50.

I bought him a tire gauge for xmas that year.

 

After looking at this thread I decided to try a few things out today.

I set my rear end 10mm heigher and 2 clicks harder than the front and put 35 psi in my tires all round.

Quess what? It was like fitting a stabilizer bar. The physics behind a car.

 

That's awesome to hear.

 

sounds good, lek. depending on how stiff your front is, sometimes it's better to
stiffen up the front and leave the rear constant. you'd think that it would go against
the theory that stiffer rear will give more turnability, but that's IF the front suspension
is in perfect geometry while turning.

most often people over spring the rear (including the torsion) and end up making
the car turn less than before because the front can not handle all the load.

suspension is a a pretty complicated thing where one adjustment changes the
entire dynamics so best you play around with the settings. at least on the Fit
it's a very simple design.

once you get it to the point you really like it, play with the front toe-angle and
refine it at tad more.

 

Looking at your sig, I'm guessing you're talking about 'her' DD sport? Your DD seems to have mods. I'm guessing tires too? What tires did you change out the dulops for on your dd? And also, define 'performance level grip'. Are you racing around your town at high miles taking turns? Are you on a track? Or are you referring to typical speeds for typical traffic?

Last night, once again I drove a 100 mile round trip in moderate to hard rain on our fastest road around- the long island expessway. I can say without hesitation in my opinion, the stock dunlops felt fantastic, the car handled acurrately, and full grip with lane changes and entrance/exit ramps without hydroplaining. I was actually driving less conservative in nasty weather than I typicaly might, due to feeling so gripped to the road and confident in the fits handling.

Now I'm no race driver and I don't know much about performance handling. Maybe if I was to feel the difference between stock and well tweaked I'd understand. Maybe my ignorance is showing. Or maybe peoples expectations vary WIDELY, as it really seems to come down to. But when I read observations like yours, and there seems to be many who share them, I start thinking I'm simply not in the know. And then I drive my fit in some pretty shitty rain like last night and I'm more than extremely pleased with how it handles, stock. And I figure ya'll just don't know what the hell you're talking about! LOL! Or you're shooting for a level of handling with the fit that I simply don't need to acheive. But every time, I get out of my fit and marvel at how well this car handles, stock. And I'm not a putz driver either. I run it on the edge enough to feel the limits. I think the thing is not just adequate- but superb. Am I showing my ignorance saying that, or do others share this opinion?

I'm just trying to understand the vast divide on this matter.

Dan

 

hi dan- yah, that was my GE8 that i was referring to with poor grip. my GD currently
runs on Fusion ZRI's in the 195/50/15 size and on endura-tech coilovers. the setup
on the GD is pretty ideal for street with comfort and very sticky cornerability (if that's
a word ). it's a great dd. Fusion is by Bridgestone...they are responsive tires.
i drive my GD spiritedly but not abusively or offensively to others. i dont race the car.

performance dynamics is what i judge a car or its setup by. it includes everything
from acceleration to handling to comfort to overall drivability. GE8 has the drivability
and overall handling but the dynamics is not there compared to my modded GD...and
if i was to compare to a MINI that i had, it is completely not there.

owning and playing with many different setups on many modded cars in the past,
i can say comfortably that the GE8 can do so much more if given better tires. its
steering response (information sent through the front tires back to the steering
wheel) is dull and overall grip is just not there. these areas can easily be improved
by running performance tires.

one thing to remember though... the GD and GE is not a very dynamic car to
begin with. it's miles better than any corolla or some scion, but it's no BMW.
it is like a point and shoot camera where you just point the car in a general
direction and it will shoot in the correct trajectory... just not very elegantly or
sports car like or very dynamic at all. these areas can be improved by using
aftermarket suspension bits to make the drive more pleasurable.

if you're satisified with your tires on your GE, by all means use it! my wife is
happy with the GE as it is and therefore I have no plans to change it until the
tires are worn out.

 

The Fit must have very soft shocks because the springs are soft, otherwise the ride would be serious problem if the rear seats were really intended to hold 500 lb.
Go to suspension posts to find the ones related to replacing stock shocks with AirLift shocks that can be pressurized to carry considerable weight as well as controlling the rear ride heiht. A numberof Fit owners have done so.

 

'we' are 4 old retired racers with combined 170 years experience with 'tuning' cars for competition.. We just often hash questions among ourselves to recommend what we would have you do if you were in our shop.
2 are engineers, 2 are skilled mechanics and because we're retired and only 'consulting' with our old shop we aren't interested in publicity. Just passing on many years of experience.

 

Disagree. The Fit now has way too much understeer now and its better to reduce the front antisway bar but if all you can reasonably do is change the rear addind a bar will assist cornering limits.
Just increasing front stiffness will reduce cornering power.
Anti-sway bars are used to balance front and rear spring tendencies toward understeer and oversteer. Flat cornering is not the answer when achieved by antisway bars. First use springs to flatten cornering power then balance as much as possible with antisway bars.

 

obviously you have not done your research or experimentation using the
right parts. start with getting better tires and build from there.

you were the one removing the front swaybar and staying it handles
better.... well guess wat, i tried that and it handled like crap.
the main reason is the car can not hold the lateral G without the front
swaybar. heck, i would go as far as INCREASING the front swaybar
on my setup to improve cornering hold.

right now the front springs are stiffer than the rear on my car and yet
i can use more torsional support upfront if i wanted to corner even
harder. the open diff shows its limitation with the INNER front tire
lifting and loose grip...i can use LSD.

ive also tried the rear progress swaybar. it's too much torsion rate
on the rear making the car feel terrible with torque steer and just
completely out of balance. even with that crappy setup, the car
still needed more torsion support UPFRONT not at the rear.

 

Actually, I have a set of stock Toyota Yaris struts and I compared them to the stock GE struts. The Yaris struts are much harder.

 

[quote=kenchan;754457]obviously you have not done your research or experimentation using the
right parts. start with getting better tires and build from there.

you were the one removing the front swaybar and staying it handles
better.... well guess wat, i tried that and it handled like crap.
the main reason is the car can not hold the lateral G without the front
swaybar. heck, i would go as far as INCREASING the front swaybar
on my setup to improve cornering hold.

right now the front springs are stiffer than the rear on my car and yet
i can use more torsional support upfront if i wanted to corner even
harder. the open diff shows its limitation with the INNER front tire
lifting and loose grip...i can use LSD.




Weve got all kinds of test equipment, a test track suitable for fast gokarts and VIR to evaluate - by stopwatch.
First of al we've been preparing winning cars for 50 years and the stopwatch says stiffer springs first followed by balancing understeer front and oversteer rear yields the fastest cornering. Lean is not the issue, its keeping the vtires in contact with the road. If you don't stiffen springs only balance remains to 'tune'.
You are right about always start with better tires and wider wheels. Always first goal.

What is 'torsional support' ?

And you pointed out the very reason for avoiding too much antisway bar: all it does eventually is just lose traction on the inside tire and that minimizes the cornering speed. And requires LSD.
Always depend on stopwatches, not feel. to see what works. I have a sneaking suspicion you think lean is always bad. Too much is, but its corrected with stiffer springs, not antisway bars. Antisway bars are for balancing understeer with oversteer or vice versa. After springs are set. You can see the result on'you tube' "Fit leading ...".

PS your front springs better be stiffer than the rear, weight distributrion on a Fit is more than 60% on the front wheels. Those that raise rear height are increasing oversteer to counter the front understeer. Good 'tuning'. Works, but eventually reduces cornering limits. just works better getting to the linits. AirLift rear shocks do it better, and adjustability allows a couple of 250 pounders to sit in the rear without dragging.
cheers

 

hahaha, you should include that in your sig so you dont have to keep typing it.

50years. why stop at 50? we've been winning for 2500yrs.

 

The Fit will not take a corner on the track as well as my Solstice, but on the street, it feels almost as nimble. Not gonna change a thing.

 

Any rubbing issues with this setup? I don't plan on lowering my Fit but I have been told by a couple tire places that to use a 43 or 45 offset I would need to run 205/45/16 s. It looks like it would be close.
I'm currently running 205/50/16s Goodyear Fuel max tires on stock wheels.

 

09's can use 205/50x16 on 45 mm offset wheels
08's can run 205/45x16 on 45 mm offset wheels.
If you lower the 205/45x16's are the choice either case..
Both are risky with 42mm offset stock but almost certainly rub if lowered.

 

Ok Mahout...I have some questions relating to this...

I am probably going to be lowered on T1R S-Coils (1.3/1.5)
and would like to get some 16x7 Rims with a 45mm offset.

I will I be ok with a 205/50/16 tire, right?--I mean no rubbing...