A month ago I purchased a 2012 Fit Sport with 24,000 miles. I LOVE this car, I use it as a second car, but I find myself driving it all the time. (2019 Civic SI 2 door is my other)
I want to keep this car for many years and want to do preventative maintenance on it.
I’ve seen the threads concerning spark plugs, and in irony as I was typing this listening to The Car Pros radio show, a woman called in saying her '13' Fit blew spark plugs and damaged her engine. She had to pay $3000. So I BELIEVE EVERYONE about this subject. But I went to 3 different Honda dealers. My primary dealer service writer has been there 16 years and he and the 2 other service writers chimed in on this subject and NO ONE in all 3 dealers have ever heard of this problem. I always sneak in the back and talk to a couple of mechanics at each dealer and none of them have heard of it.
I told all of them that I believe there is a TSB from Honda to increase the torque on the spark plus from 14 lbs. to 20 lbs. (approximately) Everyone looked it up in their computer and could not find anything. They ALL said they never have had an issue with the Fit.
I even went to my local auto shop that only works on Japanese cars, (And one mechanic has a 2010 Base Fit) and he never heard of this issue.
All the mechanics say they would check them for me, but tighten them to the factory spec. of 14 lbs. So far I have not had it done because I thought why torque them back to the same torque that originally caused the problem.
I BELIEVE EVERYONE THAT HAD THIS PROBLEM. But how do I show proof that the torque is not what it should be? Does anyone have a copy of the TSB from Honda that all 3 dealers could not find? I want this car to last many years. Thanks everyone!👍

 

From what I gather it's TSB ATS160714
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/20...84441-2280.pdf
https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/tsb_...honda/fit/2009

here's the mega thread: https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...ad-inside.html

 

Welcome to our little band of 'Freaks. I'm in SoCal if you need to contact a Fit friend. You are not wrong about the Fit. It's a blast to drive.

Why don't you list the names of these scoundrel dealerships, so that everyone can know who the liars are?

 

I'd have to dig around through my posts, but I got a dealership print-out from Honda Escondido in CA which clearly stated the torque as 20ftlbs. There were no remarks about a revision. They didn't work from the Bishko service manual, but rather from a program specific to Honda dealers. I remember the lady who handed me the paper Her name was Velvet. She was a bit older than me and had beautiful sandy blonde hair (and I'm not into blondes). She liked horses and was stressed out managing cust. service for the service dept.

No one there was aware of the change to the plug torque. They just saw the numbers, prolly similar to revised P/N's.

If not for the Fit I wouldn't think twice about plugs. I'd assume someone serviced them and screwed it up if one ejected. Dealer work is pretty fast paced to my understanding. Not like workin' in a specialty like transmissions (per my observations of a local trans shop.)

If you google this same issue for fords you'll find a TON of reports. Maybe that's because ford does fleet/govt vics and can't get away with glossing over stuff. They're up to their eyeballs in TSB's.
I mention only to legitimize plug loosening.

Now then, do you know where I can get a 1/8" kerf 7 1/4 blade for my circular saw? I'm tired of dealing with blade deflection on deep cuts. 😂

Glad you love the car and I hope you come to love the community just as much. There are some seriously stellar people in here.

 

It's all a matter of statistics and likely climate based as well. Anyone know how many fit's were sold worldwide, and of those how many have had this issue? And of those how many were original plugs?

I know it happens, as our 06 pilot shot a plug out of the head at like 80k miles. It was common enough to find info online, but not so common that honda did anything about it.

My thought would be this issue might be related to regional weather conditions as well. And tolerance or variations in the threads in the head and the plugs. There are just so many variables when it comes to something like this.

 

Well, some Honda (probably all) dealers have 20 ft/lbs torque as the new spec, Honda issued a TSB to issue goodwill if the issue happens, and Honda changed the design of the engine to prevent this in the 3rd generation. So, can not say that Honda did not do anything about this

 

I was referring to our 06 Honda Pilot, which I wrote honda about and they told me to pound sand. Honda more than likely changed the 3rd gen design because they went with direct injection, and not because of spark plug issues.

 

I wonder how many Techs actually take the time to break out and set a torque wrench for this kind of thing? I suspect that after torquing plugs for the thousandth time, they go by feel without much regard for the specific aluminum head engine they happen to be working on. Just a thought. If so, it works in our favor because most vehicles with similar plugs are 18+ FT/LB.

 

I agree, Alco. I would generally assume the techs will get the torque sufficient with their hand feel. It's more likely than them setting a torque wrench for 14lb ft. That is a very low value and I bet most techs might even ask someone if it could possibly be tight enough.

If i ever have this done .. I will print out the tsb and put a sticky note: "customer request, torque to 20lb ft." Easy enough and they're not going to argue with the paper.

 

New to the forum, but its kinda reassuring also concerning that this is a common issue. I have a 2012, amd the original owner. Took my car in to get serviced at the dealership while it was still under warranty. Had the plugs changed by them, and then started getting that plug misfiring. I checked it and thought it was weird because the plug was loose. Took my car to the dealership again for a recall and then a few days pater got another misfire. Few months later we had the issue where it exploded. Instead of replacing the head, we went to a junkyard and swapped the motor.