2016 Honda Fit on DIY wooden 2×10 ramps. Toronto, Canada, Photo by Don Tai
I do love the car, but my 2016 Honda Fit does have some “beauty spots”. Going to the dealer, like others have, may have resulted in parts of the car not being reinstalled correctly, and then falling off. If the splash shield was designed properly I would have probably considered going to the dealer.
The splash shield is a large piece of plastic that covers the underside of the engine, protecting it from dirt and spray up from the road. You need to remove it before you can do an oil change. The splash shield is attached to the car with 6 metal screws, 3 on each side, as well as 2 expansion screws at the rear. Overall the attachment of the splash shield to the car is a terrible design because it is weak, prone to damage and makes the splash shield susceptible to getting ripped off the car.
In other words, if you are doing an oil change and are not careful either removing or reattaching the splash shield, it will come off when you are driving. Replacement is ~$300. Many Fit owners have reported that they have gone to their Honda dealer for high dollar treatment of their first oil change, “just to be safe”, the dealer was not careful in either removing or reattaching, screws have been stripped, missing, broken, and their splash shield fell off and was destroyed. I decided even before I bought the car that oil changes were a DIY task, as I could not trust the dealer to do a proper job. You can thank Honda engineering for this decision.
DIY oil changes require you to go underneath the car in order to remove the oil drain bolt and the oil filter. The Fit has only 5.5″ of clearance under the car, so jacking it up is required. I tried putting my hydraulic jack under the car, which fit, but due to lack of height, could not jack up the hydraulic arm. More height would be required. The Fitfreak forum recommended I drive up on wood planks for additional height.
Yes, I needed a couple of inches of height. If I was going to make ramps, I’ll try for the lowest possible ramps. My initial 2 x 2x10s yielded a height of 3.5″. This was not only insufficient to get under the car, but also insufficient for the hydraulic jack. The jack could slip under the car to the right spot, but did not have enough height and leverage to jack up the arm. Finally I took apart the ramp and added another layer. 3 x 2x10s yielded 4.5″ of height, sufficient to work under the car, and plenty strong.
2016 Honda Fit: DIY 2×10 wooden ramps. You need 3: 19″, 33″ and 48″. Toronto, Canada, Photo by Don Tai
For each side you need a ramp. Each ramp consists of 3 pieces of wood, ideally 2x10s (9 1/8″ wide). 2x8s (7.5″ wide) can work but it will be tight. For a set of ramps you will need:
- 2 x 2x10s 19″ long
- 2 x 2x10s 33″ long
- 2 x 2x10s 48″ long
- 2 metal brackets to prevent the wheel from going too far forward
- wood screws, 2.5-3″ long
I beveled the car-facing edges to 45 degrees, using my chop saw. A 10″ chop saw may not be sufficiently large enough to cut all the way through the 2x10s on a 45 degree angle, so I finished off with a hand saw.
Screw them all together, add the bracket on top, and you are done. It really is easy. it is not high tech, but really solid and easy to drive up. You’ll need a spotter.
2016 Honda Fit on DIY wooden 2×10 ramps. Toronto, Canada, Photo by Don Tai
Nice job. The splash shield recently dangled down from my mother’s 2016 Fit and I had to come to the rescue and duct tape it back on while parked on the side of the freeway. I’ll build a similar ramp and make a better repair. This will also allow me to make DYI oil changes as she takes it to the dealer. I suspect some yokel left out some of the screws which is what caused this mishap.
Thanks for posting this, along with the idea of adding zip ties for insurance!
RP in Oregon
I jack up each front corner of the car at the pinch points enough to fit my two jack stands on some hefty looking bolts on the frame behind the wheels. Super annoying having to do both sides so I think I’ll want to do this solution. I already have too much car maintenance stuff with no storage space as it, is the only thing keeping me from making these. I fiddled with that stupid, dumb, piece of crap splash shield for the first three oil changes, (it already was damaged when I got it at 50k miles) went and spent too much money on replacement fasteners, before chucking it straight into the garbage.