Thanks. My brother who is a honda mechanic in another state, also recommended an alignment check.
THE olem SP7000 dunlops on my old car have 41,000 miles on them now and they still have 60-65% tread life left on them. I drive conservatively.
I dont see why Honda would refuse(or be unable) to do a quality alignment

 

Yep same springs but different struts. Also don't forget the extra sound deadening and thicker quarter windows... maybe those are causing some body roll? LOL

 

I see in your signature that you have a 2012. How's the handling on it? Did you notice any difference from 2009 Fit?

 

If the valve train is louder I'd check the valve clearances.
For suispension woes, you didn't say if the new Fit you bought new or used. If its used I'd suspect the shocks. Also see if the suspension has been altered at some point with loered springs etc. Last week we had a newly bought Fit here and it drove as rock solid as my 08.
What do you mean by rocking the wheel? If you were actually tugging alternatedly top and bottom of the wheels and you got definite rocking top to bottom there is serious looseness in the suspension that requires immediat
Presumeably, you did check the tiure pressures and condition of the tires, especially for brands and sizes.e attention.

 

If you want exactly as before go to any online parts store and buy the parts they called out for the year you like (if different than what you have). Majestic, college hills, Honda estore.

If you appreciate your aspects of the new suspension, 205/50 s will make it better.

 

if you're needing 09 struts/springs, i have some, but without the top hats. live local to you too:P

 

A little update over a year later.
I had the alignment check at the dealer today and everything seems within spec. Here is the picture of the report.

Does anyone know why it says 2009-2010 Modiefied at the top of the report? The car is 2012 stock with 9K miles.

They've complted a vsa software update/recall. I am not sure yet, but I may have noticed some improvements.

Also, from looking at the reports, does anyone know if the number actual means that it was adjusted compared to the before number?

 

I dunno if it makes a difference to you but the fit rear cannot be adjusted and fronts can only be adjusted for toe. You cannot change the camber or caster without the help of something aftermarket like camber bolts.

 

Thanks, yeah, I've read that in quite a few places online.

 

Stunning revelation of alignment scam. I wonder how many are? I admit I happily walk away with the alignment report provided to me by the tire dealer without questioning its accuracy. Except the only time I've had the fit aligned, their printer was on the fritz. I'll be watching now.

 

Its not so much a scam as it is the result of poor maintenance and half-way training. Few shops really spend much on either.
You'll do well to measure toe with a stretched string and camber with a level gage angle. And absolutely the OEM only has toe change front only, everything else requires machine shop. The OEM Fit is a world market car that requires as little adjustment as possible so the suspension is crude at best and has a wide range of manufacturing tolerances - greater than the specs.
The biggest detriment to handling of the Fit is the massive understeer decreed by lawyers insisting on going off course head first from lack of traction is make the airbags work best.

 

You're right. I misread the report. The differences are within measurement tolerances. They didn't claim to adjust anything.

 

Thanks for the feedback. So how do you know they didn't adjust anything? Which numbers tell you that?
What about those before and after specs?

 

The before and actual (after) numbers are within 1/10 (0.1) of 1 degree (most within 1/100 (0.01) of a degree). The factory tolerances are within 0.5 and 2 degrees.

This slight difference can be attributed to shifting the car's position on the rack (which is normally done to allow springs to settle after making an adjustment). Even total front toe-in, which is adjustable, only has a difference of 0.01 degrees between before and actual with an allowable factory range of 0.56 degrees (-0.28 to +0.28).

 

just money wasted on your alignment.

you can only change your front toe on this car (if stock) and you went from 0.04 toe out condition on your left while your right was toe out 0.06.

now you have 0.06 toe out on left but your right is now 0.04 toe out. lol

and your trust angle remained 0.06. get a refund.

 

The Fit suspension is crude and thus has wider installation conditions such as camber, caster, and toe.
So first check your tire pressures (should be 35 - 40 psig), wheel alignment, ride heights at each corner, and then the tires based on Tire Rack lap times,
if thoses are OK then dtermine just what is your problem with handling: oversteer, understeer, loose steering wheel, tracking, cornering adhesion. Then lets talk again.

 

Here's the specs from our alignment machine. When it says "modified specifications" it means someone went into the specs and changed specs or tolerances.
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Rear total toe would appear to be outside of specs on john22031's Fit (and the dealer appears to have altered the factory tolerance range so it appears within specs). This is getting interesting...

 

How do you figure it's out of spec? 0.24° ± 0.24° means anything between 0° and 0.48° is okay. (It does appear that the spec was adjusted from 0.24° to 0.30°; but since the readings are within either of these specs, there's no reason to suspect that they changed it to make bad readings look correct. It's also somewhat of a moot point since IIRC rear toe isn't really adjustable on the Fit.)

It seems rather clear that john22031's car was easily within spec to begin with, so the alignment place didn't alter anything—which is rather what I would have expected them to do (or not do, if you prefer) under those circumstances.

 

You're right. I read the rear total-toe wrong (thinking 0, maybe because the front was 0).