Howdy all,

Our 1st Gen (2008 Base) Fit has about 86,000 miles. Now and then when at idle, it almost sounds as if it has a light valve slap. Unsure if this means maybe the valves need adjusted, or if the oil is a little low (it is at 40% life, though I am not aware of it going through oil and the level seemed fine on the dipstick).

Did I possibly read somewhere that at 90k service a valve adjustment is recommended?

 

The sound you're hearing (cold engine in park, disappears in drive) is piston slap. If sound is getting louder as engine heats up (and it is louder on acceleration) the valve clearance is excessive. Traditionally, the exhaust valve lash tends to decrease in time leading to poor cold driveability

 

Thank you for your reply. The sound seems to go away almost immediately once driving, but now and then at a nearby stop (we have to stop 2x within a block of home as we leave) it will come back at idle.

This sounds like something that should be adjusted before it can get too bad, right?

 

Piston slap cannot be adjusted , but it is not a bad idea to check the valve clearances.

 

Don't worry frank; I'm not going to diagnose your issue from a 1000 miles away. Also don't worry in that these cars are nearly indestructible. So to answer your question, YES; having the valves adjusted on the GD Fit is a regular maintenance item. I had mine done at 94,000 when I bought the car. Whenever something goes "wrong" with the GD, it is usually attributed to failing ignition coils or the valves needing adjusting. Get the valves adjusted when you feel you have sufficient money to do so. I sent out a letter to 5 local Honda dealer's service departments (all at once) asking them for a price. Knowing they could see I was sending out one note to 5 dealers made them come up with some incredibly diverse prices (from $270 to $450). You know which one I paid.

 

I had wandering idle issues so I did the valve clearances myself at around 100K miles. Totally worth it as the idle is smooth again and the engine drives better.

 

At almost 90K, I asked the service Dept if I should get a valve adjustment. The tech said if I had no symptoms, that I could go a little longer before brining it in.
So, at 120K, I did a valve adjustment. The idle got noticeably smoother.
Last month, at 305K, I did my 2nd valve adjustment after a P301 code kept popping up. Now the code is gone, and I am getting a 2.5 mpg increase.

 

Off topic, but I used to do a valve adjustment on my B18B Integra (non-vtec) every oil change. With that motor, I can adjust manually, no shims. And they fell slightly out of spec every 5000 km. That helped to smooth out the idle, and maintain fantastic fuel mileage.

Cars nowadays need shims, which is a shame.

 

On a side note, if your valves are out of adjustment your losing compression, low
compression increases current required to bridge the gap across the plug.
Increased current heats up the coils more. Hot coils die earlier..
Low compression reduces combustion efficiency, low combustion efficiency
drastically increases wear on rings.

Its a vicious cycle. Won't cause any issues immediately but the basic
maintenance items are the difference between getting 100K miles or 300K
miles out of an engine..

 

Modern cars still benefit from this service, but not frequently. And on my car at least, quite difficult due to packaging, so leave it to a shop my advice. First gen might be a little more frequently required, I don't remember ...

 

yea, I sure wish my Toyota VVTI could have its valves adjusted, but they are not adjustable according to Toyota. As for the VTEC, you are punishing an outstanding engine by not getting it done. Let that little engine get to 300,000 miles. It is built to do so. Ignoring the valve adjustment on this engine is killing the goose that laid the golden egg. Get it done.

 

Material technology has helped a lot with valves, when I was young most cars had hard tappets, most needed the valve lash done about every 12 K. doing it every 60 seems pretty cool to me..

Vw's air cooled about every 3500(each oil change), most motorcycles about every 12 to 15K. The fit motor is about the same size as most touring bike engines now and turning about 2/3 the rpms.. Not surprising to me that a small displacement high reving engine needs love every 18 months or so...

 

I adjust my valves every 67,000 miles or so, which was when my 02 sensors first needed replacing. It's easier to replace the top 02 sensor on the exhaust manifold with the intake manifold off. I thought that meticulously adjusted valves would result in the singer sewing machine clakkety noise of the engine quieting down. I have used Mobil1 synthetic oil every 2-3K miles since new, so no piston slap. The engine usually sounds like something needs adjusting, it's a clakkety motor. Some say it's the injectors. It's usually the worst in winter when I stop after driving and get out of the car and hear it idling and think "Man, that's really noisy." The Bad News: you can adjust the hell out of it and the engine will still sound like a sewing machine. The Good News: It's not a problem. I have wound the heck out of my motor a zillion times and after 150K miles it still sounds noisy and runs excellent and gets great mileage. We OCD types can use it as an exercise in letting go.

 

My 07 is about to turn over 108K. I have all the same noises everyone's describing. The noises come and go, but my concern is the occasional smell of gas and/or rich exhaust when I start the car. Also, no rhyme or reason to when it happens. Anyone else have the occasional smell? Coils and plugs are good; exhaust seems tight. It's probably NBD, but I'm going to obsess about it until I can give it a name or the darn thing catches fire...

 

Totally my personnel theory,,, but the newer engines really depend on the O2 sensors ,, i often wonder as the sensor ages if the computer sees it as lean and over enriches the fuel?

 

DWtaylorpdx is correct. Here's my Description of the issue in Layman's terms:

What happens regards O2 sensors is, they get dirty. Then, their 'response time' slows. If the ECU doesn't see a result of it's running adjustments in a certain amount of time, it can adjust too far.

So your mixture, timing, etc suffers wild 'mood swings'.
Which in turn can clog a Cat/Con.

 

O2 sensor is not in the picture until car warms up (blue light goes away) Smell during start up is is typically due to 3 things:
too much alcohol in the fuel
weak spark
high blow by