The Worst Day for Me and My Fit - [Hit and Run]

This is probably the worst day for me and the Fit since I purchased it.

So last night, the wife and I had a late dinner, and since I didn't have to work this morning, I stayed up late, and was playing around on the laptop a bit in bed. I'm not sure what time it was, but I heard a car alarm go off. I went to the window to have a peak, and a BMW 5 was flashing and blaring. It was parked two cars back from me on the street across from my building. My alarm didn't go off, so I thought nothing of it as I didn't really see any major damage or broken windows on the BMW.

A bit later, as I was finally going to sleep, I heard some talking outside. I took another look out the window and there were a few police vehicles on the street. One of the started shining it's spot light on parked cars as it slowly drove along. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach, and I went and found my small binoculars to have a better look. Turns out several of the parked cars had their driver side rear view mirrors broken, including mine. I figured since the police was already on scene, and it was really late, I'd wait 'til morning to see how bad the damage is.

Did you think I was going to get a good sleep with this on my mind? Of course not. And so I woke in the morning not rested at all, and went downstairs to see how bad the mirror was...



It wasn't just the mirror. The side of my car was scraped up as well, then entire length of the car, and even my front wheel. I looked up and down the street, and there are still 3 other cars parked with similar damage, and I know there were other cars parked there last night (later on, my friend told me when he came to pick me up, that cars that were parked on the cross-street were also hit, one with it's bumper hanging off even).

I called the insurance claim centre, and reported the hit and run. The lady suggested I call the police to see if they'd have a police report # as well, and sure enough, they did. However, unless they catch the guy(s) who did this, I, along with all of my unlucky neighbors, are out at least $300 deductible each!

The damage looks deliberate. The mirror at least looks to be smashed from the front center of the housing, not hit along the edge. Maybe a bat or something. And that's what really makes me mad. It wasn't an accident. It was someone's idea of fun.

This couldn't have happened at a worse time either. The wife had booked her vacation days off for next week, and we were going to drive down to Washington State to visit a friend who just had her 2nd baby, and then head down to the Oregon Coast for a few days of relaxation. Now, I'm going to be out the money for lodging, and I'm seriously doubt the car can be fixed in two days in time for the trip since most places require a vehicle to have a driver side rear view mirror.

And of course the estimate centres are closed for the weekend. I'm going to have to wait 'til Monday to take the car in before anything else can be started.

This sucks!

Oil Change #7 (35665km)

Another oil change time. It was done at 35665km even though the receipt says 36665km. I yelled out the wrong mileage to my mechanic as he wrote it. Oh well.

Standard affair once again with the OEM filter and 5w20 oil. No surprises this time around. Even remembered to reset the service reminder right away. I had just checked the tire pressure and so that was ok. Everything else looks good. The Fit is go for another 5000km.

I know the factory doesn't call for such short oil change intervals, and every time I do the oil change the service reminder usually still say 40%-50% oil life left. But with the timing chain system, oil pressure is used as hydraulic fluid to ratchet up the timing chain tensioner. If varnish forms in the timing chain tensioner bore then this system can fail and the chain will become loose and eventually break. The advantage is that if well maintained, the timing chain will never need replacing, saving you the $800 or more timing belt replacement every 100,000km or so.

Back to Basics. No More Parts

I've actually been slowly accumulating parts for my little Honda Fit LX. I know that in the beginning I said I would leave this car mostly alone. But who am I kidding. I'm addicted to this stuff. So before I knew it, I had a full factory sport lip kit, two rear spoilers, lowering springs, rear anti-sway bar, and OEM fog light kit. This is all aside from the EM1 Civic wheels (which I NEEDED at the time *roll eyes*), and the LED tails, JDM passenger side sun visor, and OEM cargo cover (which I actually need).

But in the back of my mind I knew that the Fit was just meant to be my daily driver, not a project. So when I saw some local Fit owners looking for parts that I already have on the forum, I messaged them and sold most of my parts before they were ever installed on my car. The only thing I have left now is a set of OEM Fog light kit. If you're interested, check out my ad for the fog lights on the forum, and message me there.

And to the guys who bought my parts, thanks, and I hope you will enjoy them for me.

Custom LED Third Brake Light Retrofit

Ever since I installed the JDM style red/smoked LED tail lamps, I have been a bit bothered by the delayed reaction time of the factory incandescent bulb in the third brake light. Because LEDs turn on and off much faster, the third brake light always lagged behind the tail lights by nearly 1/4 second when I hit the brakes or release them.

So since my buddy was ordering some LEDs for his LED running light project (A la Audi), I took the opportunity to share the shipping cost and ordered me some nice high powered 4-chip Super Flux LEDs in red. These LEDs have a stated 100 degree viewing angle, which is important for automotive retrofit applications. And the wide angle also means the brightness specs mean something. A 20 degree 5mm LED might have more mcd on axis, as soon as you move off that 20 degrees, the brightness drops significantly. The 4 leg Super Flux LED is also shorter than standard 5mm LEDs and it helps a lot in this application as there isn't much depth between the housing and the lens on the sides.

Also important to consider is the colour of the LED used. LEDs produce light in very tight wavelength. This means a white/blue LED will have very little output in the red colour spectrum. And since the red lens on the third brake light is essentially a photo filter that only allows the red spectrum to shine through, if you used white LEDs behind it, you'll lose a lot of light. Test this by shining your white LED source (keychain light, flashlight, whatever) through a red lens, then through a white or clean lens, and see how much of a difference it makes.

So, anyways, onto making the LEDs

1. Remove the third brake light - Take the cover off, which will expose two 10mm bolts on either side. remove them, then un-clip the center from the hatch and unplug the harness from the bulb socket.

2. Remove the bulb and red lens - Twist the bulb holder out. For the lens, there are four clips. Remove the wider, flatter ones first; it's easier. Use a flat head screwdriver (carefully) to help if needed.

3. Cut the circuit board to size - Pretty self explanatory. Cut to desired size to fit the housing and number of LEDs you are using. Keep in mind the board has to fit inside the inner lip in order to clip the red lens back in.

4. Design your circuit - There are various LED calculators available online if you know the specs of your LEDs. And you can design your circuit in series, parallel, or a combination of both. Make sure you know what you're doing here, or get help from someone who does.

4a. Power goes out - What? It didn't happen to you? Well, it happened to me right about here, just before I can test my circuit. Can't just skip to the next step even if I wanted to since the soldering iron needs electricity too. I played some DS and ate some food (love gas stoves) until the power came back an hour and a half later.

5. Test/Make your circuit - Use a breadboard to make sure the circuit will work, and layout how you're going to place the components on the circuit board. then, just solder the pieces in place.

6. Put it together - Place the completed and tested circuit in the third brake light housing. If you cut your circuit board properly, it will sit nicely inside with the pressure from the metal heat shield inside the housing. Then clip the red lens back in, and it should hold the circuit firmly in place.

7. Re-attach third brake light to the car - Run the lead wires out through the bulb hole. You don't need to put the bulb socket back in. Just attach the positive lead to the white wire side of the harness, and the ground to the black. Clip the housing back in and secure with the 10mm bolts. Put the cover back on, and you're done.

I'm using 6 LEDs that have a forward voltage drop of 2.0V, and current draw of 80mA. I want to run each LED in parallel so that if one LED shorts out, no other LED is affected. I also found a circuit board that was printed so that each horizontal line was already connected, making my job much easier as I don't have to solder connections between every LED. I went with a single 150ohm resistor before the path splits to each LED. And according the the LED calculators, I needed a 1W resistor to handle the heat based on a 14v input. So that's what I got. It's enough since the brake light is not constantly on like a taillight or license plate light.


I'm happy with the results. The reaction time now matches the LED tail lights. The viewing angle is very good, and people say it's definitely bright enough to notice driving behind my car. Compare the OEM JDM version which cost $170USD, my retrofit for a fraction of that is a pretty good deal. Plus it was fun making it. I hope you have fun making yours as well.

Fit Vs. Snowstorm 08 = Fail

Time sure flies. It is now the 3rd Winter I've had my little Fit. The last couple of winters, the car wasn't great in the white stuff, but it handled it ok, even with the factory all-season 175 width Dunlop SP31 tires.

This year, unfortunately, the Fit was defeated. A number of factor contributed to this defeat. One, I am now running on wider 195 width tires since the upgrade to the Civic SIR wheels. Second, the tires that came with those wheels are worn out Bridgestone Potenza RE92s in the rear, which are summer only tires that are terrible even in the wet. These were actually in the front before my last service, at which time I moved them to the rear and rotated the also crappy Kumho Powermax, (yeah, they don't even make this anymore) tires with slightly better threads, and a just for show M+S rating on the sidewall.

Third, Vancouver is currently 2cm shy of resetting it's own December snowfall record. 88cm have already fallen this month, and the record is 89.7cm set in 1964. The whole Metro Vancouver area is not used to this kind of snow, and thus do not budget much for snow removal. This compounded with my crappy tires made the Fit a fun little sled, and nothing more; You need to push it to get it moving, then when it does, it doesn't have much control. Of course parking on the street and having to crawl over a snowbank just to get out doesn't help either. I'm just glad I was too lazy to get the Progress Rear Anti-Sway Bar installed before the snowstorms.

... I miss my Audi.

Oil Change #6 (30985km)

Just looking back at my previous maintenance posts, and noticed that January 31, when I had my recall done, I was at 14,480km. Today, I just had my 30,000km oil change done. So I'm did a bit over 15,000km in 10 months or so.

Anyway, I noticed right away when I picked up those Civic SIR wheels that one of the rears was a bit off balance at above 110km/h. So I had all 4 tires checked for balance while I had the car in for the oil change. Sure enough, one of the rear was out of balance and fixed. Living across from a construction site sucks 'cause apparently there was another nail in my tire. but this time it was not near the sidewall so it should seal with the plug. We also rotated the tires front and back just because the rear Khumos were at least all-seasons, while the front front Bridgestones were not.

Also took the opportunity to put on polished closed factory lug nuts and wheel locks on the wheels in place of the open ended ones that came with my original stock steelies. Thanks to "Doc" for letting me borrow them off his car since they won't work with his custom polished Volk TE-37's anyways. *jealous*

Otherwise, just your standard oil and filter change every 5000km. Oil still looked pretty clean when it came out, but that's a good thing.

Funny Craigslist Ad for Hubcaps

Everyone knows about Craigslist by now, and I browse my local list for deals from time to time, and have also sold a few things there. But there are always some people who have strange ideas regarding the value of their items. This is a good example of one. If this is really what the market value is on Honda Fit Hubcaps, I'm offering to trade mine mint set (taken off day one) for a 3G iPhone!

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Hubcaps- Honda Fit - $200 (New Westminster)
Reply to: [removed to protect the ignorant]@craigslist.org [?]
Date: 2008-11-11, 8:40PM PST


Four 2007 Honda Fit hubcaps. One in perfect condition; the other 3 have usual wear-and tear scuffs. Located in Queensborough. $200 for all.

* Location: New Westminster
* it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 915627638
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JDM Replica LED Taillights Installed

I remember some guy saying that he was not going to modify his Honda Fit, that it was just a commuter... I wonder where that guy went.

Early on in this blog I had posted various taillamp options available for the Honda Fit/Jazz. Well, a good deal came up that I couldn't pass up. So I ended up with a used set of N1 Concept JDM replica smoked/red LED taillamps.

The fitment wasn't great. The previous owner had already cut off an alignment tab on one taillamp, and I had to cut off the one on the other side also for a better fit on my car. Aside from the fit, the LEDs themselves are not what I'd consider "Better" than stock. The LEDs are actually pretty bright, and do react much faster than incandescent bulb. However, the LEDs on the N1 Concept taillamps have a VERY narrow viewing angle. Meaning if you're viewing these taillamps slightly off-axis, they become very dim very quickly. This can become a safety issue if someone is merging into your lane behind you and do not see your brakes light up due to the viewing angle.

Looks wise though, I rather like them. I think the smoked/red is a nice contrast on the Canadian only Alabaster Silver Metallic colour, and it's definitely less "bug eyed" looking than the OEM ones. Maybe later on I will buy a set of the same smoked/red replica taillamps made by Depo, which are supposedly DOT approved. That should mean the LEDs will have a much wider viewing angle that's closer to the OEM lamps. And maybe I'll get black housing headlamps to match the look up front... Who was it again that said he wasn't going to modify his Fit?



Installation Guide:

I've read posts saying that you don't need to take off the rear bumper to take off and reinstall the taillights on the Honda Fit if you have a long enough screwdriver. But after doing the install myself, I think it's actually a lot easier taking the bumper off than trying to use a long, and preferably magnetized screwdriver, and then having to work the taillights in/out on an angle while not scratching the surrounding paint. So I suggest you simply take your rear bumper off, which only involves 6 fasteners. Taking the bumper off and putting it back on were the fastest parts of the install. Trust me.

1. Take off the rear bumper: As I mentioned, there are six fasteners in total for the rear bumper cover. Two phillips head screws, one in each of the rear wheel well near where the rear bumper cover meets the rear quarter panel. Two plastic quick clips on the buttom on the bumper. Just slide a flat head screwdriver into the center where there's a slot, and pull the center part out to release the clips. then, two more hex head screws on the bottom of either side of the hatch opening. You'll see them easily after opening the hatch. After all six fasteners are removed. Start pulling the bumper cover from the wheel well, away from the car. This will release the clips on the sides. Then, preferably with the help of someone, pull the bumper straight back from the car to release the clips across the top of the bumper cover.

2. Unplug taillamps: Open the rear cover panels behind the taillamps in the hatch and unplug each lamp at their sockets. There are 4 in total.

3. Remove nuts from back of taillamp: There are three nuts per side holding the taillamp to the body. Find them and remove them.

4. Unbolt the L-brackets at the bottom of the taillamps: Go back outside of the car, take a socket and remove the nuts holding the L-brackets to the car. Do this last so there's still something holding the taillamps in place while you remove the inside mounting nuts. Hold the taillamp while you remove the last nut, then pull the taillamp straight back to remove from vehicle.

(This is where you'll see why it's better to take the bumper off. The taillamps are held to the L-bracket by the phillips screw which some will tell you you can get to without removing the bumper. That's true. but where the screw goes into the taillight actually is lower than where the bumper sits. So to remove the taillamps without removing the rear bumper, you'd have to angle the top of the taillamp out first. However, the taillamps are also held in at this point by the alignment posts behind, which goes straight back from the taillamps to the body, preventing you from easily tilting the top out first.)

5. Remount the L-bracket to new taillamps: Another phillips screw on the bracket. Remove it, and reinstall with bracket to new taillamp.

6. Remount turn signal and reverse lamp sockets to new taillamps: Take the turn signal socket from the OEM taillamps and move them to the upper hole of the new taillamps. Take the reverse socket and move it to the new taillamps. The reverse socket will not fit properly. You will need to modify either the socket (cut off tabs) or the hole in the new taillamp (cut slots longer to fit. Preferred method so socket is still fully reusable in OEM taillamps) for the socket to fit. This is normal, and not a defect. North American taillamps use a different reverse socket then others.

7. Mount new taillamps to car: Reverse as before. Slide the taillamps in, fasten to car by lower L-bracket, but don't fully tighten yet, then go back inside and secure the three mounting nuts. Once the three nuts inside are secure, then go back out and tighten the lower L-bracket.

8. Extending wires: Now, you may or may not need to extend some taillamp wires in order for the plugs to reach their new socket locations. Most likely you will need to. I'm not going to tell you how to extend the wires because if you don't know how, then you should get someone else to do it for you.

9. Test the taillamps: Plug the taillamps back into the sockets. You'll have one plug left over. don't worry about it. check functions of tail, brake, turn signal, and reverse lamp to ensure proper functions.

10. Put the bumper back on: Reverse of removal. line up the clips, the push bumper cover straight in towards the car. then push in the side clips, and attach all 6 fasteners removed earlier. And you're done.

See, what did you spend more time on? 6 easily accessible fasteners for the bumper cover? or trying to remove the six nuts behind the taillamps and scratching up your hand in the tiny cutout space? And if you had to extend wires, I'm sure that took longer than either. Sure, a long screwdriver might be able to remove that hidden phillips screw easy enough, but trying to put it back in while aligning the little hole in the tiny space you can hardly see, and balancing the screw on the top of your screwdriver, would be extremely difficult.

Black Rims

I saw this post on Revscene, a large local import enthusiast site in Vancouver. I was laughing so hard that I had to share. But since only registered members can view the threads, I'll repost it here. Members of Revscene.net can see the original thread here.

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Title: Black Rims
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mooki7777777> how much are black 17'' rims

Alphamale> They cost a lot of money.

Beefball> HAHHAHAHHAHAHAHA Best thread EVER

orange7> need better descriptions..

woozzle> black rims are no more than $10 black spray paint cans from wal mart

minix3> Take the hubcaps off and it will be black.

xfactor78> wow this kid must be like 10

dodingman> just wait for santa

"DA"token Black> I'll sell you black rims for $400 16"x7"/4x100. PM me if your interested.

sirensong> How much would a 4 door car cost? *ROFL*

!SG> *palm forehead*
black rims generally dont cost any more than regular finish rims, its only special finishes like black chrome, "brilliant" finishes, pin stripping, color matching, chroming, which cost more.

10adrien10> i got 17" black menzari's put on my lancer i got a good deal, over a G for the average person

Catspider1> Hmm good black paint might cost you 20$, then again might want to clearcoat, another 10$, and lets not forget stickers, they are extra, i think.

jurson> i just had a wtf moment there...

SlowRider> BLACK RIMS WILL COST YOU $14. DOLLARS

fukkeneh240>

tiff08> hahahaha anyting in paticylar you are lookin for?

BabyblooLexus> L M A O Hillarious Posts!!!!!!!!!!!
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Civic SiR Rims on the Fit

I mentioned in my last post that the tire with the plug wasn't holding pressure anymore. We tried to replug it, but it was a lost cause. I put on my spare, and researched my immediate options since I have to drive on the highway for part of my work commute.

My mechanic had given me a price on a set of 17" Motegi SP10s (nice look and 16.5lbs ea.) with tires for a decent enough price, but it was still a good chunk of change that I wasn't sure I was ready to spend on the car. A local Fitfreak.net member was actually selling his set of stock 175/65/14 Dunlop SP31 tires, but I only really needed one, and didn't need three extras.

I had also posted a WTB (want-to-buy) ad at a local import enthusiast site revscene.net for 4x100 OEM rims with tires, and had a couple of replies within two days. One of which was a set of EM1 Civic SiR (Si in the US) polished 7-spoke wheels with tires. I had seen some photos of these wheels on a Fit, and thought they actually went well with the car. So I decided to pick them up yesterday.


They're not mint, but that's ok. This is a daily driver, not a show car. Plus I don't have to worry as much about curbing them. The important part is, they've got tires on them that'll last me a little while, and I can get off the 80km/h max temporary spare. I paid less than 1/2 of what the 17" Motegi's with tires will cost, plus it will keep my car more low key.

The only thing is, with the polished rims in place, the fender gap is a lot more noticeable. This wasn't an issue when they were just gaping black holes with the steelies. I might have to start looking into lowering springs.

... and so it begins... again...