Several of us have the Jazz rear discs. No problems and do indeed help in HD braking. Check AJ for complete kit.
Check the suspension and brake section of posts going back a year or more.
Why would think thr brake pedal wouldn't be firm. Air in the lines ? Not here.

 

I track my car, and I don't see or feel anything wrong with using just rear drums. If anything, the initial bite with drums is supposedly harder than discs.

The only real issue of drums is temperature management. Drums are pretty much "sealed" in construction - no real way of dissipating the heat, at least not in stock condition - so they may limit the total track running of a Fit due to heat soak. That said, I've gone out for eight hot laps at a time and haven't had any brake-related problems.

 

I would like to hear from those who have the Jazz rear discs.

Many are making the arguement that drums are good enough. Have you thought about a car on a freeway in front of you slamming the brakes on? Then I think you will wish you had better brakes. You don't have to have a sports car to need better brakes.

Drums take more time to swap out than disc. If you guys have ever worked on brakes, you will know disc are easy to swap out compared to drums.

 

Better brakes? High-friction brake pads up front ought to do the job - there's plenty out there. Fact is, around 70% of the braking is done by the front wheels, and with good reason: almost 65% of the car's weight is up front.

Drums and their brake shoes are admittedly a pain in the butt to swap out, but if you're talking about ability alone, they're just fine for the purpose.

As for that freeway sudden-braking argument - have you even brought your car to the track? You'll abuse your brakes much more there than at ANY freeway, believe me. A racetrack will almost always have a straightaway and one big bad braking zone before a particularly low-speed corner. I'm telling you, if stock drums can work there without incident, they'll work pretty much anywhere else.

Unlike you guys in North America, my GD1 doesn't even have ABS to save my ass. That's just how I got my car.

If you still want to swap discs...well it's your money, your car, your happiness. Just don't pooh-pooh the humble but mighty effective drums.

 

Nonsense. absolutely not true.

 

Well, some of agree with Honda, who put disc brakes on the rear of Fits sold in most countries where driving is really done.

I guess you're in the just good enough' crowd, eh?
Wonder if you have nav?
Since I have the discs on the rear I can affirm that the brakes work better. PS my Fit is for sale, need new project car this year, see used Fit stuff for sale. Perhaps a 2 liter CRZ.
But while shorter braking distances result, better tires are needed to take advantage. And most won't keeptheir Fit long enough to change rear shoes, so for most its not an issue

 

FWIW, if you want your stock Fit Sport to stop better, go to 205/50's first. Made a significant difference in my car.

 

If your rear drum brakes either lock up (or better put on these ABS cars, the rear abs kicks in) going to discs will not help in the slightest with the bolded scenario you presented.

In other words if the drums brake enough to exceed the traction limit of your tires in an emergency situation, then even huge Brembo discs and calipers will do nothing better than the drums except vastly improve fade from closely spaced repeated panic braking. In fact if you added a lot of weight in a brake swap braking distances could even increase because there is more weight to stop.

I agree with mahout, in that if you switched to wider stickier softer compound tires, then maybe discs could translate to shorter braking distances.

One last point, your ABS was designed for the Fit's rear drums. It is at least possible the ABS with a disc conversion wont fire and reapply as efficiently as it was not designed for that as a system, and that could result in longer stop distances. (Admittedly hypothetical on this last point)

 

FYI:
Our GE6s and GE8s don't get nav. More of a nav adoption rate thing, to be perfectly honest. GPS and nav are still pretty much in their infancy here.

Early-model GDs like mine didn't get disc brakes standard either - mine's a second-hand car.

The discs came with the so-called "minor model change" (MMC) that happened in 2006 - and only on the GD3s, not the GD1s, as far as I know. Not enough difference in power between the two cars to strictly require a disc upgrade though, IMO. Pre-MMC GD3s still had drums (even in Japan, where the MMC changeover happened a year sooner) and they worked just fine, even hooning around Subic International Raceway.
Agreed, my sentiments exactly. I upgraded my rubbers to the 205/45R16 size - Bridgestone first, then Toyo currently - and immediately felt the improvement under braking. They aren't as willing to lock up as they used to with the stock Michelin Vivacy 175/65R14s (which are crap, even as stock economy-biased tires), and are much more powerful.

I still maintain that for the Fit's purposes one doesn't need rear discs - especially not for the street. They're essentially a nice-to-have. In this age of automotive "bling" I guess rear discs would be great, but functionally most of us ain't losing out with the humble drum.

 

really??? i mean really? ok when an 18 wheeler has to stop the driver presses the brakes do you kno what type of brakes the truck uses to stop an ave. weight of 12,000- 80,000 lbs.?


it uses drums because of how strong they are

 

Honda upgraded the Jazz to rear disc because drums are shit.

 

Well, I ain't the auto-God of all knowledge, so I guess if some of you think drums are shit, then thas the way they are for you? So why not just spend your $$ on expensive conversions and stop BS'ing about it to the rest of us who are quite content with drums in the rear?
-AFAIC my 2010 Base Fit (with ABS) stops very very excellently, very very quickly, whenever I need it to! (And I haven't had many cars that do stop as well as this Fit does, even with it's "shit" rear drums!!)

And from experience I do know about the rear drums lasting longer... My '05 Toyota Echo, a very light weight car also equipped with a good disk/drum front/rear brake setup, didn't need a brake job until 85K miles. -On the front disks, that is! The rear drums? According to the brake mechanic doing the job, they were still absolutely fine!

 

I won't downplay the drums because for what the Fit is, a great commuter car and bought mostly for that reason by the masses, they would work perfectly fine. Though on that note, I am really glad that mine came with discs in the rear versus the drum. I eventually plan on getting out on Fuji, Tsukuba and whatever other tracks I can and drums eventually have their limitations. For time attack events where you are not going all out for very long the drums would suffice as Type 100 can account to with his 8 hot laps or was it 6 hot laps and a run in and run out lap? Either way for non-extended times the drums work.

Remember what this car was intended for. Not saying there are some of us who purchased it to play around in. I'm going to play in mine without a doubt, but I sold my S2000 before coming back to Japan with the intentions of finding a decent NS-X NA2 variety eventually. Still wish I didn't though, because I miss it, but I also miss my dead 5R Teggy and hell all my other Hondas I had when I used to live down on Okinawa.

 

That would be one out-lap, 8 hot laps, then an in-lap. Braking still felt good. I'd estimate I could go about 4, at most 5 more hot laps without any fade. Subic is a short track but has two big braking areas.

Next time I'll be running somewhere else (Batangas Racing Circuit = BRC) with longer straights. Would love to test how the stock brakes will stand up there.

 

well since everyone else is talking about performance i'll switch it up. I'd do it because I DON'T race my fit. Just for the cosmetic improvement. When I get new rims i'd rather be looking in at 4 wheel disc brakes. To me disc just looks better. I'll leave the performance to my cars that go faster.

 

Just saw this on eBay's UK site. Shipping will likely be ridiculously expensive though.

 

agreed! even if i don't do the K swap, ill still do the brake conversion because i like the looks of disk brakes over drums.

 

Wet braking is the one area where disk brakes are a definate advantage. The reason is that the edge of the pad along with the centrifugal force of the disk spinning will dry off the brakes much faster than drums can manage because the centrigugal force is actualy holding the water IN the drums.

 

You dug up a 9 month old thread?

Let's face it, drums have their advantage and so do disc brakes.

If you don't change your tires, or the weight distribution of the car (and it would have to be A LOT)... a disc conversion ISN'T going to help. All the disc would do, lock up sooner. Like posted earlier, braking is all about friction and traction. You'd rather have tires with traction slow you down, than to skid, right?

BTW... unless you drive through a pond of water, you're not all that likely to have water on the braking surfaces to begin with. The drums face in and the sheer spinning would create a slight air "surface" that repels smaller water droplets.

And if you do drive through a pond... you shouldn't be going all that fast for a while anyway.

Let me list it this way.

Are disc brakes superior to drums? Yes.
Are they absolutely necessary in the Fit? No.
How would a disc conversion affect the fit? Negatively, if it's the only change.

I'll say it again... without the right tires, a rear disc conversion could be worse.

Its the same thing going with bigger brakes... without the tires (and a host of other changes), it'll only make things worse.

Its one thing when the car comes from the factory with discs, and a WHOLE other thing when doing the conversion. The factory would've factored in the braking bias and guess what? Reduced the amount of brake line pressure in the rears.... that's so the brake force stays the same.

Go, grab a car (or specifically, a Fit) with factory discs... get a pressure test of the brake lines (when the brakes are pressed, of course)... compare them to a Fit with factory drums.

Personally, I like the looks of disc brakes, and if I were to do such a conversion, I'd put disc in rears, BIGGER disc in fronts and GRIPPER tires all around (and of course, have ABS, ECU and anything else adjusted accordingly). Short of that, forget it.

 

What about CR-Z's rear disk brakes? Course they are 5 lugs.