So my car has been making a lot of squeaky noises and The ride just isn't the same anymore . so I was checking under the hood to see if anything was causing this creakiness and my hood wasn't fitting properly or closing properly , which was another odd thing so back to checking the suspension I was seeing if it was loose causing the squeaking and then I saw this

We've all hit our fair Share of imperfections on our local roads. But this should never be able to happen.
Any advice on what I should do I was told to put everything back to stock and take it to the dealership but I don't think my suspension would be the cause of this problem so I don't think the suspension would matter but since the warranty and everything I'm thinking I have to put it back to stock so Honda doesn't give me any BS at the dealership.
Ps be careful all you other fit owners with second-generation this could happen to any of us, it seems to me that it was a weak weld or something

Car is only 2 years old!! 70 k on it.. I drive a lot ^_^

 

Whoa - do you remember feeling that let go? Looks like only two spot welds. That can't be right.

Honda is going to look for reasons. Not sure what to say... but how would/could a suspension mod cause that type of structural failure???

Good luck man.

 

Not really I guess it was gradually splitting further and further

 

damn that's crazy.
cuz u ride so durrrty.
how stiff are ur coils?

 

Extremely stiff springs, low profile tires, heavy wheels, etc coupled with the horrible NJ roads could cause that to happen. The tires, springs, struts, etc are designed to give on impacts. Take away their ability to give and the next component will. In this case it was the shock tower.

I'm not saying it should happen, just saying what could in theory lead to this type of damage.

Honda is going to see it the same way so I'd recommend having the factory springs, struts, wheels, tires, etc on the car when you take it in. Don't worry about visual mods, motor work, etc as much as suspension and wheel/tire mods. Those are what can lead to this.

 

Wow!

Definitely put it back to stock when take it back. They most definitely will void the warranty work with altered suspension.

I agree it looks like just a couple spot welds, which can't be right... at least I hope not. If so, I WILL be paying to have that whole area stitch welded before I do any sort of motorsports with the Fit.

 

Oh, also, if you have low offset wheels, that changes the direction of travel that is forced on the shock tower via the strut. Basically, instead of the up/down motion the strut is being pushed at an angle toward the inside of the shock tower which can easily cause the welds to break and the tower to push inward.

 

I just looked over your progress thread and your car is beautiful!!! However, your mods definitely caused the damage. You are way outside the design parameters for suspension components and wheel offset.

Not hating cause you car is beautiful, just saying that the damage is not unusual given your mods. Unfortunately, the old saying "you gotta pay to play" is so true when it comes to modifying cars. I've torn up my fair share of sh!t.

 

Yea, I guess it's not worth risking. Thing is though, to fail a welded connection takes a whole lot of direct force. I see sheet metal shear at only two spot welds. Even if stiff it's still a suspension. Gonna be looking at mine to see if that's all there are. Sure doesn't seem right.

 

what a shame, your fit is sooo cool!!! I'd even be worried about post online and having Honda find your mods. Maybe delete the progress?

 

wow..seen this on fb earlier......unreal. best of luck at the dealership...

 

I think a good body shop is your next stop.

It's out of warranty and the suspension mods are the cause. Basically there wasn't any. suspension.

 

I have to, sadly, agree. A chassis shop that builds race cars would be my first choice if you can find one.

 

WOW! I never knew there where so many experts on this site. Just one pic of the damage and you guys can say with out a dought that his suspension is at fault for the damage, that really is impressive.

While I have all you experts in one place can you look at a pic of my car? This is a pic of the cars front suspension at full droop, how long do I have before I have catastrophic suspension failure?

 

That's just horrible making me paranoid. Going to check on my car now.

 

Seriously doe, i'm not saying that his suspension caused the failure, I kind of think (kind of hope?) that was a defect unique to his car and his suspension just caused it to fail sooner than it would have normally.

 

Oh dang! Well your suspension setup was pretty nuts, but I still wouldn't even have expected that.

 

I'm going to answer the rhetorical question that you threw out there to the "experts" even though you know the answer.

It is not the "droop" (I'm guessing you meant drop) that has an affect. It is the amount of suspension travel, stiffness of springs, stiffness of sidewall, weight and offset of wheels, and, most importantly severity of and quantity of impacts that the vehicle sees that factors into shock tower stress/failure.

So, if you have little to no suspension travel, stiff springs, extra low sidewall tires, heavy wheels with aggressive offset, and then drive on crappy roads you are more likely to have some form of suspension bushing, mount, etc failure.

I'm not saying that you will or should...just more likely.

In your case, you appear to have light wheels with normal offset and normal size tires so, you only have one negative among many factors.

To the OP, I don't know what type of roads you drive on or how you drive. I am also not saying that this kind of thing should ever happen. I would hope that there is enough extra strength built in from the factory to accomodate your mods. Unfortunately, it appears there weren't.

 

No I ment droop. With my front tire complete off the ground it looks almost exactly as it would if the car was on the ground. My suspension is pretty stiff, and yes I do have light wheels but the tires are low profile and the offset is lower then the OEM offset. I also live in MN and DD'ed the car like that for 3 years. My car has not had a failure like that and I drive on some pretty nasty roads my self. I think it is more of a manufacture failure then a suspention one, but WTF do I know im not a Honda engineer

 

There is no excuse for that type of body weld failure without the car being in a collision.

This is a Honda. The body welds should hold. If, for any reason, Honda tries to hang this on 'suspension mods' there's a real good reason why Honda sales are dropping like flies.

I'm no expert but body weld failures because of springs and shocks just don't happen, not in a production car. If so then we all face similar failures if we hit a pothole hard.

Two spot welds holding the shock tower to the engine main frame - Shoddy mfg QC and, basically a poor design.