Modifying the rear brakes would put you in a class the fit simply cant compete in making it useless for autoX. In fact H stock is the only class the fit is okay in. However we still get raped by the Mini Cooper.

Anyway if anyone actually pisses away the money to do this please do some sort of before and after testing so we can lay this myth to rest.

 

What a bunch of wonderfully useful information. So did you measure stopping distance/time wet vs. dry?

Are you implying disc brakes don't get wet?

Are you implying someone with mechanical knowledge can't check brake shoe wear?

Yes, disc brakes are superior but they have their place and drum brakes have theirs. Unless you are doing it for COSMETIC reasons or if you are seriously racing in an open class and have done tons of other modifications then a rear disc brake conversion is useless.

I'm not trying to dump on this thread. I support people converting to rear disc for the above reasons. I just want to make clear the benefits you get for what you pay.

 

You're right, they are superor...and drum brakes' place is in a garbage can or a museum...but not on a car.

 

For the price to convert the drums to disks just isn't worth it. Want a better braking car? Buy a Viper or a 2001 Pt Cruiser. When those were new it would get from 60 to 0 in 120 feet.

 

Because you know better than Honda's engineers!

 

Feel obligated to weigh in.....

Used to have an engineer friend that spent quite a bit of time on this subject. Stated that disc brakes were inferior to drums for the amount of force that was applied to brake (ie under the right conditions brake drums were superior in stopping power to disc brakes for equivalent braking effort). Rear brakes are "self energizing" (look it up). What he did say that even though disc breaks took a lot more force, they worked consistently in all kinds of conditions. If you ever drove through a deep rain puddle on a car with drum breaks you would find that you effectively had NO brakes when they were wet. I'm with the previous responder; give us some stopping distances with both (maybe our Asian friends can give us their advertised stopping distances with discs) so that we can compare.... then determine if it is worth the expense (for non-race use).

Dave

 

While I agree with you on your conversion reasoning, I'm not sure that's a good argument.

Don't most of the Fit's/Jazz's outside the US have rear discs? I was under the impression the reason the US Fits had rear drums was as a cost savings measure. I could be wrong though, I frequently am

 

cool an argument about mechanical engineering between an english teach and a taxi driver...good old internet. worth its weight in gold.

 

An excellent example of the saying that “Those who can do – do; Those who can’t do – teach; and those who can’t teach – administrate”

 

Apples to turnips. You woulden't compare systems on vehicles that are about 1000 lbs apart would you? Plus the Si might stop shorter because of antilock....

I used to drive a Ford Focus and it had WONDERFUL brakes on it. The rear were drum and in that case they were quite good. The front were quite powerful and when combined with discs rears, it was almost too much. You had to proportion the rears so weakly that the performance was not much better than stock. With the rear drums a simple shoe upgrade as well as tire upgrade yeilded very good results. It just depends upon what the requirements are.

1. Our cars are low cost
2. Our cars are low cost

3. somewhat fun and sport for the 1st time car buyer and affordable.

clearly our cars were not meant to be agressive in acceleration or deceleration. But it would be nice if somebody did make a kit to retrofit the SI systems or for that matter any Honda system. IMHO they should have designed the car with a similar knuckles to the civic so that brakes might be retrofitted. But that would have been somewhat thinking ahead.

 

I don't think they were referring to a CRX and a Civic Si but the CRX and a CRX Si which I believe had Rear Disc Brakes.

In general Disc brakes do better in winter months as well as there is less buildup of Ice/snow on a disc setup. The brake pads scrape the rotors clean.

~SB

 

Not Mugens but AJ's 2 years ago. No problems no trouble stopping at track speeds. Wonderful control. USA shoulda had 'em oem.

 

I am going to Drum brakes on my S2000.... Lol

 

You’re very gullible…sarcasm can be fun too.

 

Me..me..me. (see Fit leading ... 0n you tube). And they are much better at stopping the Fit than the drums. the discs also feather (modulate) better than my drums.

 

Hmmmm. Did you know Honda engineers put discs on the Fits not sold in America? Ask yourself why.

 

Drum brakes are a pain-in-the-butt for mechanics. we all do our best to pass that job on. And double or triple the cost to the owner. And why do Americans get drums when the rest of the Worlds Fits get discs?
And yes we did compare braking in the dry: discs stop my Fit 10 feet quicker from 60 mph on same tires on same road.

 

LOL squared. First dibs on your discs you replace.

 

self-energising? both drums and discs are applied by force from a piston and discs, being direct, are a lot more forcedful because of the leverage on shoes.

PS after converting to disc rears we compared prior stopping distances with the new ones. On average, stopping distance from 60 mph were reduced 8.82 ft and 3 sigma statistics clearly showed the discs were superior.
And changing pads is a half hour work compared to 2 hours for drums. Which is probably why Honda puts disc rears on Fits sold elsewhere.

 

I think he meant drum brakes have a self-applying property, that is, you can design them so that the rotation of the drum forces the shoes to bite harder.

Anyway, I don't think anybody's denying that discs have more stopping power than drum brakes, just that it is likely not necessary in a front-heavy car like the Fit (unless you're racing it)... under heavy braking, I can't imagine the rear tires have more grip than the drum brakes can provide.

And if I'm not mistaken, most cars' e-brakes are drums... and those are usually strong enough to lock the rear wheels right? (Otherwise you probably couldn't use it to get the rear to slide out, I'd guess?)