Decided to make a separate thread to let you follow whatever chaos comes my way from buying a 500 dollar 2007 Bright Red fit sport automatic.

I'll try and keep it updated as I go just for fun...

Round 1............... $500

Found out that a 2007 Honda fit was available for 500 bucks, owner is in another state and brother had the title.

The father had helped try and start it but no luck so it sat parked for a year..
Laid down $500 bucks on a fit that would not run, would start run rough and die, also needs some attention the body as far as some loose bumper cover issues and a rear hatch that needs replaced.. I have one on order I think...

Following weekend took my hand tools, some starting fluid and went to see whats what.. First thing out of the gate is most cars need gas in them. Needle was in the basement and the warning light was on.. Went an bought a gas can and filled it with 5 gallons of top tier 87 octane.

(There is a special and deserved hell somewhere for those responsible for the new pollution reducing safer gas nozzles.. )

Put the gas in the car, put the battery in (I had it at home on the charger) hooked up the jumper cables so my jeep could help with the CPR process.

First hit the engine started and ran, it was running rough but I warmed it up and made it go back and forth a little..

After a half hour it became apparent that this car needed plugs and coils, Pulled one coil and it was a mess, hacked repairs etc..

I managed to limp the car home and park it..

Round 2 ........... $765
Next weekend...
Received the coils {ORDERED from Rock Auto $190} and realized I should have ordered plugs, stopped at a local parts house and the only Iridium plugs they had were a new Bosche part number.. So for $20 bucks I took them, well see how it goes..

With the new plugs and coils the car purrs. Runs really good but now I can hear an exhaust leak. So I zip it down to the local muffler shop. Once it was on the lift found someone had attempted to steal the cat but with a short weld the pipe was back in one piece and its running pretty good now..

With the car now quiet,, and running pretty good I get a check engine light after about 30 minutes of driving.. Hmm.. Pull out the trusty scanner and its the uber annoying P code for a low efficiency reading on the cat. So I decide to drive it for a couple days and see if its just fouled from the poor running conditions. It also has a occasionally belt squeak so I'll deal with that next..

I'm totalling up my cheap cars cost as I go ..


Car Vitals:
2007 Honda fit sport.
5 speed auto with the paddles.
Standard FIT sport AM/FM/CD radio.
Black interior.
RED exterior
Stock FIT wheels.

 

Round 3 ........... $832
Couple minor maintenance items...
$28 for a new fanbelt (Old one got rowdy noisy!)
$25 Idler pulley Figured what the hell with 120K on it....
$12 New radiator cap, noticed it was leaking..

Getting right at 33 MPG running back and forth to work..

 

Round 4 .........$1221
Well this week its the cosmetic stuff, when I bought the car the rear hatch was hammered by damage and amateur repair, no glass, had a piece of plexi taped in with packing tape. UGLY! so I did some web surfing and found a sport hatch in my local area, Its White not red, picked it up this week and installed it today. Took < 30 minutes to swap. Has a small scratch so they dropped it from the 500 ask to 400. Car is much quieter.. I salvaged all the good bits and pieces including the factory spoiler off the old hatch figure ebay them to re-coupe some cost.

I went through emissions testing and passed so uber thumbs up to seafoam.. Next the trip to the DMV to lose an hour or two out of my life...

I'm considering just painting the roof and hood white, rather than joust with painting the hatch, red is such a pain to match.... That or maybe paint the rear bumper and side skirts white , maybe front spoiler too. so it will have a white outline around the red.. Wife says it will look like a poke-mon ball either way..

Cheers

 

Round 5 ..........$1226
tiny fix, the dome light wasn't working,, bought a new bulb {$4}.. OOOH I can see the ignition switch when I get in now..


Leaning more to painting the rear bumper cover white and then the side skirts and front lip. Lowers the paint cost and I can do most all of it myself.. Hmm.. Decisions.

 

Pictures, please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Sounds like it's turning into a nice Daimler driver. Is it a five speed? Also does the AC and the radio work?

 

Pictures in this thread would be great

 

Very teasing to see the progress in photos! Keep it up

 

Round 6 ..........$1226(No cost today)

So I think I have figured out something interesting, I have a OBDII scanner that talks to my iPhone and I've been running around with it on because I keep getting the dreaded 0420 catalyst efficiency check light. Well I think its a bug. We all know how weak the alternator in the fit is. What I've been noticing is the O2/CAT error trips when the AC fan kicks on and the fan kicks on with it. What I'm suspecting is the power drop when the ac system cycles is triggering a low voltage on the O2 circuit in the ECU. I'm trying to find a budget method to tweak the alternator output up about a volt at idle when the ECU goes into reduced charge mode to save fuel. I think I can pull it off with a small circuit that switches in a minimum voltage to the field but lets the ECU signal ride over it when its above 1000 rpm. Basically reversing the honda logic..

May take a while but I hate the pulse in the headlights at night in traffic..

 

The hatch that was on the machine and the new white one on the car..
I stripped all the good parts off the hatch, I figure I can eBay them to scrounge back some of the hatch replacement cost.

FYI don't be afraid to order a hatch if needed, the shipping should not be to bad, it turns out this is likely the lightest hatch ever put on a car. I can lift the whole hatch with one hand off the car ,,, had my wife hold it while I put the bolts in..

Once i get the exterior kinda under control I'll probably take it to a pro body detailer and have it blocked and waxed.

 

Sinde note:

My daughter came home from college and when I picked her up at the airport got in and asked where I got the Poke'-Ball so the car is officially named.. Its small but holds stuff you would not expect...

 

Very cool. Keep it coming. Why not just plastidip the hatch and spoiler black and add a chrome and red badge. That would look pretty sweet. Plus it works with the red.

 

I have some small cosmetic issues on the rear bumper cover and front hood , bumper cover and lip spoiler,,, I thought about the plastic dip,, still am. Whatever I do won't happen till the weather cooperates..

I am looking at trying some plastic welding to see if I can fix the Lip spoiler, I might just fix the spoiler up enough to use it as a plug for a mold to make a composite one.

Right now I'm trying to figure out the charging system,, got to override that stupid charge reduction honda uses at low RPM..

 

Round 6 ..........$1286

On a whim decided to check out what the rear speakers seemed weak, turned out they had been removed. So 60 bucks and about 2 hours later I had a replacement pair of coaxial speakers in the stock locations in the rear door. Makes a nice difference in the sound. Rear seat passengers can now hear the music without the front seat passengers needing ear plugs..

Not a difficult job but 6.5 inch speakers don't fit back there without a little sheet metal bending...

 

Round 7 -------------- 1385

Well fun this week, headed to work and the Fit wouldn't start. Jumped it and went to a local store and checked and sure enough the battery had died. They didn't have one in stock.. arg so I went on in to work (It was barely starting but getting it done.. ) That night the bug wouldn't crank again so this morning I went to Batteries plus and bought a new battery, I did not use the stock itty bitty SLI151R, went with the SLI51R. My motorcycle has a bigger battery.. Instead I put in a battery that just barely fit in the tray. its 450 instead of 325 CCA. Man does that little car start up sweet now. I'll get a pic of it up later.. Battery was 99 bucks with a carry out discount and my old battery as the core. The Smaller exact fit is 35 bucks more expensive. I still have some adjustment to do to tidy up how its installed but happy so far.

 

Keep posting. This is an interesting thread!

 

Thanks I'm still chasing the mystery short, can't find a good 2007 wiring diagram, using the word "FIT" to name a car should be grounds for execution. Kills web searching.. >

The up side is the 51R battery sat for 2 weeks and ht car started like a champ!

 

$500 qualifies it for 24 hours of LeMons, LOL

The shop manual is at http://hondafitjazz.com/
It has the wiring diagrams.

 

Round 8 -------------- $1424
The online manuals aren't doing the trick, I have a US model sport auto,, None of the online diagrams match my 07.. At least that I have found so far, wire colors and fuse numbers seem to be different.. My Fuse 10 (7.5A) feeds the HAC trigger circuits and the radiator cooling relays. Supposed to be a yellow/Black wire. (Mine is) and that wire is shorting to ground somewhere.. I pulled all the relays out of both fuse boxes. Fuse still pops, unplugged all the connections for the heater and ac controls as well. Arg.

I ordered a factory electrical manual last week($39). 1 itty bitty freeking wire is making me crazy.. And it won't quit raining..

 

I wonder if those online manuals are for non-North American versions. Still it surprises me since Honda usually standardizes everything.