The additional hole that you might drill in order to mount this bar to your JDM should not weaken the spring perches. Whether or not the bar will work properly with your modified suspension is a question that I can't answer. The bar SHOULD work fine, but be prepared for other results. Again, Progress designed their bar to improve handling on Fits with stock springs/struts,

 

The bar works very well with my coliovers I have surprised many people that thought they could out corner me.

 

Squareback, you're totally right. I was typing this at work, and not paying enough attention to what I was writing. It has less rear grip but the extra stiffness in the rear causes the car to feel much better planted, and with much less push. I still think that the front end will break loose first, but it is much closer to a neutral balance.

 

I thought that would be the case, but couldn't say it as fact because I have stock suspension with the bar. Thanks for your confirmation Bap.

 

Wow!!!

Got the GF210's and Progress bar installed on Sat. and took a nice drive down to Hollister and Fremont Peak SP up San Juan Canyon Rd. Great little road and the mods made a night and day difference. Cornering is shifter kart flat but not at all harsh. Amazing. I was taking curves at the limits of my reflexes and the Fit never balked.

I would recommend doing both mods as the street ride is made much softer with the GF210's, yet handling is very flat. It just makes me wonder what the reviews in car magazines would have been like if the writers had tested the Fit with a paltry $300 spent on these two mods...

 

That's awesome to hear as I have GF210s myself. The only issue I have noticed with my Fit is the rear at times seems to feel like it fish tails =/ Is that where the anti-sway bar would wrok? I would like to see how it feels with the rear anti sway.

 

are you saying the GF210s have a lower spring rate than the stock springs?

 

No, actually GF210s are marketed as being 20-30% stiffer (I don't know the stock spring rate). I notice that small bumps are not felt as much - that's not from the Progress bar.

It still doesn't make sense to me why the bar should matter so much, after all it is not bolted to the frame at all and is just stiffening the torsion beam. Which should make handling worse actually. I guess because of the huge imbalance of the car towards understeer it just works out.

However I can't argue with the results. I have a new pic of my car that I'll post in the GF210 thread.

 

This may sound dumb, but hear me out. To see the effects of the bar for yourself (other than obviously putting it on your Fit), bend a paper clip into the shape of the Progress bar and hold it at the ends with something straight like the rear axle (maybe try a toothpick). It will be hard to give the best demo because the "axle" is not hinged to anything like the real Fit axle, but the paper clip will resist twisting of the toothpick. Because the real axle is attached to the chassis, it is more effective with the Progress bar, even with the bar not attached to the chassis in a traditional manner.

See if that makes sense . . .

Mike

 

Squareback is right, the stock axle is supposed to twist in it's travel when the car rolls in the corner. The Progress bar stiffens the rear axle but still allows some roll or twist(not as much as stock) in the axle. This works similar to having the sway bar tie into the chassis on a car with fully independent rear suspension.

I have more bars if you are interested. I hope this helps.

Tony D

 

I dont think my Fit has ever had the rear end get happy. How many others have had this happen?
Maybe its the Tanabe springs.....

Ive tried, I dont take it lightly around corners in my Fit. I'll just say now Ive almost had the back come out. I was trying though. I had to have 3 wheeled at least but I tried really hard to get the rear end out.

 

so can u assdrag better with this now?

 

It's pretty solid with GF210's and the bar under hard cornering. You'd have to do some FWD dorifto kinda tricks to walk that back end out. If the rear feels loose you may be out of alignment.

 

yeah rear feels loose, not losing grip, but sometimes it feels like it whips in and out during a turn.

 

Where is the best place to order this sway bar in the US? For fast shipping and online ordering?

 

I got mine directly from Progress. I ordered it on sunday, used the cheapest shipping and had it installed on the car on Tuesday night. I forgot, there is a link to this item in their store on the first page of the thread.

 

thanks for the purchase tip.. very interested in doing this.

 

im rolling stock, and if the situations right, my back end does come around a bit. keep in mind, i've only had this happen at the autox, on a decreasing radius turn, but, it did happed.

 

I havent tried it with my current 15's. I did it with my 14's and it was hard to do! Im sure itll be a little hard to do. It hasnt been raining much in FL (weird!) but I'll run some tests.

I took her around some corners last night. OooO Weee!! Not once did I slow down under 45mph. I was having fun. Down shifting and up shifting. D1ke Road FTW!!! Cool name huhh? Wont let me spell it.

 

After sitting on it for a couple of weeks, I finally got around to installing my bar last weekend (thanks for the torque specs, leonine). I got mine from newedgeperformance.com.

Really easy install. I supported the rear on jackstands, and when I unbolted the second shock absorber, both hubs came down together, and the springs fell out on their own, no pushing down necessary. I held my breath as I checked the brake lines, but they still had slack. The bar does kind of rest on the fuel line during install, but nothing to worry about. I put both springs back on at the same time and used a floorjack to compress one side first, and then the other.

It handles a little bit better now, more like go-carts at Boomers, although the stock ride wasn't all that bad to begin with IMO. I did similar mods to my pickup and minivan, and the improvement was much more noticeable on those. I don't get to push it much in LA traffic, but once in a while I get a chance to yank the steering wheel at an intersection and leave people behind (only to have them catch up at the next light).

I'd recommend this mod to anyone, even if you don't race. You'll never know when you're going to need that little extra handling stability. One word of caution with this mod: beware of flying objects in the cabin (ipods, pens, sunglasses, etc.)