Exhaust valves always loosen up and exhaust valves are the opposite or so it has been on every valve adjustment I have done in the last 40 years... The intake valves can always be heard loud and clear with a stethoscope and become louder with wear before time for adjustment... After an adjustment the exhaust valve click can also be heard but as the exhaust valve seat and valve surface pound away at each other with the hot exhaust gases passing through the clearance is reduced at the adjustment side and is in time become to tight..... I owned a VW repair shop when I was in my early 20s and the type 1 air cooled engines called for the valves to be adjusted every 3000 miles... Between those things and my love for British motorcycles I was a wizz at valve adjustments.... I went from hydraulic lifters to solids on a Harley Shovel Head so I could use a long duration high lift cam which meant I had to adjust the valves at 0 degrees by feel only and 1000 miles was about as far as I could go before doing so or the exhaust valves would get to tight and there was no way the engine would start when warm because the valves wouldn't close.. I could do it in minutes and always enjoyed doing it.... I could never stay on a Harley with a solo seat, forward mount pegs and 18" ape hangers on 8" risers very long and was always looking for a reason to get off of the damn thing... I consumed more whiskey to ward off the pain of looking so damned bad than that big fire breathing V-twin used gasoline unless I had gone over the line on the whiskey and needed to get someplace to lay down for awhile and catch some sleep....... Can anyone tell I am having a few toddies now? I must be drunk because I suddenly am jonesing for my old Hog.... Engines with rocker arms always need more frequent adjustment than engines with the bucket- shim type adjustment where the cam lobes make direct contact with the lifters.... Push rod OHV type engines need the most attention unless they have hydraulic lifters.

 

That's it. I'm calling the warranter.

 

had the same issue, adjusted valves yesterday and no more problems.

 

I swear you are just an encyclopedia of great info sometimes!

 

So how many miles did you rack up before you felt the need to do this?

I have a 2008 Sport MT, and while I take OCD care of it, the car does see lots of WOT and routinely sees shifts just shy of redline in 2nd and sometimes 3rd. Some people are reporting they needed valve adjustments before 40k... I am at 23k now and not noticing any ticking, missing cylinders, stalling or really any form cold operation issues. Or that I am down on power in any noticeable capacity.

How common is this, I guess is what I am getting at?

Besides pulling the valve cover, how long did the adjustment take you? Any odd tools besides some sockets and screw drivers? I have never thought to do it on my Fit and many of my other cars have had hydraulic lash adjustment, and outside of that the others never hinted they would need this treatment..

 

Thank you guys so much for this site and this thread. I'm an 09 fit sport owner and have been lurking this site for a year and a half.

We bought a used 08 fit for my sis inlaw and the very next day it started with a check engine light and cold engine stalling. After The Nissan dealership we bought the used fit fr couldn't figure it out, they sent it to the local Honda dealership. I called over there myself and told them it may need a valve adjustment. Between the two service departments, they replaced two #4 ignition coils before they finally listened to me and checked the valves and sure enough they were out of alignment.

So in the end our new to us 08 fit sport with 66k miles on it had the $500 valve job done covered under the used car warranty and I know you guys saved me alot of time and headaches and possibly costly repairs that I would have had to foot later on down the line.

 

my car has 60,000 miles on it at the time of adjustment. I would suggest if you dont know how to do it, go somehwere and get it done. You could damage something without the right tools and precautions.

 

I did my Fit valve adjust in about 90 minutes taking my time. How difficult is it? Well, that depends. I am an ASE master tech with 18 categories of certifications. I have 40+ years of professional experience in the field. Besides my hands of field experience when I was younger, I was a technical trainer (corporate level) for Toyota, Chrysler and GM over the years. That is not to impress you, just to say that what I see as a normal job might be more difficult for another.

Adjusting valves requires an eye for precision and detail. It also requires the tech to develop a feel for using feeler gauges and for knowing the proper methods of torquing bolts. In simple language, you can screw something up if you are not careful.

Only a few tools are needed for the job. The normal 10-12-14 mm sockets and wrenches, a screw driver, a 19mm socket and extension to crank the engine, a good feeler guage set, go/no-go preferred. The procedure is not much different than any other engine. The engine is rotated into the proper cam position for each cylinder and you set the valves. I don't care to write he details of this as that info can be found in many manuals and texts. One thing nice about the Fit engine is that Honda marked the car sprocket to make sure you had the crank positioned at the right point to set the valves on each cylinder. If you poke around on-line you can find a copy of the pages of the Honda repair manual that details all of this, with pictures and text.

If you have never adjusted valves before I would not undertake this job without an experienced helper. As straight forward as it is for an experienced tech there are things you can flub up on. There are parts you can break, like a very expensive intake manifold or mass airflow sensor. Also, you really have to get the cam in exactly the right spot and you have to develop a real eye for and feel for using the feeler gauge. I know from training many hundreds of techs to set valves that they make a lot of mistakes in the beginning.

Proceed at your own risk. But, if you or your helper have experience with valve adjustments on other vehicles this car will not present any special issues. If anything it is easier than many engines.

 

Same issue, (98K), replaced O2 sensors- issue resolved.

 

That happens to me too.
I will try to replace the igniters next.

 

Did you adjust the valves? I would not replace anything on this vehicle until AFTER the valves had been properly set. Without the proper valve adjustment nothing else will matter. This is where some start throwing parts at the car only to spend a lot of money for nothing.

On the other hand, if you have adjusted the valves correctly then proceed.

BTW: one of the most often needlessly replaced parts on cars is the O2 sensor. People give them far more "power" over how an engine runs than they deserve. In any EFI system each part has a certain "range of authority" (ROA) over how much they can actually change the fuel mixture or spark advance. The engine coolant sensor on most vehicles has the greatest control. Next comes the MAP or the MAF (whichever type EFI the vehicle is equipped with). The O2 sensor is way down on the list. Most fuel control comes from a "Map" of cells that are pre-programed based on load and temperature. The lowly O2 just double checks the readings of the oxygen in the exhaust as it leaves to signal the STFT and LTFT (short and long term fuel trims) so the software knows if it needs to fine tune the mixture. While a coolant sensor can cause a 300% or greater change most O2's are lucky to manage a 25% change.

I could write all night on "no code" diagnostics using fuel trim cell readings but it would be boring to most.

Final thought: Before doing any parts changing ALWAYS make sure your engine is in perfect mechanical condition. This includes a GOOD and proper valve adjustment. The EFI can never work properly if the engine is not mechanically perfect. The software was written for a sound engine.

 

I am just now getting this on my 07 Fit. Cold mornings I will run the engine 20-30s before rolling out, and usually the engine will die when I put in the clutch at one of the first few stoplights. I'm able to start it back up no prob, but I want to fix the problem.

Normal operation is fine, but mpg has been slipping. Could be me driving faster lately or this valve problem.

I am fairly handy with the car but have never tried the valve adjustment. Are there any guides on how to do it?

I found these youtube videos, can anyone post a better link or a link to the shop manual?

YouTube - Honda Accord Valve Adjustment

YouTube - Honda Valve Adjustment

 

Look at this first, it includes pages from the Honda Service Manual on where to put the cam to do the valves. I did a cut and past of the manual to have handy when I did the actual work, read the entire string, the manual part starts at the 8th post.

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/fit-...clearance.html


Of course, there is more to it than this. You have to remove the air cleaner box and the upper intake manifold. To do that you need to remove some wiring. Note that you just unplug the wires and then unbolt their holders from the head. Also, in the manual it tells you to drain some coolant and disconnect a coolant hose...DON'T BELIEVE THAT! . You can avoid draining and refilling the coolant if you just swing the manifold out of the way. I think I might have used a bungy cord to hold it over while I worked on it. I did not drain any coolant. I learned long ago to take things off in the biggest piece you can (don't waste time taking every little part off when you can remove the whole thing as a unit) and I learned NOT to drain coolant if I could avoid it. Saves time and you don't risk getting air in the coolant system.

Anyway, there is your link. There is more help out there with a bit of searching. I would do it for you, but I have other chores and hey, you can type into a search engine at least as fast as I can.

Go for it.... BTW, your symptoms are EXACTLY the same as mine, runs poorly or stalls cold and decrease in gas mileage. I will tell you this, after a good valve adjustment it was hard to believe how much better this car ran. Well worth the work.

 

Thanks Hans.

 

Sorry to wake the dead on this one, I just bought an 08 Fit Base about 3 days ago from a nissan dealership and now i have the same problem. I brought it back to them and they told me that it's normal! O.O I know I have about a month left or so before I have to start putting money out of my pocket to get this fix. Should I keep pressing them to look into this?

 

When you bought it there was a 30 day warranty right? I bought this one for my sis in law at a Nissan dealership too. Their shop looked at it twice before sending it to the local
Honda dealership. It wasn't until I hinted that its a valve adjustment that they looked for it. Cherry Hill Nissan did the right thing by me and kept at it until the car was right and it's been rock solid since last December.

If you got yours with a warranty then definitely keep on them. It's not normal at all and as you can see from this thread and others, it's a common problem.

 

I hear of this being called a "normal" situation for a car to stall when cold? Come on! These guys have their heads up their butts! What is normal is for that Fit to need its valves set much earlier than Honda predicted. No car should stall like that. Its a performance issue and a major safety issue if it dies while pulling out in front of traffic. I had it out with Honda N.A. over this. They said they never heard of the stalling problem!

I can tell you that my Fit ran so much better after a proper valve adjustment. Not only did it run 100% better cold there was a noticeable change in torque. You could really feel a difference passing or going up hills. Oh, and the gas mileage improved.

It is not difficult to set the valves. Taking off the intake manifold is not a big deal or an uncommon procedure on modern cars. I did my valve adjust at home one afternoon while I was waiting on family to come over for dinner. (I should mention I am a ASE Master Tech with lots of years of experience however. Your experience with this job could vary).

But, if the dealer put a warranty on this vehicle, make them honor it. I have heard of a few of these traded in on Nissans or other non-Honda brands.. Part of me wonders if the first owners got tired of the stalling and their Honda dealer wouldn't fit it right or they just got tired of the car with this problem.

Get the valves set and go from there.

 

@Supermassive yeah its a 30day i hope everything gets done before then..

Awesome! I'll keep at it and let you guys know the results. Thanks!

 

Day 2, I brought my FIT into the dealership bright and early this morning. It seems as though they were not thrilled to see me, but anywho, I walked up to the service guy at the counter and let them know that I just had 2 stall outs on the way there in addition to the shudders. I also told them that I don't think this is "normal". While he was pulling up my record, I mentioned that I heard this is a common problem and casually mentioned it could be the valves and they laughed. The guy in the back room came out and said these are hydraulic valves they don't need to be adjusted. I told them maybe they should "google" honda fit stalls. Anyways, they asked if I could leave it there with them, so I did, and now I'm just waiting for them to tell me it's the valves. hopefully they don't mask it and tell me it's done. again thanks fitfreaks

 

I just got my car back and they told me they flushed my tranny...

here's the report:

Cust Concern - Car stall when Cold. Car is fine when warm, inspect and advise.
CAUSE - Hooked Scanner, Found code P0847. 3rd Clutch Trans Fluid Pressure Switch (short OS stuck on)
CORRECTION - Performed transmission flush, let car sit for about 4 hours, test drove ok at this time.

I left the dealership and started to noticed the shudder again, and when i came back they were closed. I'm pissed. =\