There are many of us with rear alignment issues. They are prevalent on stock suspensions never mind those, like me, who have lowered our Fits. The fix is not all that bad or expensive. But if you want a better handling car not to mention better tire wear it is worth doing.

The process involves machining the rear stub axle. The axle is basically a (ruffly) 5/8" of plate steel with the stub. The drum brake assy, bearings and wheel are all bolted to this. The stub axle is bolted on to the main axle by four bolts. Stripping the stub axle of all this only takes about 30 minutes, if that, if you know what you are doing. It is not that bad of a job by any means.

You do need a print out of what your alignment is before you do all this. Find a competent machine shop. Give them your stub axles and the alignment numbers. They will machine the flat plate steel so when you bolt it back on your car it will be in spec. This should be a one time shot if your alignment numbers were correct and the machine shop knows what they are doing. A little research into a good alignment and machine shop will go a long way here.

As for shims, do you want to bet your life on little plastic things (shims) bolted/torqued between two 5/8" of plate steel? The stub axle flange to the axle flange... For the life of the car? I for one don't. I did bring this up with a very competent auto shop. They laughed almost as hard as I did when I brought up the shim thing to them.

 

and shims are just out of the question...?

 

Updated my post, thanks.

 

Congrats on getting your alignment straightened out, there are too many people not doing anything about it, imo. Machining can definitely work - assuming there's a machine shop you trust to get it right. The problem I had with it is if they don't get it right (or when you need to have it done again after a bad season of potholes), you're going to be gaining offset every time.

I like my SPC shims, and the high density composite plastic they're made out of will be more durable than the cast iron it's sandwiched between. So when my alignment needs to be fixed again (new ride height, different suspension, slide into a snowbank, etc.), I can always set up new shims to compensate.

 

Agreed, there is nothing wrong with plastic being used in this application. As for which method is better, they have the same outcome, just one will be adjustable in the future and cost you less. The machining method you will have to get right the first time or you will be buying new stub axles at like 175.00ish...

Good info for everyone tho! How much was the machining cost?

 

you can machine your current axles. if at a later date you go back to your original suspension then you could have them re-machined flat or buy new ones. the amount of material removed (twice) would be minimal at most. you would never know it on the car.

as for the cost of machining, i paid $35 per axle. so figure in the cost of at least the initial alignment if not a follow up alignment to check the results.

plastic shims - i for one will not trust several pieces of plastic in such a critical and stressed area that they are used. are they safe? they are marketed as shims for such a purpose so i would hope so. i just will not use them on my car between two 5/8" pieces of steel bolted together.