Ah, I see where you're coming from now. I was thinking more along the lines of bottoming out rather than hanging the suspension. The OEM shock is a KYB piece that's gas charged... extends to full length on it's own. Jacking up just one side of the car, and then placing blocks under the spring perch on the axle, I saw that the shock extended a little further once I pulled the lower shock bolt out. To be expected, I guess. I didn't try dropping the axle all the way down without the shock in place, mostly because it didn't cross my mind, but I also didn't have a safe way to try it. I can't say if the springs would fall out or not with a too-long shock, but it should be pretty easy to hold the springs in place with zip ties or something. Since the OEM shocks are already pretty stinkin' long, I can't really see that being a risk unless there's some other restraint on the axle.

HF

 

Hemi: Thx for the measurements. From those results, it looks like the Saab 900 shocks won't work, since their length at max extension is 17" (judging from Mahout's info earlier), but the early Cavalier shocks would work nicely.

BTW, I hit up two junkyards over the weekend to look at shocks. It's clear that the 1995+ Cavalier shocks won't work because Chevy went to a full strut design in the rear. But the earlier generation uses a separate strut/shock just like the Fit. But needless to say, I didn't find any shocks worth taking home. All the Cavaliers in the junkyards had OEM shocks on them.

 

Car in video does understeer but not bad, as the suspension is improved with stiffer coils up front and better shocks in the rear.. I also had rear camera and in that you can see tire smoke from both front wheels out of Oak Tree as traction control does its job. A very good family car.

 

Well my quest that started this thread is finding a road block.

I approached Ellis Engineering (Steven Ellis) in Charlotte, NC to make custom struts and shocks for me. This goes back to my original contact in April 2007. I sent him brand new OEM parts to work from doing dyno testing and such. Long story short.....
I contacted Charlotte P.D. this past week and filed a Fraud Report against him.
Lots of excuses and delays. Ultimately I would rather have my parts back and the new items made as paid for.

It appears that he is listed by the local news and BBB as part of the "Dirty Dozen" businesses in the area that have numerous unsettled complaints against them.

I guess I will be getting some Cavalier rear shocks as mentioned here and using those for the rear. As for the front, I'm still looking. My coilovers are sucking. At least I don't drive the car everyday. Right now it's put away for the winter.

 

Radar: Man that really sucks. If the guy had been reputable, his work (and your effort) could have really added to the body of knowledge here, and he probably would have had a lot more customers for those custom shocks, myself included. Bummer. I hope you don't have to fight him too long.

 

[quote=HEMI-Fit;247101]AH, and here I was thinking it was a view from a Fit, and was saying to myself, "gee, it looks like the Fit really does generate some velocity on the track..." Ah, well.

I've heard about driving instructors working with H-Stock guys and wishing they had brought a sandwich along for the drive. Nice...

That is the truth. It seems like the straights go on forever. I've instructed Sprites in lead-follow in my Eclipse and could have driven to the end of the straight, stopped for a drink, and still gotten in right behind the Sprite before the next corner.
Don't get me wrong; everyone should learn competition or high performance driving in Sprites. You learn to conserve speed; thats a vital backbone to hipo driving. Once you learn how to lose less you will minimize lap times. Those who start with high powered cars rarely learn that and when the competition does they have no idea why they fall back.
Brian Redmond said it best: "its not how fast you drive, its how not slow you drive".

 

just for clarification - where did you need to add the washers (unclear of where yoke is) and how many washers did you use? By using the washers - does it rattle when driving???

thanks again!

 

I figured as well that this guy would have a bunch of orders as I did this with another company for rear springs for Honda Odyssey's. That's why I sent him the parts. He has a shock dyno and doing custom shocks/struts is what he does.

 

Sorry for late response. Didn't see your post.
The yoke is at bottom of the Fit hanger where the lower shock bushing fits is wider than the bushing on the AirLift so you need to fill the leftover width with washers on the 10 mm bolt. It will take between 3 and 4 washers depending on source of washers. I cannot detect any noise from the bushing sliding but there was virtually no slack when I installed them.. Try to abve the bushing equally set in the yoke.
I tried to get photos posted but was unsuccessful. But it is so easy to do that shoulsdn't matter. Run your connecting hoses carefully and don't hesitate to backup with tie-wraps.

 

thanks! I brought my Fit to work today and got it up on the lift. We pulled out the OE shocks and they were DEAD! I used 2 washers on both sides of each shock to center it. ***Note: When installing you will need to use the bottom bushing and washer that comes with the Monroe's. The top bushings stay on the body of the Fit. You reuse that TOP washer that was already on the Fit and use the retaining nut that comes with the Monroes.***
Ran the lines to join on the drivers side rear bottom-bumper for easy access on the air-lifts. I had them at 40psi with my tires set at 35psi. Now I hear some "interior panel" noise since the suspension in the rear is stiffer. I dropped the air-lifts to 25 and my tire pressure to 30psi. MAN does these shocks make a difference! I can now carve-corners where the previously installed OE shocks would float - these Monroe's point the car straight ahead and GOES!!! Still some panel noise - but it's a great tradeoff. You need to have the stereo off to even hear it so no biggie. I can now fit 3 fingers between the top of the tire (Im running 1956015's on '99 SI rims) and the car itself is much easier to drive. It's not "banging stiff" when going over bumps like I thought it may be... It feels like I'm riding on a 1inch drop with good shocks. To anyone thinking about doing this - DO IT. You will be pleasantly suprised. Thanks to Mahout for the info on the Monroe's!!!!

 

SSM0423, just to clarify, you the rear shocks only with the Monroes listed by Mahout? Any other suspension modifications?

Thank you for contributing your observations!

 

Yes, so far just the Monroe's. Thinking about the front strut bar and c-pillar one; but not sure yet...

 

Can the shocks be run at zero air pressure?

 

according to the instructions - minimum 20psi to keep the air-boots in good shape.

 

Hmm. So is 20psi enough to lift the rear-end?

 

I recently installed the Monroe air shocks, too, and I did it exactly as described by SSM above. My only complaint about the whole setup is the "interior panel noise" he describes. I only notice it when the car goes over short, sharp bumps, like pavement expansion joints, when the noise is like a slight thump, almost as though something is loose. I'm not really sure what causes this. But I suspect it's because the upper rubber bushing that comes with the Monroe shock, which you have to install between the shock and body, as SSM described, isn't as big as the OEM Honda bushing, so it might transmit this noise to the body.

Otherwise, I'm pleased with these shocks. They help make the rear suspension feel part of the chassis, instead of just going along for the ride. And they are noticeably firmer than the OEM shocks and seem to have removed some of the understeer that's noticeable in aggressive street driving. My hope is they will make the car more neutral handling, and will reduce some of the wheelspin that was a problem for me in autocross. I'll find out at my next race on April 26.

As for pressures, I'm running 25 pounds in the shocks. This gives me a nice level ride height when my two dogs are in the back of the car (instead of sagging with the OEM shocks). An even 20 pounds would work just fine if you don't need to raise the rear a little. The shocks basically start raising the car as soon as they get any air at all.

The only other concern is that these shocks are fatter than the OEM shocks. I still have clearance for my 205/50/15 race tires, but it's tight.

Here's a pic of the installed shock. You can just barely see the two washers installed on either side of the shock eye at the bottom.

 

Interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing how the car performs in the next autoX. It seems by my Levi's shock dyno that the rear rebound damping on the Fit is nearly non-existant. Is your experience that damping in general, not just load-carrying capacity, has been improved?

Another issue is what I felt was some sort of internal bump stops in the rear shocks. I suppose that if there's some air charge in the shocks, it would prevent bottoming out in some circumstances, but maybe not in an extreme event.

Still, if the damping on these is significantly better, they might be a really good option. Shocks that function better AND can increase the load carrying capacity of our little hatches would be a nice upgrade.

HF

 

Hemi, part of the problem is the available travel of the stock shock. Right out of the box it's about an inch from bottoming out. The Monroe unit seems like it has a longer stroke which is what is needed with the stock unit. A larger valve body is a plus too in the Monroe as long as it fits. I'm wanting to pull the trigger on these as well. Does anybody have 16 inch wheels with these?

 

How does the extended/compressed length of the stocker compare to the Monroe? From the sounds of it, the Monroe will compress further than stock. What about extend?

Also, does the stock shock have an elastomer bumpstop on the shock rod or is it internal to the shock body?

 

I have 16x7" wheels and I did a test-fit with them right after installing the shocks and they clear no problem (I'm driving on the OEM wheels/tires at the moment). These 16" wheels have a +40mm offset, so they offer a lot more clearance from the shock than the OEM wheels, even though the tires are wider (205/45/16). My race tires were a bigger concern, since the offset on those wheels is only 5mm more than stock, and they still fit, too.

My impression so far is that the damping on these Monroe shocks is stiffer in every respect than the OEM shocks. To tell you the truth, I never really noticed how soft the stock shocks are until I put the Monroes on, and then I noticed the difference right away. The car feels way more 'planted' now, especially in hard cornering. There's a fast freeway onramp near my house that I drive regularly. I pushed the car around it harder than usual this morning and the car still had a lot more grip in reserve.