i really want to see more about these springs. Carlos, if u ever come up here, or nearly, please let me know. i'd appreciate a quick view of the car with the springs on...unless some other pictures are shown by anybody. thanx

 

Well I just had a semi successful install.. Got the rears + the sway bar installed (easy!).. But when I tried to do the fronts, I couldn't FOR THE LIFE OF ME get that top nut off!! torque wrench WITH a breaker bar and an allen key.. could not get it to budge.. How are you guys doing this?

To be clear, i'm talking about the strut rod that takes the 6mm allen key. You use that and a 14 or 17mm wrench to hold it in place while you break the top hat of the springs free.. supposedly.

I couldn't get the springs off the struts, so I gave up and stuck the struts back in. Really easy up till that point, but I don't have another day off till next tuesday, so until then, my rears are lower than the fronts.. Not that noticible actually..

 

Here is the trick from doing it for living for a while!
Loosen stubborn bolts/nuts while part is still in the car! Use WD40 or equivalent, but be very careful not to spray it inside allen key hole!
I know space is tight above allen hole with strut still in the car, but use "L" shaped allen and offset/angled CLOSED END wrench! Open end only grabs two opposite sides while closed end grabs all six corners. Wrap the allen in a rag to hold it or stick a pipe on it for leverage. Just hold the allen while you turn the closed end wrench.

Another good tip that will prevent headache for most is to rope or strap hub assembly to the sub frame before you remove second of the two strut bolts from it! Half shaft joint tend to slip out from the shaft hubs and you will be stuck aligning it for a while. Problem is that axle boot covers it up!

Also weight of the strut/spring assembly might catch some by surprise! Cover the axle boot with cardboard or something stronger than just a rag. Strut bottom is quite sharp and can cut axle boot easily!

That great deal on springs can get sour deal if you have to replace boots!

 

Yeah, I finally got it last night.. Took a total of 50 minutes to do both fronts after I was finally able to loosen up that nut. Thanks!

It's too early to really give a honest and complete ride impression, I'm going to wait a couple of weeks before doing a full write up. On top of that, some of the things I wanted to do for comparision reasons are out the window. One of which, the slalom, because I got a ticket for "aggressive acceleration" when trying to record slalom times in a parking lot this weekend. Despite it being out of the view of traffic and having cones and chalk lines, the cop looked at me, saw the Honda, and wrote me up.

Anyway, the GF and I took turns behind the wheel last night for about 15 minutes, driving in a couple roundabouts and 3 miles on the highway. As it is, the "wavy-ness" or bounce that the stock springs are characteristic of on the highway is still there, but it isn't any worse than stock. I'll have to research this, but I think that comfort characteristic is a result of the Fit's dampers moreso than the springs..

Body lean in roundabouts and spirited driving is dramatically reduced and the rear has more feedback, probably thanks to that sway bar. Speaking of the bar, at 55 mph, when driving in a straight line, if you give the steering wheel a flicking motion from left to right to left to right (left hand on the wheel at the 9 o'clock postion to 11, back to 9 then to 7, etc) with the stock setup, the car would dance side to side, but still track in a straight line fairly well, if not a little vaguely and slow.

With the Progress setup, the rear is alive, and you can feel what it's doing at the wheel. You do that scandavian flick at the wheel and you can tell that the inside wheel during whatever direction of input your giving it, does not want to lift. I can see how, at the limit, the problem has gone from understeering to oversteering (more on that later).

The drop? Yup, there is one. In fact, because I botched the fronts and rode around for a little bit with just the rear coils on, the car still looked like it could be factory. Now, it looks like the drop on the Mugen Si (local dealer has one btw, if you haven't seen it yet, go check it out. WOW!) I did measurements before the drop, but haven't had a chance to do them post coil swap. In using the "finger test", on the fronts: two fingers. The rears? Well, that's what's funny: Passenger side rear is two fingers, but the driver side is almost 1 and 1/2; just barely two fingers. In my notepad I did have a star saying that the stock setup was lower back there as well for some reason (??? WTF ???).

I have a busy week ahead of me, so I'll try and get some pictures and upload the wheel gap photos I took before the drop as well... sooner than later. I have a DJ gig for Redbull this Friday so I'll have the car loaded with a little bit over 300 lbs of gear. Definitely expect me to take some notes on the ride quality and amount of drop due to that (previously the car on the stock setup dropped an inch with that amount loaded in back).

Again, sorry for the half-ass write up, but I did just finish the install last night. I'll keep you posted.

 

Here's a tease shot of the Fit I took this morning.



In the photo, it looks like I have less wheel gap than the G/F's GS-R next to it, but I can't remember if that is really how it is.
I'll definitely put some better pictures up later.

 

Did you get a alignment?

I noticed after alignment (-1.5 F camber, 0 F toe) my Fit tracked straight better on the highway and around tight corners.

 

I have these Springs on my Fit, but I've yet to get an alignment. No one around here will do it, because they are "aftermarket" springs.

However, not too long ago I took the car in to Honda for an oil change and tire rotation. The tread on all tires was measured and there was no uneven wear whatsoever. The car stays straight on the road, even at high speeds nor have I had any other issues. I've already put a few thousand miles on since changing springs.

 

these are motivating me..they just punched the tanabe gf210 out of the way since im seeing too much gap in the cars that have em...now is between eibach sportlines goddamn...
nice pic though..

 

Nah, not yet (I just finished the job last night ). I'm gonna wait till the springs settle before I bother taking it to a shop for alignment.

 

Guys,
here is the link to pics of my Fit with stock springs and Eibach Pro's including close up's of both front and back wheel.
Picasa Web Albums - Ivan - FIT stock vs....
Feel free to copy/paste them to your PC and compare with somebody's pics with Progress springs. You can also check pictures from our Mt.Hamilton meet and compare my Fit with Bernardio's whose Fit on Progress springs. Link is in my signature below pictures.

Personally, I like Progress stance a bit more than my Eibach Pro's because Progress is not as low. Eibach Sportline's are even lower than Pro's!!!
With that said I have to point out that I am surprised that I am not scraping front end all the time as I expected once I saw how low my car is. As a mater of fact, I think I am scraping less than on stock springs because springs are stiffer and do not compress as much as stock on extreme impacts.
Ride quality is moderately stiffer, but does not beat me up. You can feel bumping over FWY joints, but it does not wallow down once it gets over them. Body roll is virtually eliminated as well as a dive under braking or lift under acceleration. Cross wind issue is 98% eliminated! Car barely moves in sudden high cross winds and requires almost no correction. Handless like bat out of hell, but I need to add Progress rear bar to cure understear. It is an A/T, so I find myself left foot braking and keeping throttle above 3K rpm through corners and using paddle shifters. It rockets out of turns!

If you are looking to lower the car, autocross and blast bumpy canyons, go with Progress. Sportline's are just too low and suspension needs some travel to work properly!

It would be great if we could get Fits with OEM springs, Progress springs, mine with Eibach Pro's, Tanabe's,............. together one weekend as long as they have stock wheel/tire combo and test drive each other cars. We could create comprehensive springs report with each individual's opinion and test scores.
Ride comfort over uneven surfaces including concrete FWY joints, slalom course, acceleration and braking. Not to time it and drive the wheels off the cars, but to gather real life data through our butt sensor on differences and similarities. It will make it easier for people to make up their mind before making a purchase!
Let me know if you guys in greater SF Bay Area are interested.

 

Man, that's an awesome idea. Had me thinking.. Anyone on the forums have any connections to Siphon Magazine? Maybe we could talk them into doing a test for an article? I'm sure, with the help of a few willing Fit owners, they could setup the cars, the tests and come out with results in a pretty respectable manner.

Damn I wish i was back on the West Coast again, i'd be all over that!

 

ciburri,

Based on the information posted so far, I don't have enough incentive to buy the Progress springs. So, if you want a side-by-side comparison between stock and altered suspension on Bay Area Fits, I'll be the "stock" guy.

If the Progress springs got rid of the high frequency vibration in freeway driving, I would put up with the lowered aspect of the car. But that does not seem to be the case.

In my suspension customization of off-road trucks, I found a huge difference in comfort and handling between spring combinations and various after-market shock absorber brands. Until a dual rate spring set is available (probably won't happen due to the suspension changes in the 2009 Fits), my main hope for suspension improvements in my own car rests on the future availability of better-designed shocks for the '07-'08 Fits. I'm really hoping for adjustable shocks/struts.

Dave

 

Yeah, Manx, these are definitely NOT dual progressive-rate. While the ride is close to stock, that itself isn't saying much; it's still bouncy.

 

I could be another stock with progress sway test mule.
I can't make this weekend, but most other weekends, I could make it. Hooray!! another small bay area fit get together.

 

Thanks Bahumut-
The info. that you have posted on your initial impressions is just about what I expected to hear about the Progress springs, and that is the reason that I did not take advantage of their offer of a test set. The stock ride quality is just a little too "busy" for my taste, not really objectionable, but it could be better. I don't feel like spending more money for the same or slightly worse ride quality. If there is a cure for this, it will either be better shocks/struts, or coilovers until or unless someone copies the performance of the KG/mm springs.

I look forward to your future posts after you have been riding around on the new springs for a while. I am betting that the Progress quality is such that you won't see much, if any, settling of the ride height.

Dave

 

where in PR do you live?

I am in cincinnati, but will come back on 12-14, so the fit will be at san juan that day

 

I hear you Dave!
I am just content enough to keep my car on Eibach Pro's for time being. Pro's just about outweigh the cons for me.

My wife mentioned something that a deal between ebay and Yahoo will open the door to Japan's Yahoo internet auction sales to us in US. If we get lackey enough there will be some rock bottom, please take it off my hands, "dead stock" springs and shock deals thanks to a new generation Fit being out. Holding my fingers crossed. Now if only our dear president would leave starving North Korea and Iran alone and focus on weak dollar, that would be awesome. Fat chance though.

 

You have the eibach pro kit ivan?? Im really looking into those. they are dual rate right? And they lower the car like 1.5 front 1.3 rear correct?

 

NOT dual rate!! There are NO dual-rate springs available to us at the present time, Tyler.

 

Ivan,
Please keep me posted either in this forum or the Bay Area sub-forum (and EXWRX too) if the mini-meet for suspension comparisons works out. Any time/place is OK for me. Obviously, dry weather would be best for safety reasons, but I don't need much of an excuse to go to a Fit meet.

Happy Holidays to you and Tamara (still not sure of the spelling!).

Dave