I see rear sway bars listed, but nothing for the front?

I would like to make my Fit actually handle decent......

coils, sway bars, any other suggestions the fit benefits from?

 

Make Fit handle decent?

I thought the Fit already handled decently.

And wouldn't a(n additional) front sway bar make it under steer even more than it naturally would? Pretty sure more under steer is opposite of "decent" to most people.

 

not necessarily understeer more. if you do a stupid stiff front bar, or use junk tires, then yes.

front swaybar will keep the car in a good posture before your damper bottoms out and hit the bumpstops enabling the car turn better.

the problem with our GE's is that it is a lot of work to install the front bar... i wanted to do the cusco (i think it was) but decided to look for adjustable dampers instead.

 

All GD3 & GE8 Fits come from the factory with front anti-sway bars. GE Sport models also come with a rear anti-sway bar. The stock rear bar is better than nothing, but it is too weak to provide the best handling. That is why the add-on rear anti-sway bars from Progress Auto are so popular. They are stronger than the stock bars and provide much more rear axle stability in turns.

Adding the Progress rear bar is less expensive and is much easier to install than any after-market extra stiff front replacement sway bar.

 

i know that, but the front swaybar is too soft for me. the rear bar hasn't bothered me.

i tried the progress bar on my GD a while back (6-7yrs ago?) and it felt terrible. like the front and rear of the car felt like 2 separate pieces not working in harmony all that well.

 

My reply was written for the OP,not for you. 99.9% of GD/Progress RSB owners will strongly disagree with your analysis. I am one of them.

 

When I added the progress rsb I didn't notice anything different on my GE. Once I added the cusco braces V1 and V2 up front that made a huge difference. Then I added the cusco front sway bar and the car is way more responsive now. Compared to my brothers fit you can tell the difference big time.

For the money I would get the progress rsb (even though I didn't feel a difference) cusco V1 and V2 braces.

The front sway bar was kind of a pain in the a$$ to install because you have to drop the front subframe, but worth it in my opinion.

 

Forgot to mention I also have the cusco front strut bar and j's racing c pillar bar. The mounting points are questionable.

 

Depends on what you're planning on doing with the car OP. There is no formula.

 

Hi Nicotine,
I copy and paste my review (based on my personal experience) with
Bilstein Coil Over, Spoon Front Sway Bar (Spoon had the THICKEST front sway bar available for our GE which is the same part as the CR-Z sway bar by Spoon), and Progress Rear Sway Bar.


Hi Goobers,
If you upgrade your wheel and tire, you will need to upgrade your suspension too, otherwise the wheel and tire (more grip) will easily overwhelm the stock suspension.
And unless you specify a custom spring with very high rate, our car can still benefit with Thicker Front Sway Bar to reduce body roll, and again
with stickier front tire and CAMBER BOLT, your car will not understeer even with Thicker Spoon Front Sway Bar.




Hi Kenchan,
In my case, I do need the Rear Progress Sway Bar to further increase the rigidity of my rear axle since my 18in wheel and tire easily overwhelm the rear axle make it prone to little fish tailing each time the surface of the road had grooves...

Ok,...
Here is my Spoon Front Sway Bar Review, that I install after I install my Bilstein, so I need to do the camber bolt and alignment anyway

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/1185943-post116.html

Ok, here is my Front Spoon Sway Bar and Alignment Review:

At first I want to go to WestEnd Alignment but I heard they are so busy you got to make several week appointment in advance,
and I don't want to wait several more week, so then
I try to search for other good Alignment place that also accept installing sway bar.
I find a good place using Yelp,
it is Lee's Alignment in Gardena.
Here is the link to their website and their Yelp Page:
Lee's Alignment & Brake Service - Gardena, CA
Alignment and Brake Service Gardena, CA

I email them and they response, so I call them yesterday to make appointment.

First of all, all the Perfect 5 stars review on Yelp were CORRECT !
I am very happy with their service.
It is a mom and pop business,
the person who install my sway bar and align my car is the son of the owner himself. His name is Matt.
Matt is a young and very friendly person.
He always answer all my detailed questions with the same enthusiasm from start to finish with clarity.
Well, as usual, if you got your work done by the owner of the shop (or the son of the owner) most likely you get the best result possible because
it is their own company

Please remember that they do NOT use those fancy digital or laser alignment machine (like Hunter brand machine),
but all they use is an old school camber and caster measurement tool...
but again it is not the machine but it is the operator who make a difference in the quality of the alignment.
I already knew about this so I am NOT surprise at all,
in fact I specifically choose this place because somehow, I have a feeling that I will be satisfy with their service by reading the review on the yelp page. and I have to say they are better then what I expected in term of customer service and quality of work !

The swaybar installation itself was VERY HARD,
I start the installation on 11am friday, and my car finish at over 5pm !!!
(well there is 1 hour lunch break, but yeah it is hard to install),
especially since this is the first time Matt ever install a sway bar on a Honda Fit.
But despite all the difficulties (I was standing by his side all the time so I know it is hard), he never lose his patience and keep working with happy attitude !!!

The shop give 6 months warranty for the alignment.

My car initially had - 1.75 camber from my own adjustment with the 2 SPC camber bolt when I install the Bilstein.

After several adjustment with the SPC bolt, (and adjusting the suspension arm with a good ol shake hahaha),
Matt manage to get -2.25 for the LEFT front wheel,
and -2.5 for the RIGHT front wheel, but to make it even,
he readjust the RIGHT front wheel back to -2.25.

The reason why we could not go much further camber (not that I want more negative camber) was because the suspension arm hit the shock/strut surface so it could not go more than -2.5...
if we need to do more, we could always grind the back of the suspension arm... but I don't want too much negative camber anyway...
all I want is enough negative camber so my tire won't rub the fender again,
and with -2.25, I figure (from naked eye) that it had clear the fender,
and damn I am RIGHT hahaha

The caster is NOT adjustable in our car, but just for info, our caster is 3.5.

and the Toe was too much inside after I lower the car, so Matt bring back the Toe to just 0.0625 (COMBINE) just a little bit of Toe In to help directional stability. When adjusting the Toe, Matt had to took several
adjustment and test drive to make it perfect, and he did this with smile even though the shop were almost close (with his father also still working on other customer car too)... I mean if this were other shop, the worker might be anxious to go home because it is already almost 5pm,
but when you are the owner of the shop, of course you will not care about
closing time, and more care about getting your customer car ready

Ok, back to the Spoon sway bar,
it came with NEW END LINK and NEW Rubber Bushing.
The Rubber Bushing from Spoon is for 25mm bar,
while the factory sway bar only had 21mm diameter.
The New End Link were needed because the Spoon sway bar is shorter in
overall length compare to the factory,
so the End Link from Spoon had the 2 bolts facing opposite of each other,
while the factory end link had their 2 bolts facing the same side.

What I notice was, the factory sway bar feel much smaller when you grab it with your hand and it is also much lighter compare to Spoon.

Now, review time...

When I drive from my place to the alignment shop, I had to take about 25 miles of freeway drive.
My car with Bilstein feel much better than stock, but there are some strange feeling on the steering, it is kinda heavy and the rear suspension
still wander just a little bit (much less compare to when it was stock suspension).
Again I had to remind you that my wheel is 18in and my tire is 225,
so that make the rear stock suspension unable to "control" the extra grip from the tire and the extra weight from the wheel/tire...
so my car tend to do some weird fishtailing when I hit an uneven freeway surface (not same surface between what under the left and right tire)...
this usually happen around over 70mph on rough freeway...
With Bilstein, this is ALMOST gone but it is still there...
Before alignment the car did track straight true, but it feel there is some struggle between left and right front tire competing to make the car
track straight...

After alignment and after sway bar,
the Fish Tailing is even less, but again it is still just tiny tiny bit there...
so I think I can solve this with Progress rear sway bar,
because the way Progress bolted to the rear axle, not only it stabilize the sway, but it also act as an extra BRACE for increase rigidity of the rear axle.
I think this will eliminate the fish tail,
but in the future I also plan to buy Spoon Rear Rigid Collar to further eliminate any flex between the rear bushing and the chassis mounting point for rear axle...

What I really notice after alignment and after Front Sway bar is,
First, the steering became much lighter as if the left and right front tire do not compete again to make the car track straight, I guess I was having too much toe in before.
The -2.25 negative camber also make the tire had slightly less contact patch when driving straight, so this could also the cause for lighter steering.

Second, the car track even truer and as I had said above less fishtailing/ less nervousness but there is still a trace of it because I think my wheel and tire are simply have too much grip and too much weight for the stock rear axle to handle, so yeah, I need that Progress rear sway bar and later Spoon rigid collar.

Third, the ride became even FIRMER, yes some people said that sway bar not suppose to change the firmness of the ride when we drive straight,
but I think this is NOT true. In our case, the ride indeed became firmer,
because when you hit a bump, most likely you only hit them one front wheel at a time, and that cause only one wheel move up/down and this
do activate the sway bar.
There is a reason why some high end car (I think Panamera Porsche) had a sway bar than can be electronically disconnected when the car run straight and connected again when the car start turn into a corner...
because sway bar do effect ride quality.
so yes the Spoon Front Sway bar does make the Bilstein a tad firmer,
so it is not as comfortable as before, but let me put it this way,
before Sway bar, the Bilstein ride was like an AMG Mercedes or BMW Alpina ride, after sway bar, the Bilstein ride was like BMW M Model ride

I do prefer the BMW Alpina ride compare to the BMW M Model ride because I am old now hahaha,...
but hey, a BMW M Model ride is not bad at all

A side bonus is of course, the car now have almost MUCH LESS BODY ROLL, in fact in some corner the car now feel eerie because my brain was train to expect the car to sway in the corner, but the car just stay almost flat out..., I expect with the future addition of the rear progress bar,
the car will be even flatter !!!

oh, and some weird bonus is, the car now have even less dive during braking.. this I don't know why, but maybe because the car had more negative camber now, so the surface area of the tire is less when you brake straight... well I don't know why but hey, less dive is good right ?

Turn in and lane change maneuver is also more direct and instant,
so the Spoon Front Sway Bar really work,
it really make our car drive and corner much flatter !

so in summary, the comfortable ride is not as perfect as before front sway bar, but the handling is now even better than without sway bar.
I would say the increase in handling do justify the very slight decrease in the comfort.

The future Progress Rear Sway Bar, I think will not make the car drive much harsher though because it is at the rear suspension,
so most likely me as the driver won't feel a reduction in comfort although my wife might hahaha....
but I really need to install Progress Rear Sway Bar if I want to completely eliminate the very very very small slight fish tail when the freeway is not smooth.

so future suspension modification will be:
1. Progress Rear Sway Bar
2. Spoon Rigid Collar (rear only, I don't want the front because I don't see it effect much for the front beside a little bit of wiggle room at the front is good for making some alignment changes in the future)
3. Cusco 4 point chassis/subframe bar
4. T1R 2 point lower frame bar (if I can get a new one from AJ Racing or somehow a used one is for sale)
That is it,
I don't think I want to install Front Upper Strut Bar anymore cause
I see the way Cusco mount, it will mount just one bolt per side and it also have hinges so I think the micro movement from the one bolt mounting point flex and the hinges would negate any reinforcement effect.
If the Front Upper Strut bar mount with at least 2 bolts per side, and also without any hinges then I will believe it at increase rigidity, but then
this solid design would make it hard to install and also to take out when you need to do work on the engine/air filter or fill up the brake fluid...
so no Front Upper Strut bar for me,...
For Rear Upper strut bar and C pillar bar, well, it either need modification to the plastic panel or it make the rear seat not reclining fully,
or it is dangerous to hit head if the car ever had rear accident,
or I see that the mounting point is also not on a very solid place...
so again no rear upper strut bar and rear c pillar for me...

That is all for today,
will do more review about suspension after I buy the 4 items I listed above... (whenever I had extra budget though hahaha)



and here is my review after I install the Progress Rear Sway Bar:

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/1188534-post138.html

Ok,

so yesterday evening, I went for dinner at a place about 30 miles from my home,
so I took several different route/freeway both on the way to and on the way back.

and here is my impression after installing the Progress Rear Sway Bar.

Please take note that my experience is with my car who already have Bilstein Coil Over and Spoon Front Sway Bar, so for people with standard shocks or people with just lowering springs only or for people with coil over but without Spoon front sway bar, your result might be different than mine.


Now, when I just install the Bilstein without the Spoon Front Sway bar,
the ride is very comfortable but still firm and I love it.
This feel like a ride in BMW Alpina or Mercedes AMG

When I install the Spoon Front Sway bar on top of the Bilstein,
the sway were almost completely eliminated but the ride also firm up,
which make the ride more like BMW M Series

Now after the Progress Rear Sway bar,
Any sway at the rear suspension is virtually gone,
but now I can feel that the front still have very little sway.
What amazing is the VERTICAL movement of the car (up and down suspension travel) were much less compare to before Progress,
so on high speed at FreeWay, the car just feel completely level with
almost no up and down movement even if the freeway is not really flat.
I feel like the car is just planted.

Now the thing that I do NOT like is, the car is now so much more responsive to very slight steering input,
this mean at high speed , the car can move side to side very easily
with the smallest steering movement.
I mean this is good for a tight corner at small racing circuit,
but for high speed stability, this mean I had to concentrate more.

Yes, the car now became easier to turn in (more oversteer),
but I would prefer the car to have less sensitivity...
This Progress rear sway bar make the rear so much more rigid,
this effect now became obvious...

The ride comfort at the back change too... it is now even more firm then just bilstein, but this is still OK, it is not harsh.

If I would do this again,
I probably just install Bilstein and Spoon Front Sway Bar to eliminate body roll.
but since I already bought this Progress rear sway bar,... well, I guess I am not going to take it off and just calibrate my driving style to suit it

so there is plus and minus that came with this Progress Rear Sway bar for my preference and my car suspension spec.

 

I drive spiritedly... but not THAT spiritedly.

Sure, I replaced my wheels and tires, but these aren't so far out that it would be justifiable to me, to do coil overs or attempting front sways. I did put Swift springs if that matters. I have neither the funding nor the inclination to do most of what you talked about (rigid collars? no thanks)... but that's just me.

 

Oh, regarding the rigid collars, well I think most people don't need it...
also, I don't buy the front kit rigid collars because I think it would not help a bit, but I only buy the rear axle rigid collars, since it act like a washer between the rubber bushing on the rear axle and the bolt that tightened it,...
but this is only because my 18in wheel and 225 tire is too much for the stock factory bushing... I need to reduce the flex on the bushing further...

for most people who don't have 18in wheel (a bit heavy) and 225 tire,
the rear rigid collar would not make much different (I think)...
also the rear rigid collar that I bought were cheap only around $55 plus around $50 (or $60) for shipping to US, so only $100 to $120 (I forgot the exact amount), and I will install them myself, so no installation cost...

now, the Spoon front sway bar on the other hand, will really help the handling of your car.
Spoon front sway bar is also not expensive,
only $155, that is very cheap considering it is Made in Japan, Imported from Japan, and it came with brand new LINK. so if your standard sway bar had gone through many miles and the link is about to be broken,
it is a good time to buy the spoon sway bar which came with a brand new link.

I bought my front Spoon front sway bar from Go Tuning:
Go Tuning Unlimited
AJ Racing sold them even cheaper but then the shipping from Canada might be more expensive...

the installation including alignment might vary between $300 to $400 depend on which place you go...
so total would be around $450 to $600 for the Spoon front sway bar already include installation and alignment...
and since I need to do alignment after installing my Bilstein,
that mean I even got it installed cheaper... (as a package with alignment)...

I understand that you might not drive that hard,
but trust me, you can feel the thicker front sway bar working even when you drive slowly ! The car just handle FLAT !

there are several other people here who track their car and were not
convinced on using front sway bar in the past, due to worry about understeer,
but they just change their mind very recently...

here is the thread when they discuss slightly about Front Sway Bar (Spoon), complete with pictures of body roll even after coil over...

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...rs-review.html

oh,
another information,
the JDM Honda Fit "RS" had LARGER front sway bar compare to our USDM front sway bar, (I forgot all the sizes already, but I think I wrote their corresponding sizes/thickness on one of my post related to my JDM RS rear axle...)
anyway,
this mean even Honda Factory knew that putting larger front sway bar on their sportiest model (RS) will benefit the handling

I think the reason why Honda do not put larger front sway bar on USDM fit is because the thicker front sway bar do effect the ride comfort, and most likely most USDM fit buyer prefer the extra comfort compare to less body roll...


EDIT:
Front Sway bar thickness
USDM: 21mm
JDM RS: 23mm
Cusco: 24mm (price $319 and I don't think it came with a link)
Spoon: 25mm (price $155 already came with a link)
so I think the Spoon is a better value for money compare to the Cusco...
it is just that the Cusco is painted blue and make it pretty,
while the Spoon is painted black just like standard factory OEM sway bar, so it is kinda ugly...
but it is hidden anyway


The CR-Z used only 18mm front sway bar in standard form,
(perhaps due to CR-Z lower in height compare to GE, make it less prone to body roll)

so I managed to sell my USDM 21mm stock front sway bar to a CR-Z owner,
and that LOWER my cost for the Spoon sway bar even more

 

Which one are the V1 and V2 braces?

after installing my progress RSB i have no more understeer. feels like a new car

 

hummmm... is the V1 and V2 braces easy to install? and where did you buy the braces? thanks

http://www.cusco.co.jp/en/whats_new/080708-1.pdf

 

BMWALPINA- wish the front bar was easier to install. i suppose i could find the time to do it, but i know that the stock dampers are wat's too soft for me so that is where i want to start.

on my current setup, i dont really have issues with understeer or issues with tramlining.

 

Where and what was the cost to install the front sway bar?

 

On my long post above,
I wrote where I bought them:
Go Tuning in Anaheim SoCal, (or you can buy them from AJ Racing in Canada),

and where I install them which is Lee's Alignment in Gardena...

I also have link to their yelp or their website on the above post of mine

the price for install... well, you might want to call them directly,
because they might had different price now...

 

my Fit still handles amazingly well.

 

What do you have currently done to your suspension?

What is the car used for? DD or track?

From the sounds of it you do not have coil overs/ stiffer springs. After you upgraded to a wider tire (17in wheel for a DD is big enough), coil overs or springs are your first step.

Easy Suspension Steps:

1st Coilovers/ Stiffer Springs
2nd Alignment/ Corner Weighing (if you went with coilovers)

Still not happy? Once you have the basis of your suspension set then look into:

3rd Sway Bars
4th Chassis Bracing
5th Stiffer Bushings/ Solid Mounts (this is more reserved for the track car)
6th Strip Unnecessary Weight (interior, again reserved for the track)

Honestly, coil overs for a street car is over kill and expensive. I have modded my fair share of a variety of cars. I had a daily diver that was a track ready. It was terrible.

****My suggestion to save yourself money and still have a fun daily driver:

****Eibach Springs and Progressive Rear Sway

 

I realize this is an old thread, but figured I'd throw in my two cents. I just put a Progress RSB on my 2012 Fit Sport A/T last week and really like it.

The install was very easy and straightforward. I believe it took me just about as long to round up my tools and get the car jacked up as it did to do the actual install. I bought a 1/2" torque wrench from Harbor Frieght for $13 total on sale to torque the bolts to spec.

A couple of days before the install I took a winding back road home from work and pushed it a little in the corners to get a fresh feel for how the car handled stock and also how much body roll there was so that I would be able to make a good comparison. In some of the straights I also did some slalom style action sawing the wheel back and forth to get a feel for how the car rolled shifting weight from side to side and also how it changed direction quickly. For reference the only handling modification my car has is the switch to 205/50/R16 Kumho PA31 all season tires. These definitely give the car more grip compared to the stock tires, but do have kind of a mushy rolling over feeling under hard cornering and quick directional changes that I hope to alleviate soon with a switch to 17"x7" rims and matching tires.

After the install I did some of the same style driving and could tell an immediate difference. I would say that body roll under hard cornering and quick directional changes has been cut by at least 1/3 to 1/2. Also, I noticed that changing lanes quickly on the interstate is more abrubt and controllable. My wife even commented that she felt that she was getting thrown around less and getting less of a car sick feeling (she's pregnant) than she did before I installed the bar.

I would have to agree with the other people that have mentioned that the Progress RSB is a great bang for the buck addition to the Fit especially if you like to do some occasional spirited driving.

-Dustin