Hi all! First-time poster here.

A friend of ours has offered us a 2009 Fit (with a known issue that I can potentially fix) for a discounted price of $2,500, and I am pretty handy with a wrench and a scantool. He has loaned us the car for a couple of days so I can diagnose the problem and decide if I want to take it on. It's a 5-speed automatic base model with 180,000 miles.

Anyways, the main issue is that it intermittently stumbles, loses power and/or misfires, both when accelerating or while driving at speed. According to our friend this has been a minor issue and he has only noticed a slight 'hiccup' from the engine once in a while.

The CEL was off when I got into the car to drive it to work today, and while en route there were a few distinct cases where it sputtered or hesitated. But overall, it was a smooth drive.

On the way home it was much worse. It totally lost power coming off a red light and went into limp mode. The CEL came on and started flashing. Even with the pedal to the floor it didn't want to accelerate and it was difficult to get above 15-20 mph.

I pulled off the road and turned the engine off and on again; the CEL stayed on (solid, no longer flashing) but it was out of limp mode. I was able to maintain regular speeds the rest of the way back with a few sputters; more or less it was safely driveable.

I pulled the codes immediately after pulling in the driveway; here's what I got:

P0304 - Cylinder 4 Misfire
P2610 - M/PCM Internal Engine Off Timer Performance/Malfunction

Based on Google's interpretation of P2610, my immediate assumption is to ignore the misfire (coils/plugs) and go straight to the "replace PCM" option. What do you think? I'd need to check the exact part number but it looks like used PCMs for this model go for around $100 on ebay.

As for the rest ... our friend told us that the car probably needs a strut (sounds/feels like the front driver's side) but that's not a big deal for me; a strut tower assembly is ~$100 and I can probably knock it out in an hour or two. The body and interior are in good condition and everything is factory. Tires are basically new. I would get a stack of maintenance history with the car and it's been fairly well maintained.

So... am I on the right track, or is it likely there's a hidden (bigger) problem lurking here? Also, if I were able to replace the PCM (cheaply) and it solved the main problem, are there any hidden gotchas like needing to reprogram VINs, keys, or get new keys made?

Would you give this car a shot?

Thanks for reading this far!

 

Go to the coil packs and plugs first. Easiest and cheapest thing to check and resolve if a spark plug is loose and/or a coil pack burned up by the hot gases getting by a loose spark plug.

Not saying that the PCM isn't bad but how much does it cost to verify that all of your spark plugs are tight?

 

Agreed on the cheap stuff first. With any new car, even if you know the person, play it safe and just assume maintenance has never been done. The drill is typically, replace fluids, wear items and rubber items as needed. With 180,000 miles on the odometer, here's what should be checked out first before replacing the PCM:

1. Valves
2. Spark Plugs
3. Ignition Coils

These cars are well known to have the valves tighten up around 100k (exhaust specifically), check the clearances on that first. If you do it yourself, it's really just the cost of maybe a gasket and RTV plus some time. Plugs can be done while you're there too, then coils.