Wife has an 07 with over 130k on it. No problems until recently, when it began to idle rough and die when trying to operate before cold engine light goes out. Dealer says no error code to indicate any problem, maybe bad gas? Tried running some fuel injector cleaner through, higher octane gas, new plugs, air filter, but no change. Any other ideas?

 

battery, alternator?

 

Agreed with Kenchan,

Does it start right up after it dies? How old is the battery? Is it slow/sluggish to start the first time? I would have the battery and electrical system tested first. Also it couldn't hurt to run a can of seafoam though it.

 

Sounds like cold start circuit to me. Did the dealer observe the car failing to idle in warmup phase ? What rpm do you see when the engine is warming up ? Haven't looked in a while but I seem to remember some mechanical adjustment to increase idle rpm until the engine cold light goes out.

 

get the valve clearances adjusted. It's due at 109k miles and it will need it too. Made my rough idle/cold stall problem disappear.

 

+1 on this, happened to my sister's CRV, all the maint she had done was oil changes up till that point.

 

Replaced battery and tested charging system - alternator okay. No error codes at the dealer - could not reproduce rough idle when engine was warm. However, the engine will hestitate at idle even when at operating temp occaisionally. Ran a couple cans of fuel injector cleaner through again - no change.

I like the valve adjustment idea. MPG has been going down, haven't noticed any valve noise (but I'm pretty deaf). Sounds great compared to my old VW.

Is this a user servicable operation, or do I get to go back to my dealer?

 

I have a quick solution this, move to a place with warm weather j/k

Take it to the dealer or to a shop that is performing this kind of maintenance bu if you're the type that like to open up your cars' engine then I would say yes that this is use serviceable.

 

valve adjustment or bad battery my gfs crv is in the shop now getting the 100,000 mile matnence it was a little over do and it had ur probs dont wait till the light comes on lol. also get ur timeing belt checked its time to do it in the car anyhoot if you havent done it yet

 

The GD3's do not have timing belts, it has a timing chain which is pretty much maintenance free. I think the timing chains only needed to be changed during an engine overhaul.

 

I have 142k on my '07 Sport manual Fit. It does the same thing. It stalls when cold. It idles high but once it runs for about 30 seconds (driving) and I hit the brakes to slow down, it will stall. It does this until it warms up for about 5 min of driving. It also is lacking in gas mileage. I have replace the plugs ~95k (original plugs from Honda) and keep up on all maintenance. Original battery. Also, mileage seems to be diminishing. I think my next step is to change all vacuum tubing, adjust valves, change pcv, and maybe change o2. No codes show up when scanned.

Let me know what you came up with?

 

Looks like your car need fuel injector cleaner, valve adjustment and have the fuel line inspected.

 

it sounds like a bad primary 02 sensor they go bad after 100,000 miles so I've heard

 

In the old days carbs had a spring to prevent butterflies from slamming shut by easing that last 1/4" of travel. That was done to prevent stalling when the throttle closed suddenly. And was used on injection systems as well.
I suspect that is still the case on the Fit and somehow, either by programming or mechanically, your butterflies are slamming shut when you release the throttle. Which stalls the engine.
You can experiment with this using a rubnber band to slow the last 1/4" of throttle linkage (but not stopping it) closure.
Curing the problem may be mechanical in the linkage or in programming; my shop manual is out in the shop and not readily available.
The other choice is to ease off the throttle before braking and see if that cures the stall.
Good luck.

 

One of the coolant thermosensors can do that as well.

 

YouTube - Honda Accord Engine Noise.AVI

Mine is no where near that bad, but when it's cold (at night and quiet) and I listen inside my cabine I can hear that same sound but much more quiet.

update:

actually it probably sounds more like this (list to the background noise)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wYpt-j1HbU

When it fully warms up I can barely hear it.

 

My wife's Fit ('08, 45,000 miles) has been making very similar noises, sounds like very loose valves though I adjusted them at 35,000 miles

I'm honestly quite OCD about engine noises, it's been driving me nuts trying to figure out what's going on. I'm planning to pull the valve cover off tomorrow to check clearances again. I'll have to reuse the gasket since I don't have another one on hand.

 

You probably didn't do it right the first time. I did mine 3x to get the clearance I intended to get.

 

It's the coil packs, trust me you can throw a lot of time and money at everything until you find that it was 2-3 $67 coil packs and wahlah!

 

My '07 Fit has this problem. No codes but has dead miss cold that just suddenly goes away about when the cold light goes out. With a scanner attached no codes and NO misfire recorded even when its sitting there running on two cylinders.

Contacted Honda about this (November 2010). Honda says its NOT a problem as no one has contacted them about it. I told them to do a search on Google or any search engine for "Fit stalls cold" but they told me they didn't pay any attention to what was on the net, only what people called them about.

Local dealer told me, "Honda Fits have NO drivablity problems". So, it appears Honda's stand on this problem is that it does not exist. Their solution is to take it to your local Honda dealer and throw lots of money at them while the dealer tells you nothing is wrong.

I have confronted the Honda technical rep about their diagnostics that SHOULD be reporting misfire condition (part of the EPA OBD-2 requirement) but the Honda rep flat told me that they didn't have any technical knowledge, that was up to the local dealer. WTF! The local dealer swears there is not a problem, Honda tells me they don't know about their own car, what a JOKE!

I told Honda I had reservation about taking a car into a shop where the techs didn't know what to do and the company that built it didn't know what it was and sent me back to the ignorant techs who don't have a clue.

I have to qualify something here; I am what you would call an "automotive professional" for over 40 years. I held 18 different ASE certifications including Master Auto Tech, L-1 advanced engine performance, Master Heavy duty truck tech and many more. During my career I was a technical trainer for General Motors, Chrysler, and Toyota as well as teaching a college degree program in automotives. So, when I am trying to have a conversation with these folks it gets difficult as I realize they don't have a clue about their own cars. It appears they are what we commonly call "Parts changers" and they just want me to throw money at them while they guess what part to replace next. Its clear they don't even know S__T about their own cars.

My opinion of Honda has really gone down hill the past few weeks.