Hi all,
First-time poster here. I have a 2012 base Fit, automatic, with 57,000 miles on it. No problems until today -- turned the key, dashboard lit up, and the car would crank but not start.

I called AAA and the guy checked the battery which was still good. Then he tried tapping under the car, where the fuel tank is, while I tried to start it up -- and it (slowly) started up ok. He said it's probably the fuel pump or fuel injector. I was then able to drive it to the dealer and drop it off; they'll diagnose it on Monday.

The service advisor at Honda had never heard of the tapping technique the AAA guy tried, and has no idea what could be wrong. Of course once I got there the car continued to start normally. I did a Google search and found this fuel pump tapping phenomenon for other cars, but not the fit. But it doesn't seem like the fuel pump should be failing so soon. Any other ideas what this could be? Maybe just a fluke? I am impatient waiting for Monday.

 

If you're SF bay area, I suppose its not the cold weather/dead battery issue thats started affecting more eastern and northern folks as winter closes in ...

 

Yeah, definitely not cold enough here for that to be the issue.

 

Of course the advisor hasn't heard of that, Hondas don't have pump problems.
Anyone who has had to deal with cars that regularly crap out fuel pumps (GM/Chrysler/Ford) should know the technique LOL


I'd vote "no problem found" and they will sell you a flush or treatment of some sort.
Could have been flooded, could be due to winter blend gas, could be a fluke. If it doesn't act up there will be no problems found...but upsells will be made.
Winter blend fuel can make an engine start hard when the weather is warm. IDK if Cali blends winter fuel to deal with that, but in colder areas it happens a lot.


Um....you DO realize there's a reason he's driving a tow truck, not fixing cars.....

 

Haha, yeah, that's true. I guess it's just weird that what he did actually worked and started the car, so I don't know what to think. It's not like I want anything to be wrong, of course, but it would be annoying to get the "no problem found" diagnosis if it ends up happening again.

 

I think it was coincidence, it would have started without the tow truck dude beating on your gas tank...or being there at all.

Hey, did he beat on the REAR end under the car? LOL
(The gas tank is in the middle of the car.)

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Hard to start, see page 162 in your owners manual, right column (although IMO it's not explained very well):

bla bla bla repeating step 3 (cranking the engine) while gently depressing the accelerator pedal.
Release the accelerator pedal once the engine starts.

HTH

 

No, he did a visual inspection to deduce where the gas tank was, and tapped underneath on the middle portion of the car.

After researching more this morning (and also reading that same bit from the owner's manual), I agree I think the engine was flooded. I wish I'd tried depressing the accelerator pedal… but now I know to do that.

I had actually reparked my car in the morning and thus turned off the car without letting the engine warm up. Then later that afternoon it wouldn't start. It's not like I do that all the time, but I've never thought about it or had a problem doing that before. Feeling pretty dumb right now.

Thanks for your help!

 

Oh man that's all it takes to do it!

Spark plugs get carboned up under cold engine running conditions (rich at startup and cold) and if you don't get the engine hot enough to burn the deposits off of the spark plugs, the carbon can soak up the fuel during the next start attempt and effectively snuff the spark.

It won't happen every time, but it does happen and now you should know how to deal with it. Holding the gas pedal to the floor during cranking can disable the fuel injectors on most cars ("clear flood mode")

 

Thanks so much for your help. Wish I'd known about this before calling AAA, but now I know for the future!

 

Wait, so what was the diagnosis?

 

It was flooded because he did this:

 

Honda diagnosed it as a battery issue - battery voltage tested low. Not sure why it tested fine with AAA.

However, I still think I flooded the engine as discussed.