Aluminum Brake Drums on Civic VX

[Ryland]

The other day I was looking for a set of 14" wheels from a Honda Insight to go on my brothers civic for his summer tires and we found a salvage yard in Wisconsin Dells WI that had just gotten a 2002 Honda Insight in that had been hit dead center in the front (car-part.com), well for $50 each plus $10 each for shipping we ordered up the wheel and for an extra $40 they tossed in the rear brake drums for my self, figured it was worth the risk to find out once and for all if those brake drums would fit a civic and they do! they are an exact fit on my civic vx with a weight savings of just over 1.5 pounds each, the stock cast iron civic vx rear drums weigh 6.25 pounds and the stock first generation (2000-2007) Honda insight brake drums weigh 4.75 pounds, they had almost no wear so they should last a long time.
I realize it's not a great weight savings but 3 pounds of unsprung weight is a start, I have hopes to find a set of insight wheels for my own car before I need to buy summer tires again and that will again save me a few more pounds and give better streamlining.

[gone-ot]

...are they warped or still perfectly round/circular?

[Ryland]

They are round as can be, the CRX HF came with aluminum rear drums for two years, 1986-87 and people who race seem to love them and have very little issue even tho they drive at much higher speeds and use their brakes harder.

[Schelter]

I was just trying to talk my wife into getting me those wheels for xmas, I saw them on car-parts last friday. Guess I'll have to cross those off my list

[Ryland]

It sounds like they had just gotten the car in and hadn't even fully checked it over, they were also pulling the engine and transmision for someone else if it checked out as ok.
The insight wheels are really nice, 10.5 pounds each, so lighter and more streamlined then civic vx or hx wheels.

[SVOboy]

Yep, love my insight wheels.

Also, thanks for the interesting information on the drums. I wonder if they'll fit CRXs as well...

[WD40]

VX's are 9 lbs and HX's 11.5. lbs

[Ryland]

Originally Posted by WD40

VX's are 9 lbs and HX's 11.5. lbs

I put two of the Honda Insight wheels on a scale that came out of a grocery store and was calibrated for sales of goods and it said that two wheels weighed 21 pounds together, so 10.5 pounds each is what I came up with, I'm not sure of a better way to weigh them, but I tend to trust that scale to be accurate within an ounce less at that weight.

SVOboy, I had a brand new set of drums that came with my 1985 crx hf that I put on my civic VX, from what I remember the part number from NAPA was the same part number for civic's from 1984-1995, not sure about newer civics, but I'll try to compare them when I can as the civic HX might take the same drums as they also have a 4 bolt pattern, my brothers civic is a 1998 civic dx so when we swap snow tires on to it we can pull a drum off and do a test fit.
My next question is if the front disks would fit and if there is a weight savings there as well, I think the front disk calipers would fit from an insight, from comparing photos at least, and the insight has aluminum calipers.

[turbovr41991]

Ryland,

Did you ever do any more reseach on this?

[Ryland]

Originally Posted by turbovr41991

Did you ever do any more reseach on this?

To see if the front brake parts fit? no, I have not, my front brakes are in great shape and I have other projects to spend spare cash on, but the Insight shares a lot of parts with the civic, so a lot of parts should swap over, rear brake slave cylinders look like they should fit as well, aluminum instead of cast iron, but at some point it stops being practical unless you need the parts.