Recently purchased a used 2011 Fit Sport with the 5 speed manual transmission. It has an oil leak that the dealer says is the output seal on the transmission drive shaft. They quoted me about $475 for the repair and the seal that looks to be around $10. I'll end up buying a service manual, but I'd like to do this work quickly. I swung buy the local Autozone and they did not have the chilton and ebay has Honda service manuals for $80 on up, but it will take a week or so to get. I'm a pretty handy person who normally repairs most of the basic stuff on my cars myself (shocks, wheel bearings, brakes, etc). Is this something that can be tackled by a garage mechanic with normal tools? Is $475 reasonable for a professional to do?

Any recommendations on where I can find the instructions before I buy a manual?

Thanks!

 

which part of the seal needs changing now? the part that is connected to the CV joints? Because if that is what is required, I think I would do it myself. If it requires taking the transmission OUT then i would perhaps let the shop do it. I have changed a clutch a few times and I do not enjoy it personally just due to the fact of taking out the transmission is a major pain in the ***

 

Stop by your local library and see what they might have for a Honda manual. Even if they do not have what you want sometimes you can get it thru them on an inter library loan. Just a thought. It is not like the model is new, so the book might be available.

 

I was driving at the time they called and gave them a call back to confirm the exact name of the seal and location, but from my understanding it is the output of the transmission where the CV joint goes into it. I pulled up an explosion of the transmission and it looks like a $10-15 part. Did some youtube searches and nothing specific to the Fit, but found some other Honda videos. Doesn't look that crazy difficult to justify $425 in labor. I'm assuming I'm going to need about $40 in MTF also. I've already got some MTF from when I changed out the fluid in my Mazda.

Didn't think of the library, but that is a good idea. Also, was going to try to call the Advance and Autozones to see if they had one somewhere in one of their local stores.

 

Still waiting on dealer to call me back to confirm which seal....We are having our once in 3 year snow event which shuts down the whole city. I went ahead and ordered the service manual and Honda MTF from Amazon. It'll be here on Friday. I'll buy the seal when I pick the car up from the dealer. I watched a couple videos on CV replacement for the FIT which you have to do to get to the seal so it doesn't look that difficult. Honda MTF is a different viscosity than the synthetic MTF that I run in my Mazda. The Honda juice is 1/2 the price so I'm guessing it isn't synthetic.

 

I'd be grateful if you could post some info, or a link, on how I might get a service manual for my '13 Fit. I understood that Honda never made any.

Good luck with your leak. I think I have a little "weeping" situation on my transmission, too. I am due to get under the car for an oil change this month, so I will take another look at it.

With regard to the difficulty of your repair, lots of folks have posted that removing and reinstalling drive axles can be very difficult. Don't know if that is relevant to your leak repair.

 

I just bought the Haynes from Amazon which says it is good through 2013. The Honda ones do not look to go beyond 2012. Most of the newer models are all electronic manuals which is what I have for my Mazda. I downloaded that from the Mazda forum. I doubt I'll ever need the full blown manual for the Fit. I figure for $18 what do I have to lose. I have the Chilton / Haynes for our Tahoe and it has always covered everything that I needed.

I'll google around on the drive axle difficulty, but in the video's it looks pretty straight forward. If it takes me a while no big deal as I have spare vehicles.

 

There are 2 output seals and one input seal.

You don't need to take the transmission out of the car for the output seals but you do for the input seal.

 

Hmm....I looked at the explosion of the manual transmission on parts websites and it only shows one output seal. The car is still at the dealer as we've had a snow event and everything has been shut down so I can't physically look at the car. Service manual is due in tomorrow. The dealer is supposed to open back up tomorrow at 11 am and I'll find out which seal it is, but I'm thinking it is the output seal otherwise they would have told me they had to drop the tranny. I also doubt a Honda dealer would remove / work on / replace a tranny for $350-400 in labor. I'm assuming at least $75-100 of the $475 is the seal, MTF oil replacement, and usual misc shop charges.

 

Not sure what happened to my post as I tried to post a link to the manual on Amazon. I just bought the cheap Haynes manual for $18. It lists it is good through 2013.

 

If that is the case and the transmission DOES NOT need to come out, then to get your CV part out of your transmission you just do 2 things really.

make sure you disconnect your ABS before you bring down your knuckle because it will rip out and you will need a new ABS sensor. Also unbolt the break and tie it somewhere so it doesn't fall down.

Outside of that... once your disconnect the strut from the hood and your unbolted the axle nut with that 32mm socket...... it should just drop out. I would just bring it down slowly so you can see where the axle is coming out and so that your control arm just doesn't fall really hard.

 

On a FWD manual transmission, there can't be only one output shaft. You have 1 input and 2 output shafts.

The input shaft receives power from the engine
The output shafts are actually holes where the CV axle will insert into the differential.

Here are the seals:
#14 for the left CV axle (91205-PL3-A01)



#10 for the right side CV axle (91206-PHR-003)
#11 for the INPUT shaft (91216-PHR-003)


With the price quote you got, I'm sure that the leaking seal is the input shaft. $475 is a quite reasonable price for the input shaft seal. (it would be a total rip off for an output shaft seal though)

Here's what's involved in replacing an input shaft seal:
- You need to remove the transmission from the car
- Split the transmission case apart
- Remove the input shaft bearing (replace it!, it's $25)
- Remove the leaking seal
- Put a new seal
- Put a NEW bearing (91002-PS0-013)
- Bolt the cases together
- Reinstall the transmission in the engine bay
- Fill the transmission with oil.

It would also be a good idea to replace the CV axle seals while you're at it. This will only add $20 to the total price but you will make sure they will not leak in 6 months, leaving a puddle in the drive way and costing you another hundred of dollars to replace. It should take less than 5 minutes to replace them at that point.

 

Just to make things clear, $475, is not something I would remotely pay for an output shaft seal replacement. Depending on how much the dealer charges per hour, this shouldn't take more than an hour of labor and the price of the seal and oil (if necessary)


Here's what you do to replace an output shaft seal

1- Lift the car
2- Disconnect ABS sensor
3- Unbolt brake line bracket
4- Unbolt the left or right side lower ball joint (depending on where it leaks)
5- Pop out the CV axle from the transmission (some oil will leak)
6- Replace the leaking seal
7- Reinstall everything.
8- Top off fluid in the transmission.

 

ahhhh output shaft and input shaft those are the 2 words iam looking for!

 

Just to give everyone an update...I picked the car up on Friday and they called it the passenger axle seal which we are calling the output seal. Definitely not the input seal. I bought the seal, nut that goes onto the output of the axle, and replacement seals to replace the tranny oil ($20 total + $60 diagnostic charge). Amazon / USPS let me down as we had no mail for 3 days because of snow so my amazon shipment of the service manual did not come in on Friday/Yesterday. My tranny oil did come in late yesterday. There is a youtube video on replacing the drive axles on the 2nd gen fit which follows/agrees with the posting above which also gives the torques so I'm probably going to give it a go this afternoon even though I don't have the manual.

I'm not exactly sure I'm convinced this is the seal that is leaking vs. engine oil, but that is a whole different story.

I did not realize the parts explosions split the tranny into two parts thanks for posting that and now that I have the car back I can see that.

 

Well pretty much my typical Mr Murphy repair....

Trip 1 to auto store (Yesterday) - They have a loaner program on ball joint separators so I figured excellent let me save some money....Well I discovered mid repair their ball separator was damaged by the previous renter so back to the store I go...
Trip 2 to the auto store (mid repair) - Bought a separator and borrowed a different ball joint piece of equipment they had. The one I bought worked so yippy progress...but...I couldn't get the old axle seal out as I couldn't get leverage on the seal with a screw driver. Dang it back to the store I go.
Trip 3 to the auto store (mid repair) - Bought a seal removal tool which worked great.

I begin to get ready to put stuff back together and I look at the old seal to compare it to the new seal. They are slightly different so I come back inside and look at the above posted picture and the Honda dealer sold me the driver's side seal not the passenger side one even though I showed the parts guy the description from their service people and even said I wanted the passenger side seal. Mr Murphy definitely loves me.

Will go to the other Honda dealer in town tomorrow as it is closer to my work.

 

Thanks for posting this. I'm about to do the same thing but on the passenger side of my '08 Fit.

@kerney Noted about our friend Murphy, I'll see if I can get all the right tools on the first trip.

@carotman the diagrams and part numbers are super helpful! The seal I need happens to be the exact same part as for the '11 Fit.

 

I did the transmission rebuild/reseal on my GD. I think they're the same or at least very similar? The post is here: https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/1st-...ml#post1458641 the GD service manual was helpful too: Driveshafts

tl;dr: At least on the GD it's possible to get it out without touching the ball joints or subframe. Both of my input shaft bearing were shot. I don't remember if I replaced the input seal (definitely a good idea) but both output seals from Corteco fit perfectly, used Loctite 518 to reseal nothing is leaking almost 3 years later.

Good luck!

 

+1, save yourself 30m of swearing and damage to the ball joint boots. Take loose the 2 19mm bolts connecting the knuckle to the strut, swing it down, and support it so your brake lines don't get damaged. Your axle should pop out fairly easily, if needed you can tap it with a hammer. Put a pry bar on the transmission side of the axle to get it out.