Hi,
Just bought a 2012 Fit. Base auto, White. Been lurking here for a week or two. Great forum.

I actually have a few ? that could go in a few different places, so I hope this is OK.
First, How do I reset the door locks to all open when I turn off the ignition? I found a thread, and page 85 in the manual. But maybe I'm just a dolt.
I thought I set ignition to on, but do not start. leave in park, set break, push lock button till 2 clicks, turn ignition to acc within 20 sec, turn off, done. But I can't make it work.

2nd, 3rd, 4th questions are just basic maintenace related.
I don't have to go to dealer for oil change etc. Right? I have changed oil, filters, small stuff on a few cars, but they were all old and out of warranty. Lately my car luck has not been great and this is my first new car in a long time. I would like to make it last. I'm a little paranoid about messing something up though.
One thread said you do not want to strip the tranny drain bolt. Ie. lots of money to fix.
Anyway, seems to be lots of ideas on change the oil at X miles vs the minder thing on the dash. What oil and filter do most people use? Just Honda OEM?

This is getting long, so I'll leave it at that ( for now)

Thanks for any help.

 

I just followed the instruction manual and it worked for me, keep trying?

Right, you can DIY, keep the reciepts for parts/oil for warranty. It's a very easy oil change, and it will be pretty hard to mess it up short of stripping the drain plug. Just don't tighten it too tight. I could do an oil change on my base without even jacking it up, but apparantly I just have long arms and it's not that easy normally, IDK. Try it LOL

Just change it when the maintainence minder reads 15%. I prefer Honda OEM filters.


Welcome to FF.

 

This is about as standard a car as you get. There is nothing special about the fit that requires special treatment.

Any DIY on oil changes will be applicable to this car.
As far as oil/filter.
Any oil that meets the API spec for the car on the oilcap can be used (0w-20). In other markets like Asia, people have posted the manual even allow different specs like 5w-30 and higher. So it is not picky but perhaps at an efficiency tradeoff.

The only real authoritative warning is the manual says you should not change the factoryfill oil early. But, plenty of other forum people here have done so with no problems. There is a lot of heated opinion about breakin, but it seems everyone's car ended up working fine, so it might be a whole lot of debate over nothing.

As far as oil choice, my personal advice is to consider that the recommended interval is relatively long. The maintenance minder can be up to 12k normal gentle miles (or timewise you should change every year regardless).
Therefore, the costs of so-called full synthetic oil is not really that much of a premium over conv. in the total cost of ownership for the year. I get whatever synthetic is on sale periodically at the auto parts store.

Filter, I have some honda, but also sometimes whatever gets bundled with the partstore oil deals. Again, point is car is not very picky or needs special treatment.

 

The oil is very easy to change in this car. The hardest part for me was pouring new oil into the oil fill spot.

As for time/distance, 1 year or 15% is fine based on used oil analysis. Personally, I'm going with the used oil analysis as my proof of maintence as well, since I've bought a case of Honda 0w-20; I own 2 Hondas that will take the oil so larger purchases make sense for me. I figure the UOA is as reasonable a way to show that I've done an oil change as anything.

 

Thanks for the replies,
I'll look at the manual again on the locks. Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. It always ends up at the factory default. Open driver door but nothing else when I park it.
Nice to know the car isnot finicky about oil etc. I'm having a hard time telling myself to not change the oil till it tells me to. 5,000 seems long, My Grandpa always said 3,000 it's time to change it.
I know it's not a 1950 ish car, just what I was always told. I switched to synthetic and made myself wait till 5,000 the last few years. Still seems long to me.
Anyway thanks again

 

If you want all unlocked, you need to hear 3 "clicks" not the two you described in your post.
Its a combination of things. Oils are much better today, engines are much better, and the science of analyzing them is much better. If you are concerned, do a used oil analysis at the oil change to confirm; blackstone labs is the most popular lab mentioned.

 

Read that receipts kept for verifying warranty again and again.it virually a guanteed winner if the dealer wants to argue about an oikl related warranty issue. Write the date and mileage on your receipts when you change the oil and filter.
DIY is the right way to do it. Buy a funnel so you don't splash oil all over the engine just keep the funnel clean.
Major brand synthetics, aka Mobil 1, Castrol, etc are the best oils to use, either 0W-20 (getting hard to find) or 0W-30, and ALWAYS change the oil filter when replacing the oil. Because the filter hass limited capacity to hold filtered 'stuff' we recoimmend changing synthetics at 6000 mile intervals to prevent oil from bypassing the filter.
Make sure you don't overfill, a sixteenth below full mark is ideal.Since the Honda filters are made by one of thed big fiolter makers, aka Fram, Purolator, etc the choice dorsn't have to be Honda unless they're price competitive. Believe it or not, some are as a local dealer sells his for $6, close to Fram at WallyWorld. We've installed thousands of Fram filters without a single come-back. (did have one once witgh incorrect threads but naturally didn't even get to starting the engine nd Fram made it up witgh a case of filters). BTW when you start up gently bring rpm to 1000-1200 rpm for 30 seconds to make sure the oil isfully circulating and check for leaks. With conventional oils the first 50 miles required little high rpm or load; synthetics don't care.
Make sure when you raise the fit up you have rigid stands beside the jacks to insure a collapsing jack doesn't pin you under the fit - and maybe kill you in a slow choking death. The scissors jack can function well for that. One of the best safety devices a customer told me was having a cell phone handy, just in case.
Last, collect tyhe used oil for your lawnmower or to recycle thru one of the aftermarket auto parts places.
And BTW be sure to properly tighten the new oil filter. Before installing rub a little used oil on the new filter gasket so it tightens freely. And don't wipe the oil off the oil filter stud; that oil is cleaner than your rag and lubricated threads always spin the oil filter on better and tighter, even by hand.
Thats the manual.

 

Thanks again for the replies.
Hey Malraux, Is it hold down the button till three clicks, or hold till two, let up then hold again for the last.
I cant get the third click if I just keep holding it down. Waited for like a min. two clicks and then nothing. Ill try it again, sucks to be bested by a door lock .
Thanks again

 

When I first got my Fit- I tried to reprogram the door locks, too. I must have tried 8 times or so with no luck. I had to bring it to the dealer for something minor and asked one of the techs--he read the instructions and must have tried it 4-5 times, then he finally got it.

 

Keep trying on the door. you have to do exactly what the manual says... begin the process from a "cold start", IE. Turn the car off, get out of it, lock the car, then try the process from the beginning. Follow the directions step by step and it should work. if not, the dealer should be able to help you with this.

bingo on the 1950ish car comment. engines are 10x better than your grandpa's, Oil is 10x better than what he put in that car (especially if you use synthetic) so to think that the car will logically go 3x longer or more than what gramps said only makes sense. I have my oil changed at the Maintenance Minder but have the dealer put in Synthetic. My Full service at the dealer is now $41 including Mobil1. Doing that Every 10K miles (or less than twice a year) is fine with me for spending the extra $5-$10 that it would cost to do it myself. Plus It's on record with Honda and I get all of my fluids topped off, and the car hosed off. Not a bad deal. for the record, i'm at 39K miles and my MM just went off for the 4th time. My last fill-up was 41.27mpg (that and the previous tank averaged out to 39mpg). Lifetime AVG on the car is over 37mpg.

~SB

 

I dunno why everybody changes at 15%. Seems to me that the oil has, lessee, carry the 14, plus 12, square root of pi. . . um, around 15% life left.

Personally, I use the 15% mark as an indication to start thinking about buying oil, the 10% as a poke to feel guilty about not having done so, 5% to actually go to the store, and 0% to change. Then again, I'm using synthetic, so I'm probably changing too often if anything.

 

I change once a year, if I need to or not.

 

So far I have been ave 30.5 mpg for almost 500 miles. I live in the foothills so I have about a 13 mile commute to town then another 5 or 6 to work from there. It's a fairly steep grade for 4 or 5 miles going up the hill and I put it in d3 for that. Wish I was getting better mileage, but it's about what I thought. I'll have to wait for a trip to my sisters to see what it gets on flat ground hwy miles.
Is it OK do 55-60 in d3 on a long mnt. road trip - up and down grades for 50/60 miles? I have a bum right arm and i really don't like shifting in and out all the time. Maybe I should have gotten paddle shifters. My toyota truck is easy push a button to go from drive to over drive.

Not where I can mess with the door locks, will try again tonight
Thanks everyone

 

Will it take the hills okay in "D"? I wouldn't use the lower gear unless absolutely needed.

 

Haven't done the long mtn road trip yet. Chico to Chester, Ca if anyone knows where that is. Basically 4250' elevation gain. Up hill different grades, drop to deer creek canyon, then climb back out to Chester.
My trip home, it will do it but it shifts back and forth a lot on that grade.

 

I do the exact same.

 

Just curious, why do you suggest different weights when the manual says to use 5W-20?

 

Well the current manual says 0w-20, so that's why it's recommended. That said heavier weights probably protect better.

 

You can, but the engine will start searching around and swapping between gears, which is why they do give you the option to stay in gear to prevent the gear searching. Flappy paddles actually are useful and not just a gimmick.

As far as your commute, it will be fine, but down the line you may want to consider changing your transmission fluid a little sooner than the manual says-perhaps every 15k miles or something reasonable like that.

If you DIY this, it is arguably simpler than an oil change (and even cheaper than an oil change in materials). Drain and fill with Honda dw-1.

I hesitate as this maybe waking an old horse debate, but if you do have the hill climbs, try premium fuel instead of regular.
I have found it helps to a *small* but noticeable degree when you are driving the car in such a way when you're asking it for it's max torque and max hp and "she's giving you all it's got captain" but you're still not keeping up with traffic.
At highway or downhill when you're just cruising about it has no practical difference by my experience
If it works for you, great, but you don't agree, just don't do it and leave the sleeping dragon alone.

This is only my personal 2cents based on a lot of trips to tahoe, which is 5000ft gain over about the last 50miles.

 

I am a new Fit Sport owner (june 8, 2012) like you and I also had a heck of a time to set my door locks so they all open when I put my Fit in park. What I realized after many tries is that I was doing it right all along. BUT, you have to have your foot on the brake pedal when you put the car in park. Then and only then does it work. At least on my car lol.