So driving through the Appalachian mountains in VA. Going up an incline and car starts stuttering and a complete loss of power. Manage to get it to the side of the road and have a flashing engine warning light. I have torque Android app running all the time so checked the code and it was codes P0300, P0301, P0304, and C1555. Car kept. Stuttering with no power in the middle of the night and in a cell dead spot. Cleared the codes and resumed the drive. Drove it another 200 miles gently to a major city. Took it to a dealership today and it's running just fine to them. No repeat codes or anything. I have a 24hr drive back over the next few days through the same territory.

Can anyone shed some light as to what might have happened or what is wrong that the dealership should check that they haven't? All that's happened at the dealership was a diagnostic check and a drive around. Which everything was fine... No more codes or anything.

Really don't want to be breaking down again somewhere in the middle of nowhere with maybe any mechanic within 100 miles. Currently in DC so major town with options. I appreciate all advice or experiences.

 

Was the air particularly thin there? P300 is a "random cylinder" misfire, but 301 & 304 are cylinders 1 & 4. 1 & 4 are the two outer cylinders and further away from where the air enters the manifold, probably starving them of air.

Maybe you went through quick altitude change. In fact, maybe the opposite was true... If you came downhill quickly, it might've gotten too much air in those cylinders when it was still expecting less (too much or too little fuel can cause a misfire).

Dunno.

Also have no clue what c1555 is. Google shows a generic code for the power steering motor.

 

It was after a seriously long climb.... Like downshifted twice to attempt to keep the speed and still was slowly losing the battle.

I'll just count it as a weird thing and be a little more gentle in the hills. Really surprising it throws a code that I had to use torque to clear so I could drive the car again. Does it really take a code clear for this type of situation? And does it pose any big risk to the engine if it happens again when I am passing over?

I was laughing a little at the dealership saying next time don't clear the code and just drive it to them.... It's like sure.... At 5mph for at least 60-80 miles in the hills.. At night around blind curves...

 

Is it stick or automatic? You may be able to drop a gear and increase the revs to keep the engine at a higher RPM which may put it in a different power band.

Did you by chance have the car heavily loaded for the trip? Perhaps it just didn't have the power to climb the hill and was struggling which could cause a misfire.

 

Sounds a bit like what this guy experienced (in SA no less). His turned out to be a failed catalytic converter.

Sorry goobers, changes in altitude don't affect cars this way unless they're being dropped from an airplane at the speed of sound.

 

Guessing it didn't have the power. Two people plus baggage total loaded weight probably close to 500lb... We didn't pack light at all.

It's an automatic. If trying to hold the 70mph I think it was dropping down gears till it was at about 5k rpm. This Hill was long and I was already losing speed with cruise set at 70mph. I quit looking at my rpm after almost 2hrs of these type of Hills. Car sounded like it was trying to kill itself.

I wish they made this car with a 200hp version... Would be all about trading this one in for a hybrid or so version.

 

This sounds like my situation but as of now I can't replicate it.... Dealership said they didn't want to pressure test since everything is working perfect.... So hoping it's not the same.

 

I wouldn't know, its just a thought. But you also assume everything is working properly. It could just as easily be a fault in the ECU, bad sensor etc. where it is expecting one thing while it was actually getting something else.

The p300, 301 & 304 will cause the car to limp, but i've been able to shut down and restart back in normal running, even though i still had the code and CEL.

The C1555 code could be the reason it STAYED in limp mode until you cleared the code.

I think when they said that, they didn't expect you to drive it, but have it towed there.

 

Yep I assume they meant tow also.... this was also the same people that told me I couldn't know what the codes meant without hooking it up at Honda and having them read it... Might not know how to fix it but the codes are pretty straight forward except the C1555 code. I had just got done telling them I was in an area that I barely had cell reception much less data... so making a call was iffy at best. So it was a drive it out or sit there with hazards till a cop came along situation if I didn't clear it. I am about to read through the thread you linked though to see if it will give me further insight. Earlier I had time to browse but not fully read.

 

Hmm read the thread and a couple others now that I am at my computer and it seems like the issues range from as big as the cat converter to as small as a spark plug. Going to try to make it throw a code tomorrow before I leave town but so far no luck.

I guess at the worst I will have to baby it over the mountains until I get back home and can take it apart and check everything myself.... or I could pay the dealership almost 200 per "could be this so check it" type stuff.

If it turns out to be the cat I will just laugh a little more since this will be my 3rd Honda that has had the cat go bad before 60k miles. My fit currently has roughly 35k.

 

The guy I ended up taking my car to that said it was the cat, has been working for Honda in the Workshop, now workshop manager, says in his 20 years working on Honda's it was the first time he had a car with a stuffed cat, so I think the cat is more the exception.

 

I wouldn't rule out a bad sensor (but not bad enough to throw a code).

Shouldn't matter whether you're driving with 500 or 50lbs. You're within the capacity of the car. They have mountains in Japan. It should tolerate whatever you throw at it. Sustained 5k RPM isn't a problem.

Sorry for your trouble. Sucks to be on the road with car problems.

 

So 1500 miles from home and dealing with this.... I decide the trip to NY should be alright anyways... especially since its virtually metro to metro to metro.... very easy to get it towed and fixed if needed. I am driving 80 and hard from DC to NYC. I am not too familiar with the names of the bridges but either way crossing a bridge on the way up (was in NY) I went to pass someone and exact same thing happens.

So after comparing the two experiences I have figured out it does it under hard load, on inclines, and specifically on a downshift.

Those were the three constants between the two times this has now happened. The only thing I did different this time is I didn't clear the code. I was about 8 miles from the condo and just limped it on city streets to the condo around 10pm. I parked it in an area that gets cleaned from 8-9am so would have had to move it by then.... decided after it was parked for about 15 minutes I didn't want to be strapped with possibly a ticket if I overslept... so went down and started up the car fully expecting it to limp like it did the night before till I cleared the code... and no limp... ran perfect... tried to pull a code and none were found.

On both times this has happened I have saved the report log so at least I might have something to show the dealership when it goes back in to get looked at again... The codes were the exact same btw.

 

Starting to wonder if this might be any reason someone sold their Fit at 33k miles.

 

I would throw a new set of sparkplugs and check your airfilter and doublecheck that you havent hit anything underneath the car that could have crushed the crappy factory exhaust piping

 

will try the plugs and check the exhaust. no tools with me so will just be paying the dealership to do it. air filter is about a month old so should be good

 

Dunno if its worth having dealership change the plugs (moneywise)

Maybe just try a claim of your factory warranty and see if they will check everything out for free

 

Car checked out again and they can't find any problem. He listed off everything they checked and everything was clear.

 

Then I suggest attempting to make sure you are getting quality gasoline.

Avoid anything higher then 10% ethanol. If possible, get Ethanol free gasoline.

Try 91 octane fuel. Gas stations rely on marketing that higher octane is better quality, even though it is false, BUT they do stick some additives in the 91 and 93 that they avoid doing to the 87 octane.

Give that shot.

Sucks you dont have a definite answer yet as to what the heck happened!

 

Another thing to add to things that needs to be checked is your coil packs.

Not a Honda Fit, but an officemate of mine had this more or less same problem with her Equinox. It would lose power when accelerating (merging onto freeway) then run fine when cruising. It turned out it was some of her coil packs. Could be your coils for cyl. 1 and 4.