I replaced the clutch on this Fit 1000 miles ago. It had been driving great with no issues, when suddenly it slipped out of 5th gear on the freeway at around 60mph. Thinking I had bumped the stick or hadn't shifted all the way into gear, I just pushed the stick back into 5th with the clutch in and continued driving. 2 days later, same thing. Last week it happened again when I was negotiating a curve on an off-ramp at 60mph with no pedal or stick contact at all, confirming this is a real issue.

I pulled the airbox and battery to inspect the linkage. No obvious issues other than a hydraulic line for the clutch wasn't mounted correctly. The hydraulic fluid was a little below max so I topped it off and bled the slave. Thinking I had probably solved the problem I drove the car hard all day without issues. Just as I got off the freeway, it happened again.

I tried loosening the clutch pedal and tightening it. Not much difference in feel. Then I remembered the clutch delay valve. Does anyone think it could cause this issue? Also I tightened up on the mount bolts after I read that worn trans mounts can cause this issue. I guess the next steps are to check the return spring on the gear shifter and maybe check gear oil level? Thanks for any suggestions.

 

Maybe your gear detention springs are worn/ failing? https://www.hybrid-racing.com/collec...979913b0&_ss=c

 

Makes sense! Do I access those from the passenger compartment under the center console? Thanks a lot.

Looks like they are under the drivers side trans mount, not too hard to access. Thanks again

 

For anybody curious, I was able to replace my trans detent springs in about 1.5 hours. Most of the time was spent dicking around with the trans mount that had to come off and go back on. Pull battery, airbox, and battery tray. Then support the trans and undo the mount. Disassemble the mount and look for 12mm bolts underneath it on the trans.




My trans only had 2 springs instead of 3 that I saw on YouTube(maybe that was 6speed MT?). My old springs were indeed worn. Be careful when removing the bolt as you don't want the ball to pop out of the bolt hole, just the spring. There's no need to remove the ball, just put the new spring inside the bolt and tighten it down to 11ft/lb (not too tight)

 

UNFORTUNATELY this did not fix my problem

car still slips out of gear

 

How do your motor mounts look?

 

I would go to the shifter cable for 5th gear and remove it at the trans.. After removing it, manually move the shifting mechanism in the trans and see if the cable is putting the transmission fully into 5th gear. If it isn't, loosen the shifting cable hold down and see if you can gain a little slack in the cable before re-tightening the cable hold down. That hold down may be on the trans end of the cable or under the console at the shifter.
.
You mentioned recent clutch work on your car in your post. Just curious if this was also happening before the clutch work?

 

Dog bone mount under engine looks good. Passenger side mount looks decent. Drivers side mount has some slack and was very hard to line up properly, definitely could be the problem. Are there other mounts than these 3? Thanks

Shooting a video under the hood at driving speeds might help check the mounts. If they're bad I would expect a little rocking when it jumps out of gear.

 

Car shifted fine and stayed in gear before clutch job. It drove fine for 1k miles after replacement so it might not be related?

Good tips on the hold down for the shift cables. I looked closely at those cables and I might've used cotter pins that were too small? There is a small amount of play there so I'll see if bigger pins fix the problem.

 

Full set of mounts is $120 on EBay. Car could use fresh ones anyway. Also will beef up those cotter pins. Will update when complete.

 

Nice work!
Haven't experienced this fault, but the diagnostic flow here seems to be fluid, clutch, trans -- I dig the beefier cotter pins idea, but your fit should be able to do its thing with standard pins, so if component supplementation of original healthy parts (not visibly busted) is an attempt at resolving the fault, step back and insert a few beers into the situation.

@56chevydan has some slick ideas.

I can post up some service manual stuff to see if linkage is installed correctly (that bit about it missing a bolt was interesting and definitely grabbed my attention). but.. if the car didn't slip for 1k miles.. I guess first thought would be a fluid leak. maybe cv shafts, or god forbid, input shaft/trans main seal. If it was the latter, you'd see fluid in the bell housing. that much would be easy at least.

 

Dan always has the good insight.

Possibly related: does your shifter have a lot of play? I've noticed my 1st and 5th are getting more difficult to engage and they also seem like they want to jump out of gear faster when disengaging. My shifter is very worn out, and when I look down at it while selecting gears (center console removed) you can really see how much the fulcrum point changes from the extra slop. There's no way cables are getting correct tension. It's pretty frustrating.

 

it definitely feels a little loose but all the other gears kinda notch in when the clutch is engaged. 5th takes very little effort to pull out.

 

Thanks for the encouragement, I am beating my head on this pretty hard. I will post my update in its own comment

 

Thanks everyone for the help here. So I replaced all 3 engine mounts since they were only $100. The OEM mounts didn't really seem that worn once I got them out, and sure enough the problem recurred. I checked the trans oil and its level. I replaced the cotter pins to get any slack off that connection.

I realized I need a video of the shifter slipping so I rigged up a light and a computer with a webcam under the hood. I was nervous getting up to 75 but my rig held up long enough for a money shot!


What is happening in the video is:
* trans jumps out of gear around 65mph
* engine revs due to no load
* I shift back in to 5th quickly so I don't get rear ended

I feel like there isn't much left other than an issue with the shift linkage between trans and shift selector, so I'll be tearing into that today. If anybody has images from the manual that'd be helpful. Or maybe I can dig em up.

 

Problem seems to be SOLVED. Today I learned why you don't drain the trans oil from the drain plug and fill it thru the diff oil port

And for anyone wondering, a trans that's short about 1.5q of oil likes to slip out of gear

Thanks all

 

https://youtu.be/BFkTu8Y1KLs?si=nHNUcCVa1D1bt3jP

​​​​​