water leaks/ spark plug issues
 

Hi everyone,
Im thinking about buying a 2013 Honda Fit. It's completely rust free ( I live in Ohio) and it's a good price. Ive read a few stories about people having issue with water leaking into the side door(s) and or hatch/ trunk area. How common is this? Also, I hear a lot of reports that the engines have a lot of quirks- spark plug misfiring, etc. Should I buy one?

I drive a 2010 Fit with 200K miles. No leaks of any kind and it runs perfectly. I get 40 mpg on average, but it drops to 37 or so on the e-way.
Is the 13 Fit you are looking at a manual or auto?
No engine or plug problems at all on mine.

2013 is a good year! Auto or manual? How many miles?

No leaks in our '08, my friends '09 or my Mom's '11. It is a legit problem that some people seem to have though. Just check the one you're looking at for signs of water damage. If it hasn't leaked yet, it probably never will.

Plugs and valve adjustment should be done at around 90k on GE's. Do those two things and keep up with oil changes and they will reward you with many trouble free miles.

Good to hear! I've been reading good and bad reviews, but it mostly gets 4 out of 5 stars overall. I'll check it out for water damage like you said. It's got 88,00 miles on it and its automatic.

Any maintenance history?

It's nearing time for a plug change and valve adjustment. Not hard to do yourself if you're mechanically capable.

What are they asking? Make sure to check KBB.com to make sure the price is in line. For some reason, many sellers seem to forget that these things are under $20k brand new. At 6 years old, that car should not be expensive. If it's not a Sport model, it was only about $15k brand new.

The more details you can give, the better advice we can offer.

The dealership is asking 7460. Carfax is clean, two owners with just basic maintenance reports- oil changes, tire rotated. There are seven recalls on the vehicle, one of them being a powertrain driveshaft/driveline recall. I dont know if that bad or not. Here is the vin number: JHMGE8H35DC079214

When I was inspecting the interior, the carpet was wet alongside the drive and passenger door panels. The dealer said they had just detailed the car and the carpets were wet. It scared me because of the leak issues. I didnt see water along the rubber seal though. I dont know, I have to go back there and take a better look. The trunk seemed dry, but the latch was replaced.

The hatch handle is a common issue with the GE. Mine on a ‘10 was rusted to heck and I don’t have any leak problems.

i do like my 09...but had i known about the potential spark plug issues and the funky shifting automatic transmission (yours is cvt i believe...which i dont have experience with), i probably would have got something else. ive had my car a bit over a year now.

when i first got it, plugs were just a bit tighter than hand tight. its a pain in the ass getting in there to check them...and always having the fear of them getting lose is annoying. fortunately after i replaced them and torqued them high, they have been sound.

previously i had a scion xa for 9 years.i was considering a toyota yaris to replace it..which has the same motor..that i know my way around. feature wise, boring and less of a car than the Fit, but solid mechanically. brakes worked a lot better too.

We bought a 2011 Sport Auto for about $6500 with 64k miles last autumn from the original owner. It was in excellent condition outside a few dings and two damaged tires. The original owner had over $5,000 in receipts (did all recommended maintenance at the dealer). This had 25% fewer miles, was a sport model, had massive maintenance at dealer documented via receipts but was older. If you want to buy via dealer they might have a few thousand dollar markup, so that accounts for the difference in price I suppose.

If you don't have receipts for any of the recommended services (e.g. drain transmission fluid, change brake fluid, change engine coolant, change engine air filter, change cabin air filter, inspect brakes, etc) I would assume none was done. I would also get the tires balanced and suspension aligned. You might be able to delay these items but you cause issues down the road (e.g. engine coolant has anti corrosion additives that wear out, brake fluid stops preventing rust after 2-3 years, bad alignment will quickly wear tires and suspension bits, etc.) That is over $1000 deferred maintenance from the dealer. Cheaper if you can DIY.

As @GAFIT notes, Bernadi Honda recommended spark plugs and valve adjustments around 100k miles. There are several recent threads on spark plug loosening problems which seem to be avoided just using new Honda torque values so I would do spark plugs ASAP as a precaution since failure is expensive. The exhaust valves in particular tighten up typically so that service can be safely ignored on many cars but I would get it done on the fit; there are recent threads here. Do both spark plugs & valve adjustment at the same time. If you can DIY, parts are less than $100; I suppose a dealer might charge more than $1000 but you will need to get quotes in your area.

The door water leaks are a bit troubling. Stagnant water can create smelly and dangerous mould. Normally car carpets do not get drenched from a carwash or a rainstorm. Troubleshooting car leaks can take a lot of time.

-- My family has owned a few cars with a couple of drops of water entering the top of side windows only at a commercial car wash but with no other problems. For clarity, no water came close to the rug.

-- An old VW had water leaks and required that we disassemble all doors and replace the polyethylene door shields and use a ton of silicone. That car also had a failed heater core which soaked the front carpet on both sides; we replaced the heater core & removed the seats/carpet so we could wash the carpet at a commercial laundromat; that was fun.

-- A more recent GM car had water leaks at the doors which we partially solved disassembling the door and applying silicone around the speaker; the door panel broke so required a lot of epoxy. That car also had a defective fresh air intake at the front of the car that let in water (killing the blower fan, killing the resistor pak, soaking the rug), so we had to disassemble a lot of plastics, apply some epoxy and silicone to seal, replace the blower fan, replace the resistor pak.

So with virtually no documented maintenance, water leaking, so-so price, I don't think this is a screaming deal. If you can DIY most or all of the deferred maintenance, maybe. But I would rather buy a car directly from original owner with all maintenance receipts in hand. And definitely pay an INDEPENDENT mechanic to put this on a lift to search for any issues. The Carfax is not enough and will miss many issues.

EDIT - I am thinking all deferred maintenance via Honda schedule would be well over $2000 at the dealer. If you can DIY most of it, then maybe you can get the cost well below $1000.

I've 'never' seen a rust free vehicle in Ohio. I have multiple friends there and everything rusts: body, frame, brake lines, drums / rotors. Since they don't have mandated / routine inspections there, they drive everything until it breaks, which usually occurs at an inopportune time.

Are you sure this is an Ohio car or is it a flood damaged one from down south (no winter road salt) state?

I currently have two leaks - one is from a tweaked door frame from someone who backed into me.

The other has happened once while washing the car and have not noticed it again. I'm assuming water coming from the antenna and creeping out of the child seat anchor on the headliner. It'll land on the cargo cover.