Hello all!

I am having some trouble with my 2013 Honda Fit. When I go to first start it in the mornings, especially when its below 60 degrees, it takes quite a long time for the car to start. It cranks seemingly fine, and I can hear the main relay clicking as it should. Depending on how cold it is, it will fire up after between 5-10 minutes of cranking (not all at once of course.)

There are a few things in its history that may be important:

The car has 41,xxx miles
I bought it from a salvage auction, I had to replace the radiator support, the radiator and condenser, and the timing cover (the motor mount mount ear was broken off from the impact.)
The plug for the ABS pump was busted and had several cut wires, so I got the pigtail from a parts car and carefully rewired everything, its not showing any DTCs relating to that.
As a matter of fact, there are no stored or temporary DTCs.

The car had set for a good while before getting repaired. The battery has been replaced with a brand new one, with I think 335 CCA. The EGR valve had stuck, I suppose from sitting, so it was swapped from a parts car as well, which cleared the rough idle and related DTCs that had caused early on.

I had figured maybe since it had idled around so much running rich from the stuck EGR that maybe the plugs had fouled, so I swapped the plugs out with the OE replacement. That did not improve the symptoms either.

After initially starting, it will start back fine for the rest of the day, regardless of temperature or how long it has sit.

Putting a battery jumper on it seems to help slightly, though I imagine its just from the engine turning faster.

I believe that it is getting plenty of fuel as it will begin flooding if cranked too long.

ANYWAYS, I am hoping maybe someone here has some insight! It's driving me crazy and I'd love to get it fixed before it gets super cold.

Thanks a ton!

Matt

 

Just out of curiosity, have you tried cycling the key a few times before attempting to crank?

Switch the key to the on position to activate the fuel pump, when you hear it stop pumping, turn key off and then back on. Do that a few time and then try cranking. This will ensure the fuel system is primed and rule out the possibility that the system is draining back to the tank and not maintaining pressure.

 

 

You seemed to have covered the fuel and spark end of things, what about the "air" end like air filter, Mass Air Flow (MAF) Sensor, and any leaks in that plumbing? Maybe clean the MAF Sensor. It would seem if there is an air leak in the plumbing, you would see a code but when the engine is running, spray some parts cleaner on each joint an listen to the rpms to see if it changes from sucking in the parts cleaner at a joint (one at a time).

Are the valves noisy "or" worse, too quiet? If the valves are too tight / quiet, they may be open a little all of the time and you're not getting good compression. Don't know if you have a gauge with a spark plug like attachment to check each cylinder