2012 Fit auto, about 85,000 miles bought new in May of 2012. This is original Fit and did duty as my stepson's college commuter car. I liked it so much that I bought my own 4 years later, one driven by little old lady about 4,000 miles per year - I bought it used with 11,000 miles on it.
Stepson is now in grad school and takes an internship located in Fairbanks AK. I get the Fit serviced and the Mrs. drives it to Chicago from CT so stepson has it for trip to AK.
Trip to Fairbanks goes fine and he spends about 6 weeks working in Fairbanks. Over the past weekend, he heads home with goal to make White Sox/Yankees game Wednesday night back in Chicago. Trip is about 60 hours so he's doing around 12 hours a day. During day 1 he notices a rattle when the engine revs through a certain range. It gets worse as he drives. I get a call on Saturday when he stops in Whitehorse Yukon Territory. He asks me to listen to the noise. Over the phone it's very hard to hear. He checks oil, it's fine, He's not mechanical so listening isn't going to clue him in. I'm thinking maybe the timing chain tensioner. I ask him to look for a mechanic and have them listen to it. He says he thinks he passed a Honda dealer. I'm thinking, what are the odds that he stops in the Yukon Territory at the one town with a Honda dealer? I tell him to drive over and maybe a salesman can listen and give him an opinion. He gets there and service is actually open on a Saturday! They say they'll take a look after lunch. Of course stepson is impatient, but I tell him to consider his luck. If something is wrong, he's at a Honda dealer. He could be 500 miles away with a breakdown and no one around.

Yukon Honda looks at his car and finds it's a loose heat shield. They take it off, give it to him, tell him not to park in any tall grass, charge him nothing and send him on his way - rattle fixed. He lost about 4 hours and made it up on Sunday. Fit is again running fine.

Thanks to Yukon Honda for helping him out and for being open on Saturday, fitting him in and being both honest and generous! Great experience with strangers who didn't need to go out of their way like that. They could easily have said "come back on Monday, we're busy".

My guess is some of the roads on the ALCAN highway are gravel and something might have hit the shield popping it loose. When the car is back in CT, I'll change the oil and check how it's attached.

Love the Fit's......

 

Glad everything worked out, and there was no highway robbery. Mildly raised my faith in dealerships.