Hey,
I took my car into the dealer for a ticking sound coming from the engine. They first blamed loud fuel injectors but found that one of the spark plugs burnt out and damaged the coil. Now it looks like I am stuck with a $400 plus bill. The car is an 09' with 38,000 miles. I tend to think that if the plugs are claimed to be good for 100K that this should be a warranty issue. Anyone else have this issue? Any thoughts?

They did cover the lost motion spring recall while they were in there.

 

I have never been able to understand how a dealer can ding you for a coil, when the car is supposed to be under waranty?

I know GM likes to do this and blame worn spark plug wires. You pay 600$ for to replace the coils packs, then theyre 'lifetime warantied' unless of course your spark plug wires go bad~

come on here... coils are a 5$ part. Then again, Honda charges 20$ for a bag of 5 cent plastic clips, so 400$ for a coil sounds about right.

 

Thanks for understanding. Any ideas on how I should approach Honda on this?

 

I would expect this to be covered under the 50k drivetrain warranty?

 

Can anyone that agrees with this please post? It might help.

 

Sorry I don't have any advice, but I do have a question. Is the ticking loud and noticeable? My car has always had a slight ticking noise since I got it new off the lot... assumed that is the normal ticking this engine makes. Does anyone get any ticking normally?

 

Agreed, warranty should cover it. If they tell you no, take it to corporate.

 

am i missing something here?

you didn't change the spark plugs or anything before this problem, right? the spark plug problem just popped up on its own at 38k miles and caused more damage, within the warranty period - they need to fix it for free. you might have to complain and argue/complain/threaten to contact honda, but they should eventually cover it. don't let them rip you off

 

if the dealer wont fix it under warranty, call honda america 1-800 999-1009 and gently complain/explain the issue and they may tell the dealer to do it under warranty.

people have had success with this approach.

 

Thanks everyone for the advice. I called Honda corporate and they agreed to contact the dealer. They seemed very responsive when I explained the issue. I had total agreement when I explained that the 100k plugs should not be an issue/my fault and that a warranty should be considered. We'll see...

I have three Fits in the family and all of them have a quiet ticking at idle. Mine, however has gotton randomly louder and I can hear it over the engine noise up to 45 mph. Maybe some owners with higher mileage can check in on if these sounds are problematic down the road.

 

Thanks, No I haven't done anything to the oem plugs. I am eager to have this remedied as I have done nothing but rave about this car in the last couple years.

 

Our engines do not have hydraulic cam followers or "lifters, tappets". There is a clearance that will always result in some noise. If it becomes louder, you need to have the valve adjustment checked, especially at higher mileage.

 

Well I am all fixed up. I just had to pay for parts thanks to help from Honda Corporate. Big thank you to them. Valve adjustment, new plugs, coil, and recall lost motion spring. The car seems great.
Anyone else with mystery clicking have your plugs/coils checked when they are in their doing the recalls. I'll check in again in a few days if everything is still good.

 

A blown plug, fried coil and no CEL? How did it feel driving?
Glad to hear you stood ground and Honda came through.
What was the bottom line, if I might ask.

 

I really don't know how it could have been blown without showing a code. It actually drove quite well. It seems to have better throttle response now but anything would feel better than the boat of a Chevy Impala I was stuck with for a couple days. $68 was the total.

edit... After having some time to think about this I am really disapointed by the dealership. What they did is come up with a way to try to charge me for a warranty scenario. I paid the $68.00 and left. Along with my $68.00 went my loyalty to the dealership. Yes, Honda Corporate helped by lowering my bill but I will no longer go this dealership with any trust. After four car purchases I guess I am in a dream world to think that the dealer will show loyalty in return.

Thanks Fitfreaks for the advice and for listening.

 

Irwin 2449 Spark Plug Taps HCS- 4 Flutes#

 

When I blew a coil pack in my GTI (well known problems of the 1.8T coils) the dang thing went into limp mode, turbo boost bypassed and adjusted timing to prevent damage of the motor, it felt like driving a car with 20hp, i had to use rpm to get anywhere cause it had nothing down low, of course to get anywhere was the 15 minute drive to my dads house after the pack went out to park it in the driveway and use another vehicle to get a new coil pack from the dealer, which was only a $17 item, go figure on a german car.

 

Ive been find new stuff and this might help identify whats causing the problem. I thought it might be fuel related and had talks with Tex to figure it out. Maybe posting this some one can link it all together. http://www.autotap.com/Articles/Unde...ems_0106ta.pdf

 

This sounds like the old S2000 recall, where the plugs were torqued incorrectly and they would take out the threads in the head as well as melting the coil. Sounds like a good time to go check your spark plug torque! I got a bunch of S2k motors from that recall!

 

Sorry, should have posted this S2000 TSB in the last post.