I recently purchased a 2008 Honda Fit Sport as my daughter's first car from a local pre-owned dealership. The car has approximately 115K miles, so while my daughter gets to learn to drive, I get to maintain another used vehicle. This weekend, I started on my list of maintenance items to ensure the car isn't going to give me any major surprises, and, after I had drained and replaced the anti-freeze, my first questions presented themselves. I was following guidance from several others on this forum to bleed the air from the radiator by leaving the radiator cap loose and run the engine until the engine cooling fan had cycled a couple times, top up the anti-freeze as necessary. Here is my issue: I started the car and had turned the a/c off, moved the controls to max heat, and was waiting for the engine cooling fan to start. Since the car doesn't have a temperature meter, I had connected my scan tool to help monitor the coolant temperature. After running the car for approximately 30 minutes the engine cooling fan had not come on, and the coolant temperature reached 196 F. I pushed the a/c button on and both fans came on immediately, and the coolant temperature began dropping accordingly. My questions are: Is this normal operation (that the a/c has to be on for the engine cooling fan to operate)? If not normal, what could be the cause for the engine cooling fan to only operate when the a/c fan is operating? I'm not used to a vehicle relying on the a/c being on to keep the engine cool! Thanks to all who can help me.

 

The fans are turning on at 205-207 F so it's normal
For a/c the fans are needed to cool condenser, not radiator to liquefy high pressure gas.

 

Doctor J, thank you for the response. Knowing the temperature settings is great info for future. I have been going over several of the other threads in this forum concerning Honda's engine temperature control idea, and have come to the conclusion Honda put a lot of effort into making it almost as confusing as is possible. Their instructions for an antifreeze change tell you to let the fans cycle a couple times with no reference to the actual temperature, yet, the fans don't come on just by allowing the engine to idle (even revving to about 3K for several minutes multiple times) for a considerable amount of time (over 35 minutes). I wasn't wanting to look for problems that weren't real, but, when the fans didn't come on without intervention, I became concerned. After the coolant change (and a lot of other much needed maintenance items), the car is running great. Next on the schedule is a drive belt change. I just want the car to be as mechanically stable as possible for my daughter so she can enjoy learning to drive, as opposed to having to put a towing service on her speed dial, or something worse happening. Thank you again.

 

I am quite happy with the US made Mitsuboshi 5PK1140 belt from the junk yard (yes!)
it's the closest one to factory Honda belt

 

Right now, there aren't any '07-'08 Fits in any of our local junk yards (that says a lot for this type of car!). Several of the yards have told me they don't get them often, and when they do, they get picked through pretty fast. I'm going to have to do a little more research to cross reference the belt to what it fits, and broaden my search a bit. The local dealer wants right at $60 for the belt. What are your thoughts on Continental, Gates, or Delco belts? I can get the premium versions of one of those for $25 or less in the little box stores. If nothing else, one of those may buy me enough time to research for the next replacement.

 

All belts from the stores will work, but
Continental brand belt from Autozone had to be re-tensioned one week after the installation.
Gates is lasting long time but wears out (yes) idler roller.
The "textured" pattern of original belt "smooth" side keeps flat pulleys (water pump and idler) from pitting and scoring

 

Thanks, again, that's great info! Despite the cost, I'm leaning towards the OEM belt, since the one on the car appears to be original, is still in pretty fair condition, and has lasted over 115K miles. Some things are worth saving a little cash on, others are worth the expense. I'm still learning to pick my battles with that. This Fit is growing on me, even though it is my daughter's car. I'm driving it a considerable amount, and so far, am well pleased. Since I didn't know the car's history, I have replaced the air filter, cabin air filter, oil and filter, pcv valve, spark plugs (NGK), spark boots, coolant, brake fluid, and transmission fluid and filter. The car now gets approximately 28 miles per gallon mostly city driving, and after the belt change, I'll be looking to check the valve adjustment. After that, it should be just driving for quite some time. I can foresee it may be difficult actually giving her the car when that time comes!