Sounds like a good idea right now.

Don't get me wrong, I like Honda. This car is actually fun to drive.


But W. T. F.

I've had this '07 for a couple months now and I've had a ridiculous number of problems already. Alternator crapped out. Fine, whatever. Replaced it.

2 year old battery couldn't start the car the other day, couldn't even jump start. Grabbed the Optima yellow top from my Tacoma that hasn't been driven in six months and crammed it into the engine bay and the car started right up.

Handle on the rear hatch has been getting jammed. Haven't had time to fix that yet.

Windshield wiper fluid pump stopped working for awhile. Then fixed itself somehow.

The only key that came with the car broke. Seems nobody can make a copy except the dealer who wants $200something for a new one (keyless entry). F U! I opt for one without keyless entry. Still expensive

Just made my first long distance drive from Wisconsin to Wyoming and down to a buddy's place in Colorado (where I'm currently STRANDED). In nowhere Nebraska (no rain/snow anywhere around) all of a sudden the ceiling starts leaking near the rearview mirror. I even said out loud - "I'm afraid to ask what's next!"

As luck would have it -

Been having a bit of trouble shifting gears. Pretty much since I bought it. Most of the time it shifts butter smooth, other times its a bit clunky, can't shift into 1st, 5th, reverse unless I shift into the other gears first.

Most of the trouble occurs at start up, and it feels like a torque issue. The entire car literally feels like it tilts forward. I just checked the motor mounts, and the driver's side is completely shot. The rest look okay with the exception of some dry rot. I drove ~1,200 miles to get here, come out in the morning and now I can't shift AT ALL unless the stupid car is off. Put it in to gear, start the engine, and it won't come out of gear.

I can't see why the driver's side mount alone would cause that much of a problem, to the point of rendering the car inoperable.

ANY suggestions on rigging this thing to work long enough to get back to WI where I have tools to fix this myself instead of getting towed and then raped by a shop?

The ONLY reason I got this thing is so I could park my DD Tacoma in the garage for a year or two and turn it into a turbo charged solid axle rock crawler/race truck. Seems like I'm working on this more than the Taco. Gonna start calling this the 'Unfit'.

*Edit - A guy I know that knows a guy says it might be a seized pilot bushing in the transmission?

 

Specifically where is the car and what diagnostics have you done? How many miles are on the car?

 

I'm in Lafayette, CO. Car has 141k miles on it. Diagnostics? Tried jiggling the shifter side to side in neutral (seemed to work in the past, thought it was syncro issue) or first shifting into another gear. Tried depressing the clutch a few times. If I have the car off, the shifter will move fine. Try to start it while in gear, the car will move, but is not able to shift out of that gear.

 

141,000 miles? That's funny... what did you pay for it? What did you really expect with that many miles on it?

 

If the broken mount has allowed the drive-train to move even a small amount, it could bind the linkage enough to cause this shifting problem. In my old Civic
I was able to Jury-rig it temporarily by prying up where my mount was broken & jamming some wood scraps in there. With careful driving I was able to get it back home(not thousands of miles like in your case) Any farmers around there? They usually have the best tricks for temporary fixes.

 

Was just under $7k. What did I expect? A F&#^ing car that works. It's a Honda, I thought they were supposed to be reliable? Funny... my '04 Toyota has 155k miles, been beat to hell offroad and has never given me problems. Thanks for your input.

 

It looks like it's supposed to move around a bit? It doesn't look like it can move much more than what it originally would've allowed.

Here's the torn bushing.

 

Looks like easily 1/2" or more that the engine has shifted compared to an un-broken mount. The big nut should be in the center of the round metal part. You're correct-it should move some-but a lot less than the broken one allows. It has to be corrected anyway, and it's lots easier that pulling trans to check for bad pilot bushing. My F-250 (I know- its a totally different animal) had a broken mount which caused it to start in second gear(auto), which caused the previous owner to sell it cheap cuz his 'mechanic' told him the trans was slipping & needed re-building. Look for the easiest solution(s) first.

 

Check your PM file.

 

Based on blue book I would say that first of all you paid too much... dealer retail is about $5000 (I assume you bought it from a dealer?) Second... why didn't you get the car checked out thoroughly before buying it? I wouldn't have said any of those things except for your remarks that the Fit is such a lousy car and the Toyota is so much better. When you buy a car with that many miles you should really get it checked out. I;m sorry you're having problems, but you may have found another Fit with the same amount of miles and it could be in great shape. I guess it depends on how well it was taken care of, etc.
Good luck and I hope you get it running and are happy with it.

 

Maybe the car is angry at the OP for so much swearing?

 

Lecturing the OP on car values is not gonna help him fix his engine mount! I'd say he's been a good sport; understandingly he's p'd off about all these problems. Could just be real bad luck. I have less miles on mine and runs like a charm, hopefully you can get that shifting sorted out. I've heard people using the amsoil synchromesh on Problematic Honda manual trannys with success. Of course, it won't solve a severe mechanical failure/problem. Good luck!

 

You're right, I just get overly protective when someone starts swearing and putting down my Fit friends. I hope he gets it fixed with out too much more expense. We don't want to see a new movie with Tom Hanks called "The Money Fit".. right?

Here's Scotty Kilmer on YouTube

 

A quick and functional "fix" to that torn mount is a cheap hot glue gun and enough glue to fill it. My mounts are filled with the stuff and it worked wonders for removing alot of my wheel hop.

It sounds worthless and like a joke, but it DOES work. At walmart you can grab the hotglue gun and plenty of glue for under $20

Then you should procede to remove the linkage from the transmission, and having a friend unlock the shifter with a key in the ignition and go through the gears. On the ends of the linkage, verify everything is smooth. If its notchy, it is VERY possible some road debris got wedged under the car near the cables and is making it HELL to shift properly


Then hop in a junkyard somewhere, find an extra mount to fill with window weld for a more permanent fix

 

Never heard of Window Weld-thanks for the idea.
Here's a DIY How to Make Fill Your Engine Mounts With Window Weld - Solid Mounts
If you can remove the mount to repair it, I think it would 'center' itself & work better.
If you cant remove it, try your jack under the car in different spots to see it you can get the tension off the mount. Good Luck

 

Its possible you have a bad clutch if you can shift with it off but not while its running. The shafts in the transmission arent spinning and dont need the clutch to disengage to engine to switch gears. Linkage or internal shft fork problems usually happen with engine on or off.

 

I misunderstood earlier and thought you had an automatic.


No shifting unless engine off is a sign of a bad pressureplate and/or clutch


Could also be a throwout bearing that is jacked up really bad.

 

^This. Thank you. I didn't ask if I paid too much (my insurance company estimated it to be fair market value), I didn't ask if I should have had someone inspect it first (I brought it home and put it up on ramps and looked for common problems before I bought it and also took it to a reputable shop before I bought it, thank you).

I also never made any broad, over-generalized statement like 'Fits are lousy', nor did I make any attempt to 'put down' Fit owners.

I DO expect problems can and will potentially arise, I'm just a bit shocked/dismayed/frustrated/whatever that this vehicle has had this many problems in such a short span of time. Not to mention that they've been happening with poor timing (on or near a 3,000 mile road trip). To make a broad statement like 'Fits are lousy' would be (IMO) irrational and narrow-minded.

A single car with problems does not and should not reflect on all vehicles of any model/brand. Especially when they are very potentially caused by poor maintenance by the previous owner and notwithstanding a long held good reputation the company (Honda in this case) has earned. All of my comments are directed specifically at this particular Fit that sits in my driveway.

In regards to the Toyota comment, I admit my intentions for it were vague but it was just to emphasize that mileage (especially this day in age) should have little to do with the actual condition of the car. I am in no way trying to directly compare the two. That would be silly, as these are apples and oranges. With regular, preventative maintenance, this and other cars can and should easily last into the hundredS of thousands of miles. Tacoma owners often joke (sort of) that our trucks are just getting broken in when they hit 100k miles. We've been seeing more and more of them hitting 300k and 400k miles and still going strong.



I'll shut up about that.

As if the situation wasn't already confusing, it gets better!

I tried to remove the lower driver's side motor mount and both bolts broke off in the frame due to rust (and yes, after I let them soak). We used a floor jack under the tranny to raise it up to where we though the engine should be sitting. Still no response when attempting to shift. Clutch and clutch fork seemed to be functioning as they should.

We set the car down and I turned off the engine and then restart it with the tranny already in gear and again, I couldn't get it out of gear. I drove forward several yards and repeated the process. By some miracle, suddenly I could shift gears again! I drove it around the block and tested the gears to be sure.

This is with the lower driver's side motor mount completely removed.

Next day I drove around Denver and stopped by a couple salvage yards. Only one Fit and someone took the motor mount when they pulled the engine. I pulled the upper driver's side motor mount anyway to replace mine since it's rusted and has some dry rot. STILL no problems with shifting.

I left the old engine mount in because I didn't want those bolts to break off too and then be REALLY screwed. So I drove the 1500 or whatever miles back to Wisconsin on Sunday. Not one friggin problem the whole way. Hell, it's working better than it was before the trip. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

I can only assume a bushing or bearing in the tranny was having issues until it finally seized up after driving out there virtually non-stop (only stopped each time long enough to fill the tank). The driving several yards forward must have freed up whatever was causing the issue. I'm so, SO lost as to what was actually going on.

I'm gonna dive further into this when I have a chance. FWIW, I think I'll just replace the upper driver's side motor mount, modify/hard mount the rear, and leave the lower driver's side mount off for good. All things considered, I really do like the car, the MPGs, the handling... but those seats gotta GO!!
So uncomfortable on extended trips. Just as bad as the OEM Tacoma seats I swapped out for '02 Subaru WRX seats which was.... oh.... only like a BILLION times more comfortable.

 

Glad to hear you got the problems sorted out! Perhaps over time you can collect the engine mounts from scrap yards and replace them over the weekend/vacation to avoid more transmission issues. A transmission fluid change might also keep the car running well. Perhaps you might open the fill plug and at least check to see if the tranny fluid is at the correct level. Might have been a tranny fluid leak which might explain why it intermittently seizes.

If you do replace the fluid, I'd consider the amsoil synchromesh. I wasn't crazy impressed by the Honda brand MTF and many people here swear by the amsoil so might as well try, it's not that hard nor expensive to change.

Best of luck

 

Yeah I checked the fluid which was fine. Bottom of the engine/tranny is bone dry.

I'll give the Amsoil a shot anyway and see what happens. Thanks.