Hello, new to this so not sure if this belongs here and what not.

I recently bought a 2012 Fit sport but I’m not completely sure about some things and just had some general questions.

first thing is I noticed some fits around the city (Chicago) say sport on the back but look to be around the same year as mine, as well having the i-vtec on the side by the fender but mine doesn’t. It’s really a cosmetic thing so I don’t really care if it’s just a thing mine didn’t have, but it’s making me think maybe my car was painted by the previous owner? (1 owner previous owner, 74k miles).

the next thing is my windshield wiper fluid, when I try to spray the windshield it doesn’t spray, I don’t hear any pumps or anything moving when I do it so I’m guessing the pump is bad? It also makes a really loud rattle usually when I have the ac on. Sounds like some kind of ac motor rattle?

Next the sport mode, usually when driving I use the regular drive gear, but whenever I get on the highway or need to be a bit speedy I put it sport mode and use the paddles to shift, is there like a recommended rpm to shift at? A friend of mine told me when we were younger that a manual car will be easy to tell when you need to shift because you can feel it struggle to continue making power and you can feel/hear it. The thing is it feels like my car makes power pretty high. First gear sounds to start struggling at around 4,500, I usually shift at 4, then from second to third I can do 4500 easy but I can sort of feel it start to struggle, then from third to fourth I can shift it around 5000, and from fourth to fifth would be like 5500. I’ve never had to go firth to 6th, but I believe the car is a 6 speed? Not completely sure.

the very last thing is traction control, I found the button that seems to toggle it, but upon pressing/holding the button nothing seems to change and I don’t see any lights on the dash or anywhere light up so I don’t know if it’s working. I tried while it’s in park and drive but nothing seems to work.

 

The 1st and 2nd generation Fit's have no Sport badging or "VTEC" graphics. Those other Fit's you are seeing around town have added that themselves to mimic the Civic Si.

Windshield washer fluid may be empty? First check on that. It could be a pump or a fuse.

Loud noise with AC on.... I would check if its the blower motor/fan first (the rattle you speak of should come on regardless of the AC on/off, but the fan should be on. Could also be the hood prop rod not properly seated in its clip inside the engine bay..... could also be a bunch of things. You're gonna have to be specific or take a video.

The Fit isn't a fast car. It runs out of power and is pretty loud in most scenarios. What you're describing to me sounds like you're pushing the car pretty hard and expecting more. But to me it sounds like normal operation of the Fit. Shifting at 4k+ in the Fit in my opinion is not gonna get you very good mileage. I'd definitely shift at lower RPMs. The car is a 5 speed automatic.

The traction control button needs to be held for a couple seconds to disable traction control.

 

This is an excellent post by ikutoisahobo!

To clarify one thing, if you want the absolute fastest acceleration in S mode at full throttle, then you want to shift at redline, around 6200 RPM. As mentioned this is the least efficient, and if you don’t need to accelerate quickly it’s best to drive at the lowest RPM possible without lugging, which I believe the car will prevent by downshifting AFAIK.

The power does not dip at 4500, but the torque does start to drop off which is what you’re feeling. The engine will continue to pull until redline, although it won’t “feel” as fast or fun.

 

If you leave the shifter in "D" and floor the go pedal, auto shift happens at 6600 rpm. Try it sometime, when there's enough road and no traffic. You shouldn't feel any struggle from the engine. VTEC kicks in at ~5500 rpm.