Has anyone raised the fit by a couple of inches? After installing a hitch on the fit I often can't do steep sudden inclines (including my driveway) with loud scraping of the hitch. The Fit is already pretty low. I know the "norm" is the lower a vehicle so it drives better thru corners but I'm not a rally driver - I prefer to offroad my car :-)

Any ideas on what struts would be needed, also stiffer springs would likely be useful too. Would it be crazy expensive or worth considering?

Thanx

 

hmm..sounds like the hitch may be the problem. My uncle has a hitch on his Fit and he doesn't scrap and he lives in San Francisco. I think his is just your basic U-haul hitch. You could go with larger wheels but I don't think it will be cheap a hitch would be a lot cheaper. Maybe shop around for a different type/style of hitch.

 

I use Monroe Air Shocks, and my '09 Fit didn't even scrape on my steep driveway when I had it loaded with 900 pounds of cinder blocks stacked on the flat back floor.

Air shocks are not meant to raise the ride height per se, but to compensate for overload conditions. As part of that compensation, a slight increase in ride height can be apparent, but the rise is not that much.

There are several threads on these forums that describe the Monroe part numbers for shocks that will fit both the GD's and GE's. The shock mounts and stroke length are different between the two generations of Fits.

Ignore my suggestion if you are not comfortable and skilled as a mechanic. You have to swap some of the internal parts of the stock shock absorbers into the air shocks to make them work (swap the stock bump stops into the air shocks).

The air shocks work great, and actually increase ride comfort as well as increase handling just as long as you use a separate air fill valve for each shock. You have to buy a generic extra fill valve, but complete air line kits for air shocks are cheap on eBay. Others have also found the air line kits at parts stores like Autozone.

click to enlarge:
[img=http://img848.imageshack.us/img848/3804/imgp1404.th.jpg]

 

I think Texas Coyote used coilovers to lift his Fit, maybe he'll chime in?

 

I noticed today when parked next to an original model Fit (mine is an 09, the other was something before 09) that mine was significantly lower than the original model (several inches). I had been getting a wheel patched (put my winter tires on as a temp measure so I didn't need to use the silly little temp wheel) and the guy who did the patch commented on that same thing when he brought it out to my car.

So Honda must have lowered the Fit. Can I use the original fit suspension system to raise it up? Or maybe there is something wrong with my Fit? I haven't compared it to another 09 or later model so I can't say for certain.

 

In your OP, you didn't say whether you bought your Fit used, or new. If you bought it used, the previous owner probably put lowering springs on it. The first gen. Fits (GD3 is the chassis number in North America) were also quite low. I owned a GD3 and hated scraping over every steep driveway, and when I bought my GE8 (the chassis number for 2009 and later) I did not notice it being significantly lower than my previous Fit. Still hate scraping over driveways.

If you DO have after-market springs, you could advertise that you would like to buy/find/or trade for stock GE8 springs, and you will probably find some. A LOT of new Fit owners want their cars to be lower, and use lowering springs for that purpose. Some of them would be willing to sell their stock springs, probably at a good (low) price, but I am just guessing about that.

 

Do you guys not know how to drive? My driveway is MEGA STEEP, and when my GD was stock I could drive straight in (barely scraped once lowered) and my Mom's 2012 Sport can drive straight in without issue.

 

according to https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/gene...-addition.html

the OP bought a 2009 in 2011... so it probably is used.

 

My stock GE w/ hitch only scrapes when fully loaded w/ trailer + gear in the back, and only if I pull out strait, so I usually just go off at an angle. The trailer is well balanced so there isn't much tongue weight, but the couple hundred pounds of gear in the car makes it squat considerably. You can see the ammont of droop in my sig.

Sounds like you have lowering springs; it shouldn't be hard at all to find a good used set of OEMs.

Do you have a trailer hitch installed on those cars Mr. Schumacher?

 

On something with 109 bhp and a unibody? I'd never even consider doing something so silly.

 

I have no idea where this comment is coming from or where it's been directed.

The towing picture?

"Offroad" (meaning easy dirt roads)?

Unibody has no meaning - most SUVs are unibody now and they both tow lots and will easily do easy dirt roads (potholes etc).

As for towing and 109hp (116hp now isn't it?) it would depend on the load. Back in the day cars with less than that towed 1000lbs. It won't be the engine that is the limit but the transmission I suspect.

 

Any way to tell by looking at the springs themselves?

 

It's never how steep but the transition.

Do you have a hitch and a bike rack on it? Because that's what I hit angled or not. The hitch is about 2-3" lower and the rack extends the car out by a foot or so.

Maybe you could give driving classes to those of us less fortunate in our driving skills.

 

If they're brightly colored, red, blue, green, yellow they're definitely aftermarket. There are a few lowering springs that are black... I think Eibach?

If they're black, and all of the spring winds are the same distance apart from each other they're OEM, if some winds are really close together and some further apart, they're aftermarket.

 

His driveway is obviously not as steep as mine, and I don't scrape the rear of the car. It is the extra low front lip that hits the ground around here. Particularly on driveways of shopping centers. And I would not accept driving lessons from a self-important little kid anyway.

 

If I have to try to scrape and my car is this far from the ground:

Then it's clear that you're doing something wrong.

Also, you're complaining about the front being too low and proceed to inquire as to having a tow hitch?

As for unibody for towing purposes, you realize the unibody SUV's can't tow as much as their body-on-frame counterparts right?

Today's SUV's are moving further and further toward crossovers and are being aimed at the 40-50 year old soccer mom's that mainly buy them.

Look at pickup trucks (you know the thing that people actually tow things with), ALL BODY ON FRAME.

For reference:

2002 Ford Explorer (Body-On-Frame) is rated to tow up to 7000 lbs.
2013 Ford Explorer (Unibody) is rated to tow up to 5000 lbs.

 

Wow - first - chill! You started this whole "you need to learn to drive thing" and I was actually very restraint with my response. You then read postings by others, combined them with my response to then once again attack me - so first read carefully before replying.

I NEVER said my front end was scraping - again that was someone else's post.

I owned an Xterra and so I do understand about towing, unibody vs ladder frame etc. Funny that the 2002 Pathfinder could tow more than my 2002 Xterra yet the Pathfinder was unibody while the Xterra was ladder frame. Hmm - go figure. Perhaps there are more factors than simple unibody vs ladder frame?

But what I don't understand is why you like to talk down to people? You don't know me, you don't read posts properly, and then act like you are superior. If you have something to say, after carefully following a thread that you wish to provide input in, write it in such a way as to provide advice rather than trying to snub others.

 

As in my label- "Self important little kid". There are lots of them on these forums.

 

It probably had something to do with the huge power disparities.

Also, neither of those could tow much at all.

As to one of the earlier posts, no the Fit has not been 'lowered' by Honda. My Fit in stock trim rode at the same height as my parents 2012 Sport, even with mine being a base.

 

Hey OP maybe you can shoot a few pics of your car and we can get a better idea of what you're dealing with.