hey all, name is Eric, new 2 nd gen owner. Question about valve checks. I keep reading 60k miles in here. Where does this recomendation come from? I am getting conflicting info from dealers. One says never, one says only when we do the timing belt at 160 000 kms( seeing as its a chain does that mean never lol). I know i toasted a valve on my element because i went 300k without checking the valves so not debating the need for the check just looking for Oem supported data.

i’ve also had some interesting conversations with dealers re: the maintenance minder. One says ignore it and do 6 months because it doesnt know if you are in normal or severe conditions ( actually it does but hey what do I know.... I’m just an aircraft maintence engineer, not a 22 year old service advisor). Also, synthetic every 6 monts.... please.

 

I have had the valves adjusted 3x on my 2009 Fit Sport. @38K (Miles) for the Lost Motion Spring recall, at 104K as the Maintenance Minder called for, then again at 124K when it acquired a knock in the valve train.And yes, the dealers suck... I stopped going to the dealer for anything other than warranty work (so far just the recalls (lost motion spring and the Takata airbags) after a service advisor got pissy with me when I would not be upsold for service I did not need when I took it in for an alignment-then had the service advisors get into an argument with each other over who was going to take my money and deliver the car when I went to pick it up. I have found a very good independent shop that has been fantastic in maintaining our cars since.

 

That’s good to know. Im not aware of the lost motion apring recall. Is adjusting the valves part of it? I dont have the makntenance history of this thing but i can check if that recall has been done and assume the valves were done then. Otherwise i will just check them myself in the spring. It is going in for the passenger airbag recall tomorrow so i will check then.

 

The problem with dealers is that they are not real
mechanics, they don’t troubleshoot. They just load of the parts canon and you pay through the nose.

Case in point some awd kia products have a viscous coupling that is “non serviceable”, if the bearing goes bad and you take it to a dealer.... 15000$ just for the part. Take it to any mechanic worth his salt, 30$ for a bearing and a couple hours.

 

It was an issue with the iVTEC actuator spring- it was found to be defective and had to be replaced. The valves have to be re-adjusted once the spring was replaced. But is was only for the 2009-2010 model years as far as I recall....

 

I HAVe an 09, i’ll check tomorrow

 

@ Bolduer: Mine is a '13. Based on the valve train noise (I drive my car hard), I would like to do a valve adjustment now, but I am getting lazy and I am lacking my usual confidence that I know how to do the adjustment correctly. I'm at 50k-ish mi., and I may let it go to 60k mi.

Honda is telling people that you could go 100k without an adjustment, depending upon the noisiness of the valve train. How in the heck do you quantify valve noise? It's a dumb idea, and it is meant to con 20-yr-old girls who don't know any better. The Maintenance Minder falls in the same category for me. It may report accurate data, but, for advertising/sales purposes, Honda wants you to believe that you don't have to do frequent maintenance. You don't even have to think about maintenance. You can just be a mindless millennial who lets an app. do the thinking. Whoopie.

Regarding valves, my subjective understanding is that you might be able to get from 0-100k mi. without an adjustment if you drive the car gently and never go near redline. The harder you drive it, the more you bring down that 100k limit. Again, just my subjective view.

As to dealers: I stopped going to them. They do poor quality work, and they ignore my specific instructions. F. 'em. That includes warranty work. If Honda wants my defective airbag, they can come and get it.

 

When it comes to oil change intervals, oil type, or most other maintenance, it's like discussing religion, abortion, politics.

What oil do you use in aircraft engines? Do all companies use the same oil, if yes or no, why? Can there be a better oil that the one you use? If yes, why or why not?

 

 

Agreed. But Honda decided to put profit above quality, and dealers are in it for the money. Pretty much like the rest of the culture. It breaks my heart because it would be easy for Honda to go back to making the best cars on the market.

I speak, of course, about the U.S. Your situation in Canada may be different.

 

Well your owner's manual specifies the instructions of the manufacturer.
If you are going to claim warranty, you would have to proof you followed specified maintenance schedule.

When you ask for technicians' personal opinion, which sounds like what they were giving you, it is quite normal to hear a range of advice.

If you want to have a more or less substantiated advice for following a particular maintenance practice, I would encourage you to read an actual automotive technology text book, some thing like
It contains a very thorough, peer reviewed so to speak, evidence based practice standards, rather than putting together a collection of fairy tales from home mechanics... who use knives in place of screwdrivers...

 

 

Periodically. I'll ask different service advisors if it's a good idea to change my power steering fluid on the FIT with 60k miles. So far, they have all said "yes" but the FIT has an all electric system / no fluid. That's one reason I challenge anything they advise.

 

You would be surprised how many suckers driving around in newer cars are still paying their dealers for power steering fluid changes even though their cars have electric steering.

I recently saw a Canadian documentary about how car dealers are abusing people with up-selling services & maintenance not required by the manufacturers and the worst offenders were American dealers (GM and Jeep/ Chrysler/Dodge).

 

As a halfway decent (but honest to a fault) diagnostic tech, I can believe that. Unfortunately, there's too many who rely on anecdotal 'evidence' rather than what actual scientific testing has been done, and as far as service advisors, they'd sell their own mothers down the river, and baffle you with Bee Ess to get money.

 

Brought my Fit in for the Takata airbag recall. Part of the service was a 30 point inspection.
Reading it at home, I noticed that were recommending a transmission flush and filter.
My 2010 Fit has a manual transmission.

 

Valve noise is subjective, but, imagine it sounding a bit like diesel engine clatter, when fully warmed up. It probably needs adjustment. Honda designed our engine so that the valve clearance loosens with wear. Some engines, like old VW's, can tighten with wear, which means that frequent adjustments are required to prevent damage.

 

Not jets, but most general aviation airplanes have piston gasoline engines. Because they still burn leaded gasoline and are basically 1930's technology, oils are a lot different that what we need in our Honda's. Aeroshell is the most popular brand. Grade 100 (SAE 50) is the most popular viscosity. Full synthetic was tried years ago (Mobil AV-1) and it was a disaster. "Ashless dispersant" means that the detergents and other metallic additives in our oils are not in aviation oils. The engines are built "loose" due to being air cooled and running at high temperatures, so, lots of oil is burned and spark plug deposits are an issue. Phillips 66 is another popular brand.

 

Maybe I'm dense but I've been back and forth though the entire serivce manual looking for the filter install and can't find it. I'm pretty convinced it doesn't exist but I'll update this post if I find it.

Transmission flush is incredibly easy to do yourself. I forget exactly what size wrench it is (maybe 14mm and a 3/8 inch drive ratchet for the full hole) and a foot of plastic tubing and a buddy. MTF is about $8 a quart, need 2. Don't even need to take a wheel off.

EDIT: filter doesn't exist for the manual. Closest we get is a magnet that slips into place on the inside of the transmission. If you don't believe me I'll send you the shop manual pages. I'll throw in the shop instructions for the drain and fill too if you want.

 

Thought you guys might enjoy this:


- Bill Watterson