Hey all, has anyone replaced a parking break cable on their Fit? I’m wondering how tough the job really is? I know removal of the center console is necessary, but that’s about it.

I recently had the stock clutch go out at 190,000 miles, and considering selling after new clutch installed by the shop (I’m not doing that job!) But maybe keep her as she has been the most reliable car I have ever owned.

One major issue I’m having is the driver side parking cable is FUBAR. I used to Lyft drive in the snow here in Denver as it paid hella good, but the snow somehow found its way up to the parking cable and caused damage. Turns out this damage must have resulted in squeezing the back break drum a bit, as the shoes on the driver side are worn much further than the passenger side.

As a second and temporary fix, do you think I could cut the back parking cable, and replace the rear drum shoes without uneven wear? I got chocks haha 😂. Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

2015 Honda Fit LX 6-Speed

 

i may well hold with one rear drum...seem it done..but no backup if that cable breaks....i did the cable on a 91 civic....labour intensive but possible.i would treat yourself to 2 rear brakes and a cable.....the front discs are pretty easy

 

Ah yeah I watched a YouTube video on one of the older gens, I’m sure it’s very similar. Looks annoying but pretty doable.

Looking at rear brake packages and thinking about gambling on a TRQ entire brake package. Two rotors and pads for front, two drums and all the shoes for rear. Plus all the silly hardware clips and whatnot. It’s only $150 USD. The problem is I can’t find a single review on this product anywhere! I’m probably just gonna take the gamble and will post on this thread how it goes after install.

The exact parking brake cable I’m looking for seems to be elusive. I’ve seem some universal stuff but I’d rather get the real deal. Might have to go to the dealer for the cable. Not excited about that but hopefully it’s not too expensive.

 

id get the cable from the dealer,thats what i did for the 91 civic....i have NEVER changed rotors or drums in any car i ever owned....the new cast iron products are probably not seasoned so warp quickly.....it might still be worth it to buy the kit and just not use the new front rotors...thats what i would do

 

Update:

I finished this project finally. This is what I have to say:

It’s a hell of a job, but not impossible by any means. I did everything in small increments as my work schedule is a bit crazy.

Step 1: Remove center console. This isn’t so hard and there’s plenty of good YouTube videos to find.

Step 2: Remove the rear and larger splash shield. This takes some time, I managed to get it by just jacking up the rear of the car as high as I could get it. Pro tip: try using the tow hook as a jack point for your jack, and then drop jack stands in their normal positions on the pinch welds in front of the rear tires. Worked well for me. There are two bolts that use a socket wrench, a bunch of those little snap clips, and 4 larger plastic 12 mm plastic bolt caps. With the larger 12 mm plastic caps, you need use a screwdriver and apply some pressure toward to floor while loosing to get it to give.

Step 3: Detach parking brake cable from lever inside car. Not to hard make sure your lever is fully released before attempting this.

Step 4: Push the old parking brake cable out of the inside of the car…there’s a rubber grommet that seals it from the insertion point under the car. This is followed by a plastic clip, and a bolt attachment more toward the rear tire. You can always look at the other side, these are two completely separate cables that mirror the each other. Once you have everything detached, you need to open your brake drum and I found that pushing the cable through the hole in the drum exposes a metal circular clip that keeps it from sliding out. I went ape shit on this clip to crack it in half, as the new parking brake cable comes with all the hardware you need.

Step 5: Place new cable in position, I started in reverse and that seemed to work well. The hardest part is getting the rubber grommet back into place, you will need a few different sized screwdrivers to help push it up into position and seal off the outside from the cabin. It’s seems hopeless at first but if you just keep working at it, it will find the right place to sit.

Step 5: Once the cable is sitting in the right place, you will need to reattach it to the parking brake lever, and adjust as needed to achieve the proper number for of clicks when pulling up. This isn’t hard really at all, check out some YouTube videos.

I elected to replace the rear brake drums and shoes at the time….why not? It kinda bit me in the ass tho, as it was an incredible learning experience haha. Turns out, if you yank the spring with the most tension in it really hard without holding onto a brake shoe, the brake cylinder will leak brake fluid and take in air. This happened to me on my first go, so I had a bleed all the brakes and replace lost brake fluid. For the second go, I had my buddy hold the shoes in place lace so I could use two hands to absolutely yank the dog piss out of the other sides spring without moving the shoes and losing any fluid from the cylinder.

I still bled everything from every tire. Also important to note: there are two hydraulic brake systems for 3rd gen Honda fits. The bleeding procedure is as follows, this is tried and tested:

RR, FL and RL, FR.

I of course broke some of the caps on the splash shield, and of course it’s going to snow tomorrow. So I’ll prolly hold off on driving it to much until I get some replacements to hold the splash shield back in place. Hopefully mile high Honda has them in stock and it’s not wait for shipping type situation.

Feel free to message me if y’all are doing the same repair and need any advice.

My overall takeaways: it’s a hell of a job, but I ain’t no mechanic and I did a fine. You can do it too, just realize it’s like at least 1 entire day project, or if like me, you can do some stuff over the course of several days.

 

Might have to to this tomorrow. I stopped at the store on the way home and noticed that the parking brake lever felt ever so slightly looser than usual. I get home and pull into my driveway (which is on a pretty steep slope) and this time the lever had nearly no tension. It still held the car, but just barely and after rolling back a few feet. Tried reversing and braking to see if the self-adjusters could fix it, but it's clear that the cable has either snapped or come out. Thankfully I replaced all the rear drum hardware this past summer, so I know all of that is good. Not looking forward to doing this in 18 degree weather with 25 mph gusts though :/

Appreciate the advice on how to do this. Now I at least expect that rubber grommet to put up a fight, especially with it being so damn cold.

 

Oh yeah, I found some of those plastic clip things on Amazon, like a huge variety pack and it was only about 20 bucks.

I WILL SAY THIS: The same job I had do to on my girlfriends Toyota Rav 4 about 4 months ago. And it was a much much much more annoying and absolutely mind melting experience. The reason why: we are assuming her car grew up on the east coast or somewhere in the rust belt. I had to fight every single bolt, I had to get a propane torch and some extractor sockets to remove some of them. The hardware around the wheel hubs was disintegrating from rust. I ended up having to take the new brake shoes to a shop and have them altered because…I dunno I guess the shape of things had warped over the years.

It made my Honda fit job feel like an absolute breeze. I think it took me 3-4 weeks to get the Toyota done. So if you’re looking under your car and seeing a ton of rust…you might just want to bite the bullet and take it to a shop. I would have gladly paid someone 1600 dollars or whatever to do that job on her car. I still wake up some nights in cold sweats reliving the absolute nightmare that was that job in my dreams.

check your rust levels hehe and NEVER LET YOUR SIGNIFICANT OTHER BUY A CAR WITHOUT YOU.

 

Do they use road salt in Denver, or anywhere else in Colorado?

 

And Ghod said "If there be snow then there shall be salt as well".

Colorado apparently uses magnesium chloride rather than sodium chloride for whatever reason. Similar stuff, similar effect. You'll find salt of one type or another everywhere it snows. In addition in places like Florida where it doesn't snow you'll get salt water corrosion when salt spray gets deposited somewhat inland by strong winds.

 

Doing rear shoes on these things suuucckks. I just did mine at ~ 189k. Glad you're doing alright with yours.