New to the Fit

[ZXRider]

What's happening ladies and gents,

Recently picked up a 09 Base Fit, on Saturday 8/29 to be exact, and have a whopping 151 miles on it at the moment. For the five days that I have actually driven it, I must say I am pleased. The miles on my 98 Prelude were getting up there and I felt like I need something a bit more easy on the wallet. Nonetheless, I hope the Fit will give me a good amount of trouble free years.

Now, how finicky are the engines in these cars? I've been going with what I've ready in the owners manual and taking it easy on the thing. I know how to drive a MT car but sadly today I stalled it once, I forgot I was in gear, and I am a bit worried if I managed to damage anything? I don't want to glaze the hone and have an engine that burns through oil.

Also, let me know if I need to know anything else about these cars. Thanks.

[HondabRiTT]

welcome to the site =] and congrats on your new fit!

i would love to answer some of your questions but i too just got mine the other day and its sadly an A/T
sorry i couldnt help, just wanted to say hi =]

[ZXRider]

Originally Posted by HondabRiTT

welcome to the site =] and congrats on your new fit!

i would love to answer some of your questions but i too just got mine the other day and its sadly an A/T
sorry i couldnt help, just wanted to say hi =]

Thanks for the welcome. I would've actually liked to pick up an AT but 1) Did not want to fork over the extra $$$ and 2) Dealer did not have any AT models in stock. I don't mind the MT tho, the clutch is extremely soft so it's not a pain in bumper to bumper traffic.

[mahout]

[quote=ZXRider;738649]What's happening ladies and gents,

Recently picked up a 09 Base Fit, on Saturday 8/29 to be exact, and have a whopping 151 miles on it at the moment. For the five days that I have actually driven it, I must say I am pleased. The miles on my 98 Prelude were getting up there and I felt like I need something a bit more easy on the wallet. Nonetheless, I hope the Fit will give me a good amount of trouble free years.

Now, how finicky are the engines in these cars? I've been going with what I've ready in the owners manual and taking it easy on the thing. I know how to drive a MT car but sadly today I stalled it once, I forgot I was in gear, and I am a bit worried if I managed to damage anything? I don't want to glaze the hone and have an engine that burns through oil.


Having 'broken in ' over a hundred cars, its very doubtful you caused anything negative to happen. Just follow the break-in rules and and your Fit drivetrain will reward you with long life and good mpg.
Main thing is don't drive at a given rpm for too long, occasionally take rpm up to 6000 very brieflt, and try not to drive many short trips of a couple of miles. A 100 mile initial trip is often beneficial.
Enjoy like the rest of us. I have a choice of 5 vehicles and my Fit is my daily driver.

Also, let me know if I need to know anything else about these cars.

[mahout]

Originally Posted by ZXRider

What's happening ladies and gents,

Recently picked up a 09 Base Fit, on Saturday 8/29 to be exact, and have a whopping 151 miles on it at the moment. For the five days that I have actually driven it, I must say I am pleased. The miles on my 98 Prelude were getting up there and I felt like I need something a bit more easy on the wallet. Nonetheless, I hope the Fit will give me a good amount of trouble free years.

Now, how finicky are the engines in these cars? I've been going with what I've ready in the owners manual and taking it easy on the thing. I know how to drive a MT car but sadly today I stalled it once, I forgot I was in gear, and I am a bit worried if I managed to damage anything? I don't want to glaze the hone and have an engine that burns through oil.

Also, let me know if I need to know anything else about these cars. Thanks.

Everything is fine unless you do it regularly. Follow break-in rules but especially don't drive long at same rpm, don't take many short trips *<5 mi), and do accelerate easily up to 6000 rpm ocasionally and briefly to keep cylinder walls smooth.
good luck.

[DatFIT]

congrats and welcome. Enjoy the new fit

[Fitcious]

Sup ZXRider,

I went to UC Irvine..u go to school there? I used to have a 99 5spd pearl white prelude as well...it was such a fun and slick car...esp when it it vtec....and i still think that design of the prelude was timeless...looks sooo goood...but i had like 126k on it and there were leaks EVERYWHERE. haha.

i have a white fit sport m/t as well...ppl on the forum actually says although the clutch on the fit is light, the manual is actually quite hard to drive. there isnt a distinct sweet spot on the clutch..more like a distance than a spot.

what i noticed when i got into hte fit is u dont need to add a lot of gas for these car to release the clutch and MAKE SURE YOU FULLY STEP ON THE CLUTCH ALL THE WAY before you change gears from 1-2...because a lot of ppl complain that the stick "pops" out from 1st to 2nd..but in reality it's just you're pulling the stick faster than ur foot depresssed the clutch.

and yes, this car is easy on the traffic...with the light clutch. my old IS300's clutch was a PAIN!

enjoy!

[ZXRider]

Originally Posted by mahout

Everything is fine unless you do it regularly. Follow break-in rules but especially don't drive long at same rpm, don't take many short trips *<5 mi), and do accelerate easily up to 6000 rpm ocasionally and briefly to keep cylinder walls smooth.
good luck.

Uh Oh I might have caused some issues then. I commute about 40 miles daily and have to take the freeway. Now at times it's bumper to bumper traffic so it's constantly 1st to 2nd gear. I have yet to take it past 4k RPM and when I am actually cruising at speed it's around 3k RPM. I occasionally take the speed up to 70 MPH and let off the throttle and let the RPM drop down and the MPH drop down to about 60 MPH and then get on the gas again and take it up to 70 MPH to vary the RPM, but once again I have yet to take it past 4k RPM. When I'm moving in the freeway the RPM hovers around 3k RPM. Has this been harmful?

I actually just broke 200 miles and as per the owners manual been making sure I don't make quick and full throttle acceleration and no sudden braking.

Originally Posted by Fitcious

Sup ZXRider,

I went to UC Irvine..u go to school there? I used to have a 99 5spd pearl white prelude as well...it was such a fun and slick car...esp when it it vtec....and i still think that design of the prelude was timeless...looks sooo goood...but i had like 126k on it and there were leaks EVERYWHERE. haha.

i have a white fit sport m/t as well...ppl on the forum actually says although the clutch on the fit is light, the manual is actually quite hard to drive. there isnt a distinct sweet spot on the clutch..more like a distance than a spot.

what i noticed when i got into hte fit is u dont need to add a lot of gas for these car to release the clutch and MAKE SURE YOU FULLY STEP ON THE CLUTCH ALL THE WAY before you change gears from 1-2...because a lot of ppl complain that the stick "pops" out from 1st to 2nd..but in reality it's just you're pulling the stick faster than ur foot depresssed the clutch.

and yes, this car is easy on the traffic...with the light clutch. my old IS300's clutch was a PAIN!

enjoy!

I wish I could have attended UCI, but sadly because of the budget cuts they did not have anymore room in the Mechanical Engineering and I did not want to wait another year, so I transferred to CSUF instead. I commute from Irvine to Fullerton daily.

My Prelude is a 1998 Base MT Milano Red and currently it has 186,110 miles on it. I have actually replaced a lot of things on it but I could not justify spending anymore money on it. It's a fun car but the 2.2 liter H22 really needs to be revved up high to get the heavy body moving and I just did not want to rev the thing that high in fear of spinning a bearing.

Also, I own a 1994 Twin Turbo 300ZX, and the Prelude is no where near as fast as the Z. The Prelude was my daily driver for the past 3 years but now because of the high miles, the bad gas mileage and the crammped interior space I ended up moving onto the Fit. Hopefully I can sell the Prelude in the near future.

[blyndgesser]

I doubt seriously that anything you've done will show up as damage anytime within the next 150k miles. Just don't go shifting without the clutch, or bouncing off the rev limiter too much, and you'll be fine.

[ZXRider]

Originally Posted by blyndgesser

I doubt seriously that anything you've done will show up as damage anytime within the next 150k miles. Just don't go shifting without the clutch, or bouncing off the rev limiter too much, and you'll be fine.

haha no I would never do such things. I'm actually pretty OCD when it comes to cars and take meticulous care of my cars. The reason I'm being overly paranoid with this is that I want to make sure the engine is broken in correctly so I don't end up burning through oil. I'm hoping to get a few trouble free years while attending school and than some more years out of it

[blyndgesser]

That's why I've chosen Hondas so often. I can obsess over them if I want to but I don't have to. That puts them ahead of the cars that needed constant attention (old Mercedes diesel, Nissan 240SX) as well as the ones that never inspired me to care (Ford Ranger, Chevy Monte Carlo).