So when I was installing my Spoon Strut Bar on the weekend, I noticed that the top black plastic piece that goes just under the nut on the strut in the engine bay is loose. It has a little bit of vertical play and I can spin it freely. The other side is snug and tight. Anyone have any idea what the problem could be? I got my Eibachs installed from a Honda mechanic, so I don't see them screwing this up.

 

Um... Is the Nut screwed all the way down? Is it possible it has been working it's way loose or got missed by the mechanics?

 

The nut is pretty tight.

 

If you're talking about the big black rubber piece (Damper Mounting Cusion, see below), it is actually SUPPOSED to be pretty free, and spins on the Damper Mounting Bearing. (Actually, the whole damper is free to spin on under the Damper Mounting Cushion). I think this is to help the strut align as you install it.

After a while, though, the Damper Mounting Cushion becomes pretty well seated in the upper spring seat, and this is what causes it not to spin.

I found that after swapping springs myself, and then swapping back after 20 miles, that one of the Damper Mounting cushions had become "stuck" in the seat, and the other one was free spinning.

In any case, no worries about it spinning.



Just to be clear, the Damper mounting cushion sits in the wheel well. The black rubber piece that sits in the engine compartment is the Damper Mounting Base (unlabeled in diagram above), and this should not be free. Check for the washer under the nut. If you have to remove the nut, it's 17mm, 33 foot pounds, or 44 Nm.
Hope this helps!

 

Thanks for the insight lubricus. Yeah I'm talking about the Damper Mounting Base. Upon closer inspection, the one that is tight has two nuts, one above and one below it holding it in place. The other side only has the one above it and nothing below it. It is also a lot farther down the threaded shaft than the side that is snug...I think I am missing a nut...can anyone confirm that there is one below that mounting base? Thanks.

BTW, the nut is 17mm, is there a pitch that I have to worry about?

 

Hey,
I labelled a few more things. (see below)

It sounds like your strut was assembled incorrectly.

Note the position of the fender well. If you are looking in the engine compartment and see two nuts, theres a good chance that they mis positioned the nut that's supposed to be holding down the upper spring seat. (This is likely if one of the nuts you see is a 19mm, this is supposed to be below the damping mounting cushion).

If there is no nut on the upper spring seat, this is DANGEROUS! A lot of stuff can get damaged.

If you see two nuts, I recommend that you take it back to whoever did the springs IMMEDIATELY before the strut, or your fenderwell is damaged!

You could do this yourself, but it'd be about 30 minutes with all the proper tools, about 3X that without, and if you paid someone to do it, they should see what they did and face their shame!

I hope this clears up the "where are the nuts" conundrum. Basically, you should see a 17mm nut in the engine compartment. the 19mm nut can be seen from the engine compartment if you remove the damper mounting base, but the 19mm nut is really UNDERNEATH the damper mounting cushion (the cushion just has a really big hole that wraps around the nut.)

 

When I took a look at it on Sat, I think you might be missing the washer off the upper assembly. Just speculating a bit, but maybe that is why it is spinning freely, basically the nut is not able to spread the load out accross the top of the damper base.

That 17mm nut is hard to get at, I couldn't get a torque wrench on it when I did mine.

 

yeah, unfortunately you have to box-wrench the 17mm nut, it's kind of a pain.

 

I should take a few pics and post them. I don't think the guys who did my alignment would have taken it apart to adjust it. I got my lowering springs done at a Honda dealership and I haven't touched it since except for that alignment. I hope to hell it didn't screw me over bad because I've probably been driving it like this for the whole summer. And if I were to tell them they screwed up, they probably wouldn't believe me since its been so long and think I did something to it. Thanks for your help lubricus.

 

Here are some pics I took, the first two are of the loose one on the passenger side. The last two are from the drivers side and it is snug and doesn't move. The drivers side I can see the nut underneath that black piece, but I can't see if there is one under the passenger side.

 

Illusive:

You got problems I think.

Can you confirm that the nut on the passenger side is larger than the one on the driver's side? If I remember correctly, the 17mm nut has a gold-ish color, and the 19mm nut has a steel color. From the pictures, it looks like the passenger side has the 19mm nut where the 17mm nut should be, and I have no idea where the 17mm nut is. Maybe the two got swapped.

It's a little hard to tell whether or not the nut underneath is correct in either side.

In any case, if you can confirm that the nuts on the drivers side and passenger side are not the same size, then I can confirm that your suspension is not put together correctly in a dangerous way. The damper cushion (the one underneath the fender well) has a hole in the middle that is 19mm in diameter. If they used the top 17mm nut there, there will be a lot of free play, and the rubber parts should be checked to see if they're worn if you've been driving on it all summer this way.

It also looks like the washers are missing...

Bummer man, sorry to see this.

So you had the dealer install the springs, and then you had an alignment? You're right that someone doing an alignment probably didn't reverse the nuts, the 19mm one is holding the spring down, although they might have loosened the top nut, but only the person who installed the springs would have swapped the 17 and 19.

 

Yeah it was at a Honda dealership. I really don't think a 30 min alignment would warrant taking the whole thing apart. I won't drive it until I can get this checked. How hard would it be to do this on my own? My car is quite low and it is going to be interesting to try and jack it up as my scissor jack constantly buckles to the side so I have to use a floor jack.

Do I need to jack up the car to take apart those nuts or can I just do it with the car on the ground? Also, if I needed to check all of that stuff you mentioned, should I remove the whole strut and put it back together or can I just jack up the car, take off the wheel, and inspect?

 

I think if they screwed up the 19mm and the 17mm you probably have to pull the strut. It isn't too hard, there are a few DIY's (A good one here How To: Install Skunk2 Lowering Springs for Honda Fit. It lists all the tools and stuff you require to do it. Lots of pics too... here is how it should look (Pics & DIY coutesy of Fit4Kris)



The only major thing to watch out for is to ensure you support the lugs!!! If you let the assembly fall forward it pulls your CV joint out and that is all kinds of trouble.

If you are missing stuff (like washers) I would go back to where you had it installed and ask them to find the stuff they left out and do it properly this time around. Maybe bring in the diagram too

 

Hey Illusive,
To fix the problem, you would definitely have to jack the car as Sugarphreak says.

If you want to just check the parts, it would actually be easiest to do it from above (the engine compartment).

Now: take the following with a huge grain of salt. I'm 95% certain it would work, but not entirely sure.

If you have your Fit on nice, level ground, and chock the wheels so nothing moves, and don't put to much force in any direction on the Fit, you should be able to undo the top nut (be it the 17 or 19 or whatever they put on there), and lift off the Damper mounting base to look at the damper mounting cushion and what SHOULD be the top of the 19mm nut. If they at least put the damper mounting cushion (which you should be able to see/feel from the wheel well), then the top of the strut should be pretty securely in the well, and should just hold still.

Actually before that, you should at least put the jack under and jack it till you see the car start to move, just to take most of the weight off the strut.

Again, this is just to lift the damper mounting base to get a look underneath. There should be a nut, and it should be bigger than the one on top. To swap, you'd have to do the whole strut removal, although the biggest pain, compressing springs, shouldn't be a problem with lowered springs.

Good luck!

 

oh wait,
you could do the above just to check the nuts. But you won't be able to get a good look at the whole cushion unless you removed the strut. If you look, and see a small nut (or no nut), you should really do the whole strut removal.

Actually, if you see a small nut or no nut, you should take it back to the dealer (since you've been driving on it this way for months anyways), and bitch them out, so they'll be the first to see any damage they might have done, and they'll see what they have to replace.

 

Yeah I got them done by the dealer. I hope they didn't half ass it because I took out my T1R coils and put the stock struts and springs back in. I think I'll order those parts just in case...thanks again for your help lubricus and Sugarphreak, I'll definitely be taking it back, hopefully they can fix it this Friday. It should be an easy and quick fix for them.

 

Can anyone chime in on the ID, pitch, and the size of the hex nuts? They might be on backorder and I might have to find them somewhere else

 

unfortunatly they don't give me the actual dimensions of these nuts but if the need be we can match them up with a variety of nuts that we have here.

 

Hopefully they fit...otherwise we are gonna have to hit up a partsource or napa or worst case scenario, home depot lol...actually worst case is crappy tire...

Thanks again for your help JDMish, let me know when you can get me in. Like I said, I can come anytime, work is flexible

 

The manual lists these as:

12 x 1.25 upper
12 x 1.25 lower

I think both of these are mm height and pitch.

I looked through mcmaster carr but didn't see any that match.

If you google "honda parts oem" you can find these nuts for around $1.95 for the lower, $1.15 for the upper,and 0.98 for the washer