Hi All,

I'm working on fixing the alignment on my 2015 Honda Fit. I've noticed inner tire wear in both rear tires and a moderately loud hum from the left rear. I took it to an alignment shop, and they told me that the rear is not adjustable and shims are required. The shop quoted me $470 because of the toe shims and labor to install them. I found a YouTube Video (linked at bottom of post) and a KISS forum post showing the torque specs of rear hubs, so I felt like it looked simple enough to do on my own. Can someone quickly spot check my work to see if what I have planned looks good?

Right rear toe : 0.27° --> I will buy ±0.20° SPC Performance Toe Shim 71792 to bring the toe back to 0.07° (a ±0.10° shim would bring it to 0.17° --> both are 0.05° off of the ideal 0.12° mark. Any opinions on 0.17° vs 0.07° for the final toe angle? I couldn't find anything online yet.)

Left rear toe : 0.43° --> I will buy ±0.30° SPC Performance Toe Shim 71793 to bring the toe back to 0.13°, which is nearly dead-on for the ideal 0.12° mark. This is definitely the worse offender and the cause of my road noise.


So my open/unanswered questions are these:

1. Is it better to buy the ±0.10° shim or the ±0.20° shim for the right rear toe? Those two would land me at 0.17° and 0.07° respectively. I think the answer is: "it doesn't matter", but this is my first rodeo.
2. The alignment shop offered to realign the front "a bit better" for $75-100 (I forget the exact price). I felt like it was a stretch. Post-shimming, I'll take it in for a free alignment check to see where I stand and probably call it a day.

Thank you for taking the time to read through my plan!
-Patrick




Present-Day Alignment report from the shop

 

To do an accurate and proper alignment you need an alignment machine.

All Honda Dealers and alignment specialty shops have an alignment machine and equipment.

Those prices you were quoted are way too expensive.

Go to your local Honda Dealer for an alignment.

As far as I know,
The use of shims are not necessary for an alignment.

 

To do an accurate and proper alignment you need an alignment machine.

All Honda Dealers and alignment specialty shops have an alignment machine and equipment.

Those prices you were quoted are way too expensive.

Go to your local Honda Dealer for an alignment.

As far as I know,
The use of shims are not necessary for an alignment.

 

Chitown Fit, I am 95% sure you are wrong. Everywhere I have looked online suggests that the rear is not adjustable unless you use shims. This is exactly what the independent shop told me as well. I would love to be proven wrong though, because that would save my time.

"Those prices you were quoted are way too expensive. Go to your local Honda Dealer for an alignment."
Sure, maybe the shop I went to quoted me a high price to get out of doing the job, but do you really think that a Honda dealership is going to give me a worthwhile deal? I might call them to see, just for fun, but I suspect that they will tell me that they will not shim it and will instead recommend replacing the whole rear axle.

https://www.reddit.com/r/hondafit/co..._spec_on_rear/
https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/3rd-...alignment.html
https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/3rd-...aster-kit.html
https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/3rd-...nt-issues.html
https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/3rd-...amber-kit.html

 

Yes, the rear axle cannot be aligned without shims. I recall seeing posts some time ago from people who had a rear alignment problem while still under warranty. The standard Honda solution was to take off the rear axle and install a brand new axle. Alignment problem solved! So I guess you have the choice of shims or a new axle.

 

Personally I would go with the 0.20 AND a 0.40 shim to get the rear toe as close to 0.00 as possible. Less tire wear and more neutral handling would be the advantages there.

I already request 0.00 toe(or closest to that) in the front(with -1.5* camber) to improve the handling and tire wear. So to me getting the rear closer to neutral would only help it long term.

 

I ended up shimming the rear hubs and the alignment is now in-spec! I also had to buy 4 new tires since they were cupping and causing a hum in the rear of the car (you can feel the cupping if you move your hand along the treads of the tires). I followed the YouTube video tutorial that I linked in the original post ("GK Honda FIT rear alignment shim" by DaBinChe). The only issue that I had was that the hubs were fused to the axle with rust. I borrowed a slide hammer from a coworker (part number "OTC 4579", which can be found on Amazon). The smaller of the two adapter pieces for pulling hubs was an okay fit. The holes were a bit further spaced out than the bolt pattern on my Honda Fit. This meant that the lug nuts did not sit flush against the adapter piece, but I was still able to screw the lug nuts onto the studs a few turns at least. I created a quick and rough sketch of what happened with the slide hammer, in case anyone reads this and is curious. Thankfully, it only took maybe 3 or 4 good swings with the slide hammer before they both came off since I had let PB Blaster sit between the two surfaces the night before.



I went with a 0.30° shim on the left, and a 0.20° shim on the right. I replaced the original hubs with TIMKEN HA590604 hubs from RockAuto. I suspect that the hubs also played a role in the alignment, since the numbers didn't fully add up after getting the alignment checked. There might also be measurement error in the very first alignment check I had. They got a couple things wrong when taking a look at the car, so I am not sure if I trust their alignment check down to ±0.1°.

left was supposed to go from 0.43 to 0.13, but it ended up at 0.03
right was supposed to go from 0.27 to 0.07, but it ended up at 0.20

I did end up paying for a front alignment job just because I wanted all of them to be in the green, but it probably was not necessary. I believe the car would have been dog tracking ever so slightly if I left the front alignment as-is, but I don't think it would have resulted in any super weird tire wear.





Edit: I forgot to mention that getting the hubs separated from the brake drum backing plate required us to get creative. Two 2x4's were used on either end and I used a 3lb sledge hammer to break them free. Unlike the YouTube video, we opted to disconnect the brake line and zip tie it closed with a nitrile glove so it wouldn't leak (I really should buy some brake line plugs for this exact purpose).

Getting the brake drum off required two 8x1.25 screws from the hardware store (also make sure the handbrake is not engaged).
I looked up the torque spec through my public library's subscription of "Auto Repair Source", which stated that the 12mm bolts that attach the hub to the axle should be torqued to 47ft-lbs. That's what I went with, and so far I have not had any problems.



Sorry for not taking more pictures. I wish I would have, but my hands were really dirty from this work.