Hey guys Im new to the forum, in the market for a Honda Fit.
Did do a brief search for the noise without finding a good answer.
I recently test drove a 08 SPORT MANUAL with almost 200k miles.
The car drives perfectly fine, acceleration, brake, handling, no weird vibration in car or felt through the shifter, except theres a loud clicking noise only while accelerating (stepping on gas in gear).
Idling and revving in neutral is perfectly sound (no clicking), but when I put load on the wheel the clicking noise will happen and it will get faster as the rpm goes up.
It sounds kind of like some plastic sheet is hitting a gear cog, or a very loud arcing noise, but only makes this sound while in gear accelerating.
No clicking in gear decelerating.
I dont feel any odd vibration though the shifter during all this.
The car pulls strong, regardless of the noise.
Thanks guys.

 

Quick update.

So I had a pre purchase inspection at a local shop and was told it was a worn throw out bearing.
I wasn’t 100% convinced because it doest sound like a throw out bearing, but if a pro mechanic says so, they told me it’ll only cost a clutch replacement.

Ended up buying the car and I’ve been driving it around with the noise for about 3 weeks, no problem other than the noise. Pulls hard, no leak, no vibration, no problem.
Decided to bring it in to the dealer for a second opinion, told me the same thing, throw out bearing.

Now I bring it back to the first shop that did the pre inspection to do the clutch replacement and now they say it is the input shaft bearing before even working on the car. Why didn’t they tell me that before, if they can tell it’s a ISB without looking!?

Anyways here’s a video of the noise it makes.


Theres no noise when the car is in neutral or clutch pedal is depressed, idle or revving.

Makes noise in all gear, just louder in 1st 2nd 3rd, in 4th and 5th you can barely hear but it’s still there.

Sometimes if I’m lucky 1st gear will make no noise in gear from a complete stop to about 4k rpm

If anybody can give me a third opinion that would be great.

 

I had horrible noise from the gearbox too and here are my thoughts:

• If there's no noise when in neutral, it's not the input shaft bearing.
• Making noise in all gears would suggest output shaft. But you'd expect it to be noisier in higher gears as the shaft is spinning faster
• But if there's sometimes no noise in 1st, then I don't know

Did you notice the noise going away once the car warms up? That was the case for me. It was the worst on cold starts like this, the noise goes away when I press in the clutch pedal: https://imgur.com/C40o9Vp

In my case it was both the input and output shaft bearings which were completely shot. One of the actual bearings in question:
https://imgur.com/89kPqbj

The throw-out bearing doesn't really make sense to me as it's only engaged when you press the clutch pedal. Maybe it's just rattling and vibrating somehow? I dunno.

The "good news" I suppose is that if you have the gearbox out for the clutch job, popping it open and replacing the bearings (like $10 each) is pretty easy. You can check my thread here: https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/1st-...tin-rides.html

 

Oooooh thanks for the reply!
Yes it’s still a mystery for me, it doesn’t sound like anything I’ve heard or felt. But the noise does get less loud at 4th and 5th so it must be the shaft bearing. The noise is very consistent and matches the speed of the car, but there’s virtually no odd vibration felt through the pedal or stick or the body. No noise in neutral or clutch pressed.

So, I ended up letting the shop do the work.
They’re gonna replace all the bearings inside the gearbox do the clutch and replace the flywheel and gave me a discount for a total of $2500. I would have done everything myself if I was 20 years younger and had more time. (I’ve rebuilt my 96 prelude transmission back in the days.)
Still disappointed they couldn’t find the problem during pre purchase inspection.
but thanks for the link, I’ll look into the helpful posts you made.

 

yes as said noise from worn throwout bearing will only happen when clutched in (your noise is while in gear). unfortunately this is exactly what happened to my fit, its most likely the input shaft bearing (in the transmission). instead of replacing the bearing (which requires trans case to be opened) i just bought a used trans and i been lucky so far. by the way input shaft bearing is a common honda fit failure.

honestly if you can find a low mileage trans, thats going to be way cheaper then $2500. then you also have a spare trans to tinker with (maybe replace bearing and seal on your own).

 

I would of definitely took the car apart myself if I had the time and space to work on it, but unfortunately I work all day everyday.
So I got my car back. Not sure if I was ever asked to do the rear main seal nor the sway bar links. The car handled perfectly before I even brought it in.
All in all pretty disappointed as this shop had great reviews being a Honda specialist. I had plans on bringing my other Hondas in before all this.

The noise is gone, so I guess problem solved. I’m hoping the rebuild will hold up for a long time.

 

Yikes those bearing prices

But at least it's fixed. Did they tell/show you what it was? We need to know!

It'll probably last long enough not to matter, but I'm curious what the root cause is. As @mifesto said, it's a pretty common issue so it has to be either defective bearings or poor lubrication design or something like that.

The rear seal makes sense to do during a clutch job, but they should've asked you if you wanted the the sway bar links. Maybe they damaged them somehow, though there's no need to touch them.

 

So the front office just told me it was the input shaft bearing and it’s “fixed”.

I didn’t even think they’d do some extra work without telling me.
Main seal I can understand. But the links I could of done it myself.
They only told me all the bearings, clutch, and flywheel for the fixed price of 2.4k a week before I green lit the work. So I’m sure they already had plans to do the links. Come to think of it, the $400 discount they gave me probably were other unnecessary work they just took off the list.

Man when I finally saw that paperwork after I paid for everything I was too disappointed to even argue. I’m guessing all the clients with the 5 star reviews are just oblivious customers who has no clue what they fixed and are happy it’s a little cheaper than the dealer.

Definitely not going back there.

Anyways the car seems to be running fine, maybe a slight whining noise in gear, and a little rattle at 5k rpm which I think is nominal.

sorry for the rant lol