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Been awhile since I updated. Here are some of the happenings. I'm at 32k miles, engine running great with catch can. No issues.
- bought OEM size snow tires on steel rims. Rims are on amazon, and tires from tirerack.com. i had two dunlop wintermax wm01 tires on the front on oem rims, have worked out well, but really needed all 4 tires to be snows. Moved the snows on orm rims to the back, and new Dunlop Wintermaxx WM02 (same tread similar compound as wm01) on steel rims in front. Yes there are 16" steel rims in the oem size. BOOYA!
- took out my mini projector LED H4s. Tried adjusting them for a better light pattern but simply could not get it to my liking. Adjust the housing too high to get the low beams to aim properly, now my high beams are in the trees.
- replaced headlights with sylvania ultra brights, and foglights with Nokya 55 watt 5k halogens. I know they wont last as long as the regular oem halogens, but the light pattern and brightness cannot be beat.
- will be installing some "zombie lighting" with two flood light leds mounted on a license plate mounted light bar. Some warm days coming up and if time will tackle that. It will operate by its own switch in the cabin independent of the headlights.
- my MA811s are leaking air. Turns out the inner shaft is very rusted, even showing signs of flaking rust. I have about 100k miles on them between my 2015 and 2017, so they are due.
- started to reinstall my foglight garnish switchback lights. Turns out I dont have to remove the bumper to pop the garnish out.
These are the MA809s air fitting too close for comfort to the back of tire. ~1750lbs of gross weight towing 1750lbs or towing weight
More info to follow. Thank you all for reading!
Bass
Last edited by Bassguitarist1985; Feb 19, 2020 at 10:46 AM.
These, but they are no longer available. Love the color twmp, but pattern was less than optimal. To make them throw far enough on low beam you really had to elevate the headlight housings to the point the high beams were in the trees making them useless.
If these are sharp out of the Fit housing, then it might be the headlight lens, but I'm leaning towards the lack of adjustment on these projectors. When I retrofitted my Integra, and according to DIY'ers on HiDplanet, a slight tilt of the projector lens and having the ability to make tiny adjustments front to back can greatly help with the sharpness of the cut off.
If these are sharp out of the Fit housing, then it might be the headlight lens, but I'm leaning towards the lack of adjustment on these projectors. When I retrofitted my Integra, and according to DIY'ers on HiDplanet, a slight tilt of the projector lens and having the ability to make tiny adjustments front to back can greatly help with the sharpness of the cut off.
These do have the ability to "rotate" the lens slightly, but not enough to make a huge difference. I would have to dremel the two screw openings for more adjustability room. The cutoff reflector for the low beam would also need to be "shimmed" so that the cutoff is higher. This would eliminate the need to adjust the headlight housing so high the high beams are up in the trees over everyones head useless. It is possible, just more work that I dont have the motivation to do right now. Im working on replacing my air shocks that have aged out.
See my previous post for more info. This is the picture post. The video is below as well. I went through a ton of crap before finally getting the correct fitment without any issues. Some of the high level steps to install these shocks should you want them.
1. MA809s will have a 3/8-16" threaded upper stem. You will need 5 nuts, F/F coupler, lock washer, and some threaded rod for each shock which can be sourced at your local hardware or Home Depot.
- The pictures show where to install the nuts, couplers, and how long the threaded rod needs to be. Use medium blue strength lock tight
- Reuse the original bump stop, upper rubber mount, and washer. Torque them to 22 ft/lbs when installed.
2. The lower eye mount is the exact size you need that matches the OEM shock. However, it may be slightly wider.
- You need 40MM exactly, but the eye may be 41.25MM. You need to grind it down till the width is exactly 40MM, otherwise, you will be fighting yourself getting it in the lower mount.
- Use Anti-Seize paste on the bottom threads, use an air compressor to blow out any debris. Trust me, this step alone will make your life easier when they need to be replaced later. Also don't cross thread otherwise changing out a welded bolt on the lower mount will equal one very bad day for you later.
to convert the fittings over to the more common 1/4" From there the sky is the limit what you want to do with it.
- You can have two separate schrader valves, or one valve with a tee fitting to fill each shock separately. Completely up to you.
4. The wheel hub spacers are required as the air fitting will hit the tire. I have 1" / 25mm ones installed, and they more than clear the tire. However you can go slightly smaller. For reference, without any spacer, there is about a 15mm clearance between the tire and the air fitting. Being that it is slightly offset facing from the tire, there is potential for the air line to rub on the tire and wear.
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- These are the ones I installed, the studs were about 10mm too long, and I had to cut them down to use the OEM acorn lugs. Not terrible, just stupendously annoying and time consuming to do.
Now that I have gone through all this damn work of discovery, and over the last few years of filling with a small Slime air pump when needed, I am treating myself to install and build a custom automated option to fill/dump the air shocks as needed by wireless remote. More on that project later.
Pictures:
Before photo without the spacer After photo with 25mm spacer Spacer adds needed clearance. Plenty of clearance to frame rail too with smaller ma809 shock Too close without hub spacer to the tire 35mm studs, too long, need to cut down to 25mm like OEM. Not the best picture but the clearance is greatly reduced with the MA777 Tried padding with foam to prevent the banging of the shock agaibst the frame rail, no luck. Plus the ride with the MA777 is SUPER STIFF. It is a shock designed for a small pickup I believe. Overall length of the threaded rod I went 77 mm exactly. To account for the stem stud that attaches it to the shock. The OEM is about 75. Mm.
The MA811 MA811 worn and leaking. Very rusted
Video:
(To be uploaded & edited later)
Last edited by Bassguitarist1985; Feb 13, 2020 at 04:20 PM.
Custom Built Automated Air Shock Management System
My goal is to go for minimum invasive install in terms of air lines. I already have 1/4 air lines connected to the shocks via a tee with a schrader valve. I want the ability to raise and lower the air shocks by remote. Similar to this system from Airlift
which is more reasonably priced. What I don't like about it is you need to run an air line from the rear to the dial gauge to read the pressure in the shocks. Its a source of leaks, and I really don't have any room on the dash to mount the gauge/controls and not have clearance issues.
The plan (and doing this write up somewhat for myself as well as others so I can plan this out for the future) :-)
For these parts, figure it is worth getting one of those wireless TMPS sensor setups to not only monitor the 4 tires, but the two air shocks and two trailer tires. Depending where I go, there is also a wireless motorcycle unit that's just two sensors that would work just for the shocks if I wanted to save on cost. 8 sensor TMPS systems are very expensive as they are meant for tractor trailers, 5th wheels etc. I figured buy two of the 4 tire systems and run them separately. Far cheaper and effective.
All told I'm looking at a cost of just under $200, factoring for a few miscellaneous fittings, tees, and some 1/4" hose which I already have. I'll program one button to fill the air shocks, and the other button to trigger the air valve to "dump" the air pressure, all while monitoring it from the wireless display. I already have the power wire running to the rear already for the trailer lights.
I don't know of any Honda Fit that has such a system. Be curious for those who have any type of air suspension system setup on their Fits. I'm curious to know.
To be continued!
Bass
Last edited by Bassguitarist1985; Feb 18, 2020 at 08:25 PM.
Picked up two of the 4 tire TMPS systems. One was an amazon warehouse deal $32. Two front tire monitors would be for the air shocks, and the rear tire monitors would be for the two trailer tires. One NC valve to open/close the system, and another to dump the pressure. I had the idea of adding a flow control to the exhaust side of the dump valve so it doesnt deflate too quickly, making it easier to control. The remote relay does have a few millisecond delay, and being that the shocks have very small air reservoirs I think it will help.
This setup is very inexpensive and effective.
Now to make this setup a "dual path" where you can adjust pressure separately to each shock, you need a 4 channel/4 relay remote setup, two extra N/C solenoid valves, and some PTC splitters. Pictures on this setup to follow as I think I will go this route now that I see the benifits of it thanks to CyclingFit here on the forums.
Completed my dual path wireless remote air management system for the MA809 Air Shocks for just over $100 bucks. It certainly looks home brew, but it works exactly as the expensive unit. Video to follow!
This is really impressive! I am imagining it all tucked into a little metal box with bulkhead connections for the air lines and electrical. Well done!
Thank you kindly! I finally installed the other day and everything works great! The only issue I encountered is with my remote TPMS solution.
- Setting the air shock pressure has to be done while parked, and on a semi level surface.
- As the you drive the car, the air pressure in the shocks will fluctuate, which is normal. However the TPMS unit I have not being designed to work foro air suspension will throw a loud alarm and the warning that you have a tire leak. obviously not the case. you can reset the sensor display silencing the alarm, but it will come back about a minute later.
- Best solution I found is to set the pressure in the shocks initially, and verify trailer tire pressure, then turn the display off.
--Unless I can find a way to cut the piezo speaker wire this is best practice. Still not bad for $32.
- The system is pretty accurate within 1-2psi, and has real time updating of the pressure. The temperature feature isn't very good though,about a 6 degree variance, and if its in direct sunlight, it throws it way off. Again not terrible though.
that is wired and fed by local mounted remote air sensors, but I lack the console/dashboard space to mount properly.
EDIT:
I wanted to expand upon my experience with using a t fitting filling up the air shocks equally vs. Separately filling up the air shocks in a dual path set up. I have been told and also read that having a t fitting while it works well and it's a simple setup there is a bit of a seesaw effect. It's not overly pronounce since you have a rear torsion beam for the rear axle anyway. That being said after filling the driving difference between both setups I would highly recommend doing a dual path set up. If you wanted to go simpler than my current setup then to Schrader valves one for each shock. I noticed that the body does not have as much of a pronounced roll when cornering. This is because the air inside the shark does not get compressed enforced over to the other side. I didn't think that affect was as much as I thought before I did the conversion over.
Last edited by Bassguitarist1985; Mar 5, 2020 at 02:12 PM.
Removed that annoying beeper alarm. Its good for tires, but not needed for air shocks. Can always resolder it back in later. The numbers blink when the pressure is changing, and stop when it remains constant.
Last edited by Bassguitarist1985; Mar 6, 2020 at 08:48 PM.
Hey Bass, have you upgraded your brakes, such as different pads or rotors, specifically for better stopping power pulling trailers?
No need. Though helpful, what matters most is brakes on the trailer. I have 10" electric brakes with an inertia based controller. the OEM brakes work fine with them in conjunction. If I didnt have electric trailer brakes, I would certainly upgrade the rotors and pads.
A quick minor update. I swapped out my 1" hub spacers with 3MM ones. I was getting a slight vibration on the highway when you hit around 60MPH. Increasing speed to 65+ and the vibration goes away. My All Season tires are just about ready to be replaced, so there is a good chance that they are getting slightly out of round causing the vibration because I do not have any vibration with my snow tires on since they are very new. Hub Spacers amplify any preexisting condition. Before the spacers I had smooth driving through the entire speed range. I'd be the first to call shenanigans if I did not put the hub on properly or something was not installed correctly. I made sure to use a torque wrench to 80ft/lbs to install both the spacer and tire.
Never really took notice of the vibration because well, I am not doing much of any highway driving since COVID, just around town. Now 3MM spacers you can use the original studs thankfully, and now there is no vibration. 3MM while it is super close to the air fittings, there is just enough clearance for them not to interfere.
Monroe also doesn't seem to have consistency in where they punch the air fitting into the body of the shock. On one side the air fitting is pointed more towards the rear of the car, and the other it pointed further outward where the clearance between it and the tire is far less.
Wanted to pass the info along to those reading. Be aware that hub spacers will make any slight out of balance vibration worse.
Been awhile. Sitting just over 40k now, I work from home so the car doesnt get as many miles as it once did which is a great thing. Battery is getting weak will likley need to replace soon and buy a battery maintainer when not driving it as much.
Did a GDI cleaner can for the first time with yesterdays oil change. I have had a catch can installed since 17.5k. took the upper PCV hose off, and sprayed the cleaner through there to avoid damaging any sensors. Sprayed the whole can in there while the wife held the rpms between 2.5-3k rpms. The check engine light was flashing while doing this. I didnt read or clear the codes with my scanner, but I assume it was a misfire code. After finishing the can, had to shut down and restart as the engine must have gone into limp mode as the engine wouldnt rev higher than 2.5k. shut down and restart the engine and the check engine light went off and full rpm range returned. Wife held the engine at 3k for about 5 minutes to blast everything out, then shut down the engine.
Oil change was BLACK. Granted I was due anyway, but it would seem the car idles smoother now. No difference in power really, but idling at a light def seems smoother. Looks like I need to add this GDI cleaner to my oil change regiment as a preventative maintenance measure.
Other than that, everything is running well, just can use a really good washing and vacuuming ha!
