I bought my 08 Fit Sport back in June, 26k miles on it then-32k miles now. ( I write a lot, sorry in advance!!!)

I live in New England, and even without snow roads are in rough shape. Lots of pot holes, but being in the fit I keep an eagle eye out for anything that would be troublesome to drive over.

So I'm at this stop light on my way to work, totally normal, and it turns green. I think I hear a squeal and then a sproing/chunk sound and the car wobbles and accelerates...oddly. Slower than it should be for the amount of pressure i'm putting on the gas. For a second I thought it might just be my foot slipping, so I try to keep going but something feels off. I come to a stop sign, stop fully, and then when I try to go again a louder scraping sound and the car wouldn't go straight and wouldn't move very far.

(I've been the driver when a CV joint cracked and then an axle snapped, and another time when a boot slipped so I immediately thought it was one of these things)

So I got it to the dealer nearby on a VERY bouncy tow truck which was fun, but when we get there...the service rep there is able to drive the car into the garage with no problems at all. They say it's fine. I have them check it out anyways, as I needed a exhaust clamp replaced.

So I wait forever, and they come out and tell me "Oh, it must've been a branch." They also said it looked like "my rear brakes needed servicing," so I get those done too.


a BRANCH? There was no branch, and she was rushing me out, so I took this to my father's honda/acura guy yesterday.

He agrees that the branch story is BS, there is no way I hit a branch, as it would have be very large to go that and there would be evidence of something getting up under there- which there was none. I had him check the CV joints and axle, all good.

His theory is that the brakes slipped/malfunctioned initially, got rattled back into place on the tow truck, and that when they dealer saw they were needing work, fixed the problem but told me the problem was something else entirely (making me PANIC for no reason).

He did also say that he is 100% as he didn't look at the car right away, but he test drove it and checked everything out and it's fine. If it was a internal malfunction, maybe it was a one off, maybe something went wrong and won't go wrong again until the right conditions and that I should keep an ear out on the off chance that's the case.

Anyway.... of course I'm still a little nervous. I love my car.

But now my head is spinning and I was wondering if anyone who actually owned a fit/drives them on a regular basis had any input.

Brakes, branch, or something else entirey?

The car drives alright now despite my paranoia, I haven't taken it back on the highway yet just in case.

 

Possibly one of the wheels was on some patchy ice or packed snow and the other one had more traction. Possibly one of the brake calipers was sticky, or something got wedged between the brake pad and the rotor and has since worked its way loose.

Since two different mechanics have declared that it's OK and haven't found anything really wrong, and since the problem doesn't seem to be recurring, I don't know what sort of advice you're expecting us to give. Go drive and enjoy your car, and worry about fixing it only if and when it stops working properly.

 

Man, I was doing just that. Couldn't shake the feeling of weirdness, and then my ABS light came on just a couple of minutes ago and the peddle got high and it stopped...slowly.

At least I was a block away from home?

Not pleased at all.

 

Manual or auto transmission?

 

Automatic w/ paddle shifters. I had my mechanic, not the dealer, look at it again.

He thinks they might've pulled a wire on one of the ABS sensors when they re-adjusted my breaks. That, or one is dying slowly. It hasn't come back on since the one incident.

She's driving fine now, but I'm keeping an eye on it. We just got hammered by the blizzard so I DEF need those ABS brakes right now.

 

at this distance it a WAG but I would chek the stability control system as it sounds like the system is trying to alter the wheels engagement using the brakes and not properly. could be one off - or waiting. Having te system flashed might be a good idea
good luck..

 

Interesting... I know some of the newer models got recalled for that. When I take it to put on my new tires, I'll have them check it out.

Actually, when I took it to the mechanic, he told me I should go pitch a fit at the dealer that sold me the car- they put on way oversized tires. Hard to tell visually, and I hadn't had to put air in them yet so I didn't know. They were handling great in snow so I wasn't complaining, and couldn't hear them rubbing.