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Look! �� Mocked this up directly on the car, coroplast is my new favorite material for, I dunno, all sorts of things I suppose from now on. Intended to be a proof of concept but fits so well, I may keep it ... I held this on only by 3 zip ties up front, then pressure against the subframe takes care of the rest, so I will need to get under there and update the mountings should I want to keep it secure forever.
Goal here is better air flow under the car, reduce lift, increase stability, reduce noise. In case you haven't noticed, the dang car has a gaping hole under the engine and even I can tell that's bad for aerodynamics. I'd be willing to pay for a Insight undertray, but the shipping is a killer on an oddly shaped object like that. This took, like 10 minutes. It took far longer to go buy a 4x8 sheet of coroplast and figure out how to get that inside a Fit.
I was particularly proud of my thermal shielding um tin foil; but I needn't have worried. Turns out coroplast has a melting point of like 400 degrees or something, and oil temps (and hence the oil pan) rarely should get above 200 max.
Downside: Dropped air filter clip in the engine bay. Can't get to it. D'oh!
Road noise yes. I think it's quieter -- oddly, quieter specifically when the engine revs which I was not expecting. Maybe a tiny bit less loud on the highway, not what I hoped for. However my wife says I am just going deaf from standing too near the kid when she is screaming. It's a good point.
So today is the first time I've put the car on ramps to see how my undertray mods are doing. And, hopefully make them more secure. I took along a camera to give you guys a tour.
Ok let's see what we got here.
We got some extras for you. First up, ahead of the suspension bits you might be able to see I expanded the "spats" that sit ahead of the wheel+suspension on either side. The Fit has four, and they're way smaller than a more modern car. So I made em bigger. Whether it will improve MPG or highway stability, the jury is still out.
Next up, the slightly lower front aid dam. So many cars now have air dams lower than the 1-inch we get, so I figured, let's see if we can keep some air off the underside of the car. There's a limit to how low you can go here before you start looking at ecomodder.com and scraping the parking space ends in the Whole Foods lot, so this is a very modest 1/3 inch lower.
OK OK here we go, here is my lower tray and it is still in one piece. All the duct tape, as you can guess, has come loose. It'll all be taken off. After seeing this I replaced it with two more zip ties on each side. So there are three in front, two on the sides. Had I made the tray bigger I could use clips in the holes, but this was supposed to be a proof of concept so it doesn't quite cover all the holes I would need it to.
One thing about zip ties, you destroy them to take them off. I could probably get this off quickly before an oil change, but if it were 20 degrees out or snowing, this panel probably won't be going back on until spring. It's not a critical piece in any way.
Oh what's this, is it a rear spoiler extension to help the air separate cleanly at the rear? Yes it is! Most current cars have taillights with little fairings molded in to help with separation (to my chagrin my wife immediately knew what those looked like when i described them to her like a 1st grader). And the Fit EV had a larger, extended rear spoiler -- so you know it does something positive to MPG. This didn't turn out as I'd hoped tonight, I'll try to improve the other side and might redo this one later. Hope you liked, let me know what you think.
Last edited by fujisawa; May 12, 2018 at 11:04 AM.
Nice! I have a similar setup on mine, but made out of 1/8" 5052 aluminum as it's meant as a skid plate. Aluminum doesn't exactly do anything for road noise, of course.
Yup. I change my own oil so it just adds ~5 minutes of fiddling before and after. Oil changes are infrequent enough for me that it's not a big deal (my maintenance minder usually lasts 11-12 months).
I was just noticing this hole in mine. There appear to be clips for screws like there is a piece missing. I actually found this thread trying to find more information on it so I could find the part number to get a replacement. So do our Fits not actually have an under tray that came on the car?
Correct, GE fits did not come with one. Why, you can only guess and its probably some combo of the top 5 things you might think up. Corresponding insight and CRZ models did have it, as it improves fuel economy, and the part will fit on the Fit as they are very similar cars. 3rd Gen fits do have this part.
Nope gotta look it up. I think there is a thread where someone posted the part number if you don't want to look it up. But basically the crz or insight for your year is a good bet. I looked into it, the part is not expensive considering the size, but the shipping is epic (considering, you know, the size.)
gotta look it up. I think there is a thread where someone posted the part number if you don't want to look it up. But basically the crz or insight for your year is a good bet. I looked into it, the part is not expensive considering the size, but the shipping is epic (considering, you know, the size.)