Hello new friends.
Total Fit noob here.
My Mom bought a used (66,000mi) 09 Fit and it's been a disaster.

My brother overheated and killed the engine. I'm pulling the trigger on a used L15A with cracked timing cover off ebay and, when it arrives, I'll be doing the deed.

It's at the Honda dealer now and the cost for them to source and install a used engine is ~$5000, which includes $1300 and change for labor.

Does it really take 12.5 hours to swap an engine in one of these things? I worked at Ford dealers mostly (my last two years as a tech, was at a Mazda VW dealer).
I don't recall ever getting 12 hours on an R&R. Not even for a 7.3 4x4.

The first and only time I looked under the hood of my Mom’s car was last week to asses the carnage.
I just don't see that much work to swap engines.

Has anyone here had to replace an 09 up Fit engine and, if so, which bolts are the most PITA?
What's the best way to do this swap? Up out the hood or drop the sub frame, engine, trans and all etc?

Thanks in advance.
I'll go into detail about the sad and avoidable demise of this L powered Fit, if anyone is interested.

 

The person you seek is Lyon[Nightroad]. He is your only hope.

 

I'm curious to know how he overheated and killed the engine. 66k is pretty average and these little engines are built tough.

hopefully someone here has the experience to tell you. I do know everything is tight under there and wouldn't be surprised it it took 8-12 hrs to remove and replace the engine.

 

I too am curious just how overheating destroyed the engine. That kind of destruction is major overheating, as in running with no coolant.
As far as the hours go it depends on what was required. Just a simple switch 12.5 hours, meaning 6.25 hours each for 2 techs is not unrealistic. I think the one we did charge 10 .5 manhours.

 

x2.

What exactly happened to the motor that it is completely ruined?

 

My guess would be a blown head gasket but that's not totally ruined realLy.

 

Yeah that's what I figured too and thought it hardly ruined if that's the case. Just wondering if the block cracked?

 

Man, ive got a 142k mile Fit that sees some light autocross and drag strip and spirited driving still runs fine.

Im in for the answer on how, so I know not what to do.

 

Using alldata I found the labor time to R&R **a complete assembly with transfer of parts** is 11.7 hours. This time includes transfer of all fuel and electrical units.
If they are charging 12.5hrs they are not far off, but I would still ask the service advisor to give you a breakdown on the lbr time. I have access to Mitchell Pro Demand as well, if you have any other quetions, let me know. Hope this helps

 

DING...DING...DING!!!!
Give the man a cigar!

Here's the story:
My Mom bought a used Fit. I had gone with her last spring to pick up a 2013 Civic but I was not privy to the purchase of the Fit, so I wasn't there when she took delivery.
Apparently, the AC was not cold so they 'fixed' it before she brought it home.
At her first service, she complained again about the AC. She was told that she was used to her brand new Civic and that the Fit was a used car so the AC wouldn't blow as cold. She was also informed that the front tires were worn to the threads. That's another story.....

Fast forward a month and a half (I still haven't even ridden in this car).
My brother and his new wife are driving East on I-40 near Little Rock. She is driving. He is napping. The AC is on. It starts blowing hot and she knows something is wrong, but my brother is kind of a douche, so she doesn't want to wake him.

Fast forward.....
I go to the Honda healer here in NY, to see the damage for myself.

Synopsis:
*Afermarket warranty will pay $1000 "as a courtesy" since the damage was caused by the high fan scraping a big arc through the radiator.
*Bale Honda whacks her for 2 hours diag. Compression test, leakdown and valve cover R&I.
*New rad, high fan, coil packs and a used engine with fluids, filters etc.= $5100

When I saw the car, a tech was prying off, piece by piece, one of the melted coil packs. I'd love to know how Bale honda spent two hours on testing when they never even had the plugs out. But that's another story.....

The oil level was a quart or two past full on the dip stick due to all the coolant in the oil. So there was enough antifreeze in it, when it overheated, to push some into the oil pan.

So, basically, the high fan blade, somehow, walked off the shaft and wore into the radiator draining the coolant. My sister in law, drove it until it lost power and stopped.
If you think about it, though, you're travelling at highway speed, your at full operating temp with the AC blowing. You lose coolant suddenly (or gradually), you have about 30sec before the engine is overheating. You have maybe 2-3min before you have done damage. She drove it long enough to melt the coil packs....maybe 5min. Not even enough time to find an exit.

So, today, I bought a 47k mile engine for $525 shipped, via eBay (crossing fingers), and am trying to get more money from the warranty company in the mean time.
We'll see what happens....But that's another story.....

Now, I'm not even sure that there is anything wrong with the engine, other then a blown head gasket, warped head and cooked coils. But, since the replacement engine is a turn key, even if I could fix the overheated engine, it would be a wash.

That's the story. I really wish I had been made aware of the issues with this poor car before they drove the wheels off it.
If anyone can find a cars Achilles heal, it's my family. (Not my own family! My wife is completely in tune with her 20 year old car! )

Anyway, thanks for reading....rant over!
Looking forward to any guidance before the engine comes, probably mid next week.

 

This is just the longblock?

 

Turn key...with coil packs.
It allegedly has a cracked timing cover. From the pics, I'd say 35-40mph straight into the back of another vehicle.
The description says that it ran fine.

Edit: Maybe not 40mph

 

Years ago, I worked at a chop shop. My boss wouldn't have sold an engine from a car that took a hit this hard.
Like I said, fingers crossed!

 

I had a customer drive a vehicle in seriously overheating and shut it down in the parking lot. It never started again. The car was his bosses and he had just driven back over the pass and stopped at our shop for help. He told his boss it only overheated a block before he pulled into the shop when his boss came to the shop to pick him up. The owner authorizes an hour diag and leaves.

We run compression and leakdown tests. No compression on any cylinder. 3 cylinders blow air through exhaust valves and into the crankcase. One cylinder blows air through exhaust valves, intake valves and into the crankcase. This starts getting interesting and we smell BS about only driving a block overheating.

We call the owner and he argues with us that we are trying to rip him off. He finally calms own and authorizes pulling the head.

Head comes off and its not only warped, has burnt valves and burnt valve seats but the combustion chamber in the head is partially melted!

One block? Yeah right!

People drive them sometimes and have no idea what damage they are doing. Its really like blind innocence sometimes.

Looks like the price on the motor was low. I just hope the engine shut down on impact and didn't puke all the oil out before they turned it off.

Good luck!

 

I've seen some well done engines.
You can usually smell the coked oil. Now that I think about it, my Moms engine was more like medium well. The valve cover was off when I saw it and I didn't notice that burnt "oops! I cooked my engine" smell. The oil on the timing chain looked fresh as a daisy.

I'd like to know exactly what stopped that engine.
Coil melt down?
I was expecting to see a siezed cam or something.

Edit: I would hope that in a collision like that (one violent enough do deploy every airbag) Honda would have some provision in place for automatic shutdown.

Even in the late '80s, Chrysler had an ASD relay and Ford had an inertia switch.

 

Bumpin' it up one time only.
Anyone know if it's easier to leave the tranny in the car and pull the engine out through the top or is it easier to drop the sub frame, engine and trans and lift the car off.

I can figure it out on my own. I'm a big boy.
Just thought I could save time and bloody knuckles doing it the tried and proven way.

 

My experience is limited to a 2007. Bolts attached to the rear subframe are very tight. Luckily, I only needed to remove the rear mount bolt from the subframe, but that required heating the captive nut and finessing room to use a breaker bar. Neither of my impacts (Mac and Royce) would remove the bolt, which required the use of a universal joint because of the limited space.

I dropped the engine and transmission as a unit.

 

Why did you drop the engine and tranny together?
Did you swap both?

What about replacing just the engine?

When I worked for ford, I usually pulled the FWD engines up except for minivans.
Some guys dropped the whole sub frame with engine and tranny.

I tried both ways. 4 cyl through the hood and V6 to the floor was my preference.

When I worked for Mazda VW, all engines came out through the hood.
Engines and trannys, up and out.

I have about 4-5 days to decide.

 

Here are the main 09 shop manual pages. Let me know if you'd like any other details.

PM Lyon, he doesn't get here often anymore but he's had his out at least twice. Has some threads on it here too.

 

I PMd him a few days ago.
Thanks for the link. I saved the pages so you can take it down if you want.

I'm looking forward to getting aquatinted with this car. There are a lot of interesting approaches to systems integration that I'm not really well versed in.
Plus, I'd like to drive it. I'm interested to see how it all works together.

Thanks again Steve.