Feel like helping try to diagnose a problem with my 2007 Honda Fit. If you answered yes or no, read on:

1. About a year ago car would stutter, hesitate, and sometimes stall at idle.
This appeared to be resolved with coil pack replacement on #3 cylinder and spark plugs change.

2. Coil pack 3 and 4 went out a few weeks later, got replaced, but car would now hesitate at acceleration from a stop. Engines codes were also thrown: cyl #3 misfire, EGR circuit malfunction, heater resistance on oxy sensor.
Valves were adjusted, codes reset, codes thrown again, same ones.

3. Took it to dealer. They hooked it up to their diagnostic tester (not just OBDII) and found no electrical problems. Everything checked out ok, regardless of codes. Dealer adjusted valves again, replaced plugs again, same hesitation problem at acceleration persisted, same codes thrown.

4. Dealer then suggested head servicing as they thought the problem lied with leaky valves. They thought this because of a low compression test (don't know how low) on cyl #2. This advice came from their national advice center (or whatever it's called). They were stumped.

5. Head service is about $500 so I went out and bought a used engine with 41,000 miles on it. It was on sale at lkqonline.com for $250. The VIN number on the engine and carfax confirmed the engine had indeed the quoted mileage so I figured it might just be legit. There are lots of 2007 honda fit used motors out there on ebay - I think the supply is high but just no takers. Motor turns and oil is clean. Decided to do a leak down test just to make sure. Test results came back bad for cyl #1 at 65% leakage. Air could be heard coming from intake and exhaust ports. See below. Now, scratching my head, I decided to run the same test on the original engine too. See below. All testing done (70 deg F).

Cold engine leak down test results
#1 replacement 65%
#2 replacement 25%
#3 replacement 25%
#4 replacement 18%

Cold engine leak down test results
#1 original 23%
#2 original 36%
#3 original 26%
#4 original 28%

So now, after running the leak down test on the original engine I find what the dealer thought was a bad #2 cylinder wasn't really that bad, at 36% leakage, compared to the replacement.

So now I'm wondering if I should pull the head and do a valve job on the #1 cylinder of the replacement engine and just swap it, or do the valve job on the original, or just drop in the replacement engine and see what happens, and do the head service on it if need be.

UPDATE 11-4-12:
Pulled cylinder head. Visual inspection shows no sign of head gasket problem. Going to take it to a machine shop for a pressure test. If that shows no issue then back goes the head. If problem persists I will drive the car over a cliff, piss on it, and blow it up, all at the same time.

 

My first concern is whether you were certain the valves all were closed. Did you disengage the valve clearance enough to insure full seating? And how did you test the engine alone?
If you are going to do a valve job you might want to do it on the lesser mileage engine unless there's another concern and thats what you probably do. My second concern is the dealer not verifying the OBD II codes.

 

Mahout, Good question: All valves were closed on both original and replacement engine, verified by moving rocker arms on tappets, when leak down test was performed. I was absolutely certain all cylinders were at TDC compression stroke when test was done.

Regarding dealer disregard of OBDII codes, I too was a little perplexed on that one. They said their diagnostic test showed no abnormality electrically. The equipment runs a test program of some sort while the technician drives the car.

Here's an update: Ran a compression test (cold) on original. Results are:

#1 200 psi
#2 180 psi
#3 170 psi
#4 210 psi

I don't have the spec for the 2007 L15A engine but for the 2005 online manual that can be found on the internet the spec is 142 psi, with a max variation of 28 psi. I lose on the variation spec but don't believe it would solve my problem. The results should be better with the engine warm.

 

Hey CTCT.

I fixed my hesitation problem with my EGR valve. Here's some information:

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/1st-...esitation.html

 

Myonda,

Thanks for your input. However, my symptom is hesitation on start from a stop, all the time, and especially when cold. It's not really detectable at speed. Associated with that are crazy codes that the dealer could not understand or correlate to their proprietary diagnostic test set.


P0403 EGR circuit malfunction
P0203 Cylinder 3 Injector Circuit Malfunction
P0303 Cylinder #3 Misfire
P0055 HO2S Heater Resistance (Bank 1, Sensor 3)
C1555 EMPS ECU Malfunction (Electric Motor Power Steering (EMPS) Electronic Control Unit (ECU))

 

UPDATE 11-4-12:
Pulled cylinder head. Visual inspection shows no sign of head gasket problem. Going to take it to a machine shop for a pressure test. If that shows no issue then back goes the head. If problem persists I will drive the car over a cliff, piss on it, and blow it up, all at the same time.

 

Update 11-26-12

Cylinder head is good. Had it tested at a reputable head shop. Pulled 26 to 27 in mercury. So, Honda dealer's recommendation that the problem lies in the head is wrong.

Proceeded with an engine swap. Found an engine from a salvage title car hit in the rear with 42k miles for $250. Yes, $250. I figured it's worth it just for scrap metal. Performed a leak down test on replacement engine and it tested very good.

Engine swap solved stutter problem. Engine runs strong. No problems after 300 miles. Everything great.