I traded in my 2015 EX for this 2018 Sport on April 2 2018




This is my super fun daily driver and parts chaser build thread.

 

4/27/18 518mi
Lowered with Tanabe springs on stock struts for now. I’m still considering coil overs or Koni struts.

15x7 949Racing beryllium 6UL wheels shod in 205/50/15 Yokohama S-Drive tires.








Spring installation was pretty straight forward. I used my stop watch, 26min to do the rear and 35min to do the front springs. 105min start to finish.






Starting with a new car sure makes this job clean and quick.





Stock front



Stock rear



Rear spring comparison



I cut the rear snubbers in place.



After cutting the snubbers and shaving down the diameter of the next bulge I used some silicone spray to help force the next bulge back into the sleeve. Results look factory fresh.



The rear is super easy. Just the lower shock bolts need to be removed then they trailing arm will drop, springs fall right out.



Remove the rubber caps from the strut pins then use an Allen key to hold the strut shaft, while you spin off the single upper nut. Pretty simple.



Front spring comparison



Spring compressor needed to safely remove the stock springs but not needed for re-installation of the lowered springs.



Stock vs. Tanabe



These are the caps that were covering the Allen key holes on the front strut pins.







Well, the rear is a bit droopy for my liking. I feel like Tenabe got the length wrong. I’m not sure if I’ll keep these springs or switch to something else.

 

Nice car and great pics!

Have to agree about the rear ride height. At least in the picture, it looks a bit low in the rear or not low enough in the front.

 

4/28/18
After looking at my droopy butt rocket ship for half a day and thinking about it all night I came up with a simple solution.




Upper rear spring locating boss



Machined aluminum 19mm spring spacers







Spring spacers installed



The spacers locate tightly over the original pin



I’m stoked now! I feel like the ride height is perfect with the 19mm spacers

 

Much better!!!

Great job on the spacers. Did you make those yourself?

 

Thanks! Yes, I machined them out of scrap aluminum.

 

Hmm, that’s often the case with many springs (from my experience anyway). The Eibach’s on my EP3 were like this too. Nonetheless, glad you found a solution that works. Looks fantastic, and I really like this facelift / sport kit

 

you should consider machining some more of those and marketing them as "saggy butt spacers" or something along those lines

(back in the subaru forums, some really did make a "saggy butt spacer")

 

Cars looking great op

 

Any chance you'd be willing to make another set of spring spacers? love the height your Fit sits at with them installed with the Tanabe's.

 

Great looking car!!! Never lowered my previous GD, but after seeing all the great looking results on FF, will definitely make this a future project once my stock shocks hit 50k.

Post impressions of your ride. Is it still bouncy with the stock shocks? Did you decide on the Koni's?

Market your machined spacers. Good stuff for many of us FF's

It's looking like the GK may be the last non-aspirated Fit. Very sad.