a few years ago I purchased a life-time alignment change from Firestone and had my alignment done on my Honda Fit 2012 Sport. Now, every time they tried to properly align the rear drive-side toe, they can never get it to be in the green. I went to about six different FireStones and I always got the same results: they can never get the rear toe in the recommended green area.

I also took it to Town Fair Tire, and the same problem occurred. I even took it to the stealership I purchased the vehicle from, and they barely got it into the green.

What on earth is the problem? Is the rear axel damaged from an accident, or something? I purchased the vehicle used at 37,000 miles, and CarFax came out clean. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!


Firestone.

Town Fair Tire

Dealership before

Dealership After

 

Rear toe is non-adjustable. Only adjustment that can be made on the car without adding or modifying the car is front toe. Camber requires camber bolts on the front. The rear is incapable of being realigned, camber or toe.

 

Oh, wait, what? Based off the paperwork, how did they manage to change the rear toe to a better degree then? Every place I took it was able to get it a little better.

Is it just a scam that they are showing they did adjustments to the rear?

If the rear is incapable of being realigned, then how are the wheels supposed to have proper alignment?

Thanks.

 

yeah, as I’ve understood it for the last 10 years the rear can’t be aligned, it’s just a solid beam.

 

Ah, I see.

If it's just a solid beam, then what's this business about the paperwork showing different toe adjustments on the rear, driver side toe? Do the rear toe and camber get adjusted when the front wheels get an alignment change, or something?

I just don't understand how the rear toe and camber is saying it's modified from the paperwork they gave me. Lolz.

 

Toe and camber can vary minutely. Fuel tank level, driver weight, tire inflation, level trueness to the scale, ECT. I took mine to a college level shop my brother was in for a balance and alignment and the instructor was showing the act of placing your hand against the wheel was enough to change alignment.

But yeah, 100% confirmed the rear beam has no adjustment.

 

Amazing.

Thank you for clarification.

 

I have the same issue and it does chew up the driver side rear tire. Wish it was fixable. Have to rotate frequently to avoid the cupping wear setting in.

 

Did you have to purchase and install shims to make adjustments?

Also, why do vehicles not come standard with the appropriate equipment already installed in the vehicle? Why must one have to purchase camber bolts for the front, shims for the read, etcetera?

 

Simply put, economies of scale.

The factory is stamping out these parts and as long as they are within spec, it is good enough for the consumer. Some cars even arrive out of spec alignment-wise to dealerships.

My Subaru BRZ has non-adjustable camber up front and rear -- I had to buy camber bolts for the front and adjustable rear lower control arms. A BRZ takes less than 3 days to make.

My Alfa Romeo 4C on the other hand, everything is adjustable from the factory. I just need additional alignment shims to get more front camber. This is a more boutique hand-built car that takes 6 weeks to make, so economies of scale don't quite apply.

 

I was told that for this version of the Fit (2009-2013) it is not adjustable and you just have to live with it. I'm not an expert in rear suspensions in any way, but they said no shim kit is available because it's all one piece. Like the earlier poster said, it was a cost saving measure. Sad because the car is perfect except for this unfixable issue.

 

Wow. Talk about giving the customer a prosthetic leg without telling him or her about it. Lolz.

Since the rear cannot be adjusted, is it possible to remove the rear suspension, or whatever part, and replace it with a part to be able to make alignment adjustments, or is that even worth the cost and effort?

 

There were only ever three variants of rear suspension for the second gen. The USDM gets a solid swing arm, non adjustable. JDM and some UKDM Fits/Jazz got a solid swing arm with disc brakes, non adjustable. The GE6, which is related to the GE8 we get in the states was offered as a 4wd with semi-independent rear suspension, no idea if it was adjustable, few cars were ever built like that.

​​​​​​TLR is it's solid steel/or aluminum, it's not intended to be adjusted nor is there a way to add that feature. If it's way off but a new one. But looking at what you posted it's still well within tolerable limits. I'd just leave well enough alone.

 

OK, that is very informative.

Thank you.

 

We had that problem on a 2013. It was bad enouugh that we removed the rear bar and straightened it a local frame and axle place. They ancoired it down on a table bent it to my specs. It came out perfect. There were shim kits for the 1 gen Fits but on the 2nd gen Honda welded the parts together so you can not insert the shims. You can always purchase another bar or get one from the bone yard.

 

After reading the posts here about a member's problem with their rear wheel alignment, I noticed the following post located at the bottom of this page under the "related topics" heading. The post is titled "Rear Wheel alignment". This post was from 2015 and has a lot of useful info in it about the gen 2 2009-2013 Fit rear alignment. Post #30 is particularly helpful in seeing what was necessary to fix that particular car that was seriously out of spec on the right rear. Here's the link:: https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...alignment.html

 

Solid find. I wouldn't have considered one of those saving with a frame shop, learn something every day.

 

Wow, great find, indeed, and thank you very much for sharing.

I think might have to live with the problem for a long time, until I am no longer a noob mechanic and can take apart all the parts just to get to what they did to fix the issue. Lulz.

 

I see this is an old post, but just to let you know the rear camber and toe is adjustable with shims.
A company called "Specialty Products" likely makes a shim kit that will work.
Mine, like yours was a little toe-ed in on the left rear. I calculated the shim thickness and installed peelable brass shims.

 

You are very lucky. On most Fits those were bolted and then. welded. That make them non-adjustable.. I had one that we removed the rear wheel beam and put it on a frame table. We bent where we wanted it ..It was welded and could not be shimmed. Read my post on this from about 7 years ago.