I've owned a few trailing arm rear suspension cars before, but none that could get quite to the limit that the Fit does with decent tires.

What I'm finding is that the rear end gets pretty out of whack under extreme conditions. I blame this partially on the dampening and weight distribution, but since it is a hatchback, there is going to be more flex back there too.

I'm wondering if any of the improvements people make via bracing, or a different suspension setup make the rear follow what the front wants to do a bit better. It's like the car is split in half sometimes. I have tons of control over the front, but am dragging a mess around in the back.

 

I'm not sure what you mean when you say " out of whack under extreme conditions"... When my car had the OEM springs and dampers it had good traction but the inside rear of the car felt like it was raising up and would sway back and forth when thrown into a curve... With the Swift springs that wasn't a problem but with the throttle down in a curve if it was beginning to under steer getting off of the throttle too quickly would induce snap over steer.That would require me to feed it more throttle too being on the edge of under steering to pull the rear end in to follow the front.... The Swift springs dropped the front of the GD down which countered under steer and everything felt very neutral in a tight curve unless I gave it too much throttle getting a little too much into the boost... I now have Buddy Club N+ coil overs, 205-50-16" Goodyear Eagle GT tires, rear strut and coat hanger bar...I have the front damping set about half way between firm or soft, the height right at stock height and no pre load on the springs... The rear is dampened a click or two stiffer than the front and it is sitting slightly lower than the front.. I put 35 psi air in front and 30 psi in the rear tires and have the rear seats removed right now... The handling is very neutral and the only time it seems scary is when I'm afraid I might end up in the passenger seat when the steering wheel is turned to the left.... The tires are way too heavy and slows the rate of acceleration a bunch so I will be going back to the 15" x 7" RPF1s mounted with 195-50s that have a more performance rated tread compound....

 

What about the typical...C Pillar Bar, Rear Strut, Maybe a ladder or mid chassis brace?

 

Chassis bars dont do anything. If the fit really needed things like that, they would come stock with a jungle gym behind the rear seats

 

Maybe try a Progress RSB?

 

This is what i would suggest

 

The balance is fine. What I mean by out of whack, is just that it loses its composure, and precision on normal street surfaces. I might be tripoding some too, which would certainly make the rear feel disconnected, especially on these high profile tires with soft sidewalls. I think better dampers and slightly stiffer spring rate would solve most of what I'm talking about, but also curious if any of the bracing and whatnot actually makes a difference. A RSB would be nice, but that would worsen the rear suspensions ability to sort uneven surfaces in a turn with my current setup.

 

Did you notice any kind of difference when adding these? Don't you have the C pillar bar?

 

you should get better tires before spending money on playground equipment.

 

Better than Continental DW 205s?

 

Thinking that you are tripoding on "normal street surfaces"?!? Just how the heck are you driving?

And secondly... wouldn't "firming up" the chassis actually lead to MORE tripoding?

 

Spiritedly.

Probably.

 

I'll say this... On two of my cars I have had significant chassis bracing and it helped tremendously for corners and such. I didn't have the x brace but strut, tie bars, etc.

On the fit I have an RSB and a cpillar the wifey bought me. Honestly the c pillar reduces creaks in the chassis on tight turns so I'm assuming it's doing something suspension wise. The RSB was a great stabilizer. It made me want under chassis bracing even more.

And I dispute the comment that if it made the car better, it would have come that way from the factory. Isn't this the opposite of what we all think here? Isn't the reason we mod to make the car better? Because it can be made better? Honda balances performance, reliability, economy with their own profit margin. We, or those of us who mod, aim to make our cars better than they came off the lot.

 

I got some creaks back there, especially after swapping out the tails (not quite oem fitment, I guess.) If it got rid of those sounds alone, I'd be happy with the upgrade, because otherwise, the car has zero rattles, which is great. No other car I've owned is like that.

 

If the Fit needed more power they would have come with a KWSC high boost kit also....

 

I thought tripoding was a good thing. It increases traction on the other three wheels right?

 

 

Something like that could be in my future. I already live within 20 miles of one track, soon to be two tracks. COTA!

 

It's not a bad thing unless it rotates too much. Just means you have most of the traction being handled by the front. A RSB is effectively just decreasing traction in the rear, but that potential grip doesn't go away from the overall equation.