Hello, FitFreak! I've always had a love affair with my vehicles, whether they were sporty or not. It started with my 2003 Mini Cooper S, where I got heavy (for me) into the modifications and above average with the maintenance. After that, I had a short-lived romance with a 2007 NHBP Fit Sport. Then with a 2007 Ford Focus grocery-getter, where I performed all the maintenance myself. Then we went car-free for three years when we moved into the city. Now, after missing road trips and day trips, we picked up a 2009 CBP Fit Sport AT for $5,600 with 120,500 miles.

I definitely miss the manual transmission, but I'll just have to deal with it. There weren't any manual transmission vehicles available during our month-long search. My 2007 regularly got over 40 mpg, while this one struggles to stay above 31, despite utilizing hypermiling techniques.

We haven't had many photo opportunities yet, but here's one the day we got it, with my wife and kiddo being super pumped.


That aside, let's get down to the condition of the car. Since it's a new-to-me vehicle, I'll be changing out all the fluids over time. Living in an apartment, I have nowhere to do my maintenance nearby, so I'll be doing it at a friend's on the weekends.

Maintenance Items To-Do:

• Oil and filter change
• Brake fluid change
• Cabin air filter change
• Transmission fluid change
• Coolant change
• Engine Air filter change
• PCV valve replacement
• Valve clearance adjustment (here)
• A/C recharge

Issues with the Car:

• Some panels don't sit flush together
• Noise from Passenger Front of vehicle suspension – sway bar link is likely culprit
• Windshield washer fluid pump doesn't work
• Both fog lamp lenses are shattered
• Cargo cover doesn't have clips

I don't foresee many modifications happening. I do intend to get the windows tinted at some point, and I'd like to pick up some window deflectors. Mostly, this thread with be photos from our adventures, and maintenance items.

 

Here is [most] of what I need for the current to-do items. I'll be changing out the coolant before taking a trip near the end of this month, then doing the other fluids afterwards. I've never done a coolant change or a brake bleed, so those should be fun!



We've got some prime stuff here. PUP oil, WIX XP filter, ATE TYP 200 brake fluid (never used it before, but everyone swears by it!), Fumoto oil drain valve, brake bleed kit, funnel and hose for the AT fluid, tester and baster for checking the coolant, engine and cabin filters (they bad!), AT filter, and something that many will probably crucify me for... MaxLife ATF and LubeGard Red.

I don't know how tied to the Honda brand ATF y'all are here, but I know that over at the BobIsTheOilGuy forums, it's either MaxLife-or-die, or Honda-or-die.

 

The engine air and cabin air filters definitely needed replacing...

cabin air filter

engine air filter

 

Off to a great start!! The Fit is a great adventure car.

 

It really is! I think I may have enjoyed my 2007 a bit more, but it also had 90,000 fewer miles and was manual, so...


I wanted to add that I've already replaced the spark plugs, due to blow-by occurring on three with a strong fuel odor.

 

Manual does make it more fun but some people say the 1st gen was better anyway. I prefer the looks of the GE over the GD.

Were any of the plugs loose? I am sure you have read about that issue. Just something to keep an eye on.

 

I have heard about the loose plugs issue. None of them were loose, thankfully. Cylinder 2, which had the most blow-by, was easier to unseat than the rest, though. And harder for my torque wrench to register when 20# had been hit. It felt... softer.

Know the cause of the loose plugs issue?

 

I was somewhat able to check the coolant yesterday. The baster I got wouldn't keep the fluid in it long enough for me to see it once I got it out of the reservoir, so I wasn't able to put it into my tester. However, I got a good enough look at it to see that it was friggin green. So I grabbed some Zerex Asian Blue and a 15-qt. drain pan.

 

Had my first big maintenance day with the car today. It didn't go super well.

First, I put my Torin 4-ton bottle jack under the car, only to find it's too tall for the side jack points. I totally forgot about the center jacking point. It was a pain to find a spot low enough. I don't own a floor jack anymore because I have nowhere to store one. Considering getting a higher-tonnage scissor jack, but I haven't heard many good things about them. No one loans out jacks, probably for liability reasons, and I haven't found ramps either (plastic ones are terrifying, and steel ones are too steep). Plus, ramps won't help when I need to rotate my tires.

I was unable to get the car high enough to sit on the jack stands with their posts in, so I took them out and set the car straight on the stands with no posts. Not my proudest moment, but what else could I do? I think the bottle jack may have some issues. Maybe I didn't prime it correctly. I may take it back tomorrow for a replacement, and maybe get just the 2-ton as it's a little shorter.

I had a lot of trouble with the transmission drain plug and the oil drain plug. With the transmission drain plug, I slid my bottle jack's handles over the end of my 9" socket wrench. I had to use everything in me to get that sucker off.

I never was able to get the oil drain plug open. It looks like they used thread sealer on both it and the filter!




I think if I could have gotten the car higher, I may have been able to get it off. But having only 9-1/2 inches to work with definitely doesn't give me much room to get leverage. Also might see if I can borrow an oil filter wrench from one of the parts stores nearby. I've never needed anything but my hands, but with that thread seal in there...

Transmission fluid look fine.


But after putting MaxLife Synthetic and 3-oz. of Lubegard Red in there, it's shifting like butter! I forgot to do the transmission fluid filter change. Anyone know if it's too late and I should just do it next time, or will I not lose much fluid if I do it without changing the fluid?

Coolant tested fine, but it wasn't warm, so not the best test. It was green and low anyways, so it's a good thing I changed it. Fully flushed it twice as well before filling it with Zerex Asian Blue.

I was also unable to change the PCV valve. How the heck do y'all do it? I moved everything out of the way, unplugged some other hoses, used my smallest adjustable wrench, and just couldn't get enough surface area on the head of it to get it out. My only thought was a deep socket, but I don't have a 17mm deep socket.

Got my rear bumper scraped the other day while it was parked here in the city. I have a dash cam with parking mode, but because I didn't have my computer on me, and it can't transfer to my iPhone, I was unable to grab the video. Oh well.

 

Drive the car up on a 2x4 or 2x10 to get some more room for the jack. Can you pick that blue junk off?
Maybe when the car is warmed up it can be picked off easier.

Also are you using 3/8 drive or 1/2”?

 

No one I know has 2x4's. My buddy who is renting the house where I did this work (because you can't do it in the street, so I used his driveway) is out of town right now, but we might go get some 2x4's in a couple weeks. It's tough living in the city.

It was warm - I attempted after flushing the coolant because I'd already tried to get it off with the car cool. I did pick the blue stuff off quite easily.

3/8, why?

 

3/8 is too small for some stuff. If an oil change place put the plugs on it usually takes some extra force to get it off. I always put a drain plug in with a 3/8” but generally use a 1/2” drive to remove it. Comes loose much easier.

Keeping some spare 2x4’s is helpful. Useful for for chocking the wheels too.

 

Interesting. I've never heard that before. I used to have a powered impact driver, but it was stolen. That's what I'd have used in this situation. I definitely won't be going to get a 1/2" driver, so I'll figure out another means.

Oh yes, I understand the usefulness of 2x4's. Just can't keep them in an apartment haha.

I did pick up a 17mm deep socket, so I'll do that PCV at some point.

Again, anyone know if changing the inline transmission filter without changing the fluid is a bad idea? I can't think of any reasons. I have more AT fluid, so if I lose any I could just add some more.

 

not sure if i missed it...but why arent u using the jack your car came with? if you dont have one i think GolNat had one for sale?
for quick stuff i use the trunk jack first...if im getting more involved a pull out a small cheap hydraulic one and/or jackstands. i have to lift the car with the trunk jack regardless to get any other jack under it since my car is lowered.

the pcv is easy with the deep socket..trying with anything else will just waste time and cause frustration..u just need to move that wire bracket with the 2 10mm bolts in front of it out the way.

for the a/t filter...get a couple of rags ready..after you remove the clamps use pliers to twist the hoses to break the seal between the hoses and filter tubes..and have the filter ready to be popped straight on...but you shouldnt lose much...i think maybe a teaspoon total came out of my lines (done after my car was sitting for a couple hours). it doesnt shoot out or anything, just slowly drips. i had the filter ready to go straight on, so im not sure how much will continue to drip out if you remove the filter and go eat a sandwich.

i forget the recommended mileage for changing the filter, but i think your fine putting it on any random time now after the fluid change. sooner the better though so you know it went on same time as the fluid.

 

I asked myself the same question after I'd already returned home. Hah! I returned the bottle jack, and kept the stands. I'll use the scissor jack next time. Actually looked into getting a heavier-duty scissor jack, but all of them seemed to fail pretty often. I definitely don't have room to store a floor jack, otherwise I'd go get my old one from my other friend.

Yep. Picked one up yesterday. Should be super easy.

Sweet. I know that Honda actually doesn't recommend replacing it unless it's failed or you're overhauling the engine. But it was cheap, and it seems easy enough to replace, so why not? 09+ I don't think you have to remove the battery to access the ATF filter, right? Looking at the shop manual, it appears you just remove the air cleaner housing.


I am a bit bummed. I ordered a bunch of washers from HondaPartsNow.com and none of them were the correct size for the ATF drain bolt. Hah! Old one looked fine so I reused it.

 

For the past few days, we have been camping. This is the main reason we got a car again, after being car-free for three years. And the Fit is the perfect vehicle for such a purpose!

We took a 300-mile round-trip to the coast, and camped at Twin Harbors State Park. What a great facility! Super clean, as many or as little amenities as you could want.

According to the trip estimated MPG, we averaged 41.6 MPG, but we'll see when we fill up. Before the trip, tires were at 29.5 PSI on 51 max PSI tires (Dunlop SP Sport 7000 A/S - I know, they're garbage, but from the previous owner and have a ton of miles left on them). I filled the tires up to 45 PSI, so I'm hoping the helps us get closer to the estimated shown on the dash.




Zelda's first camping trip!

Stupid good vegan s'mores










Daughter took this with my iPhone SE

I took this (and most everything else) with my Fuji X100S

Daughter snapped this of me

Our neighbor for our first night.

 

Changed the oil over from what appeared to be conventional, to synthetic. The oil filter was an absolute nightmare to get off - worst I've ever had to deal with. I went and grabbed a filter wrench - one of those ones that uses the rubber strap thing-a-bobber. They're garbage. Took it back later. I've heard that if you put sandpaper on the strap to grip the filter, they work better. But for next time, I'll be getting a claw/clamp style filter wrench that works with a ratchet.

What ended up working - as a last ditch effort - was spraying some brake cleaner between where the oil filter and oil pan body meet and letting that sit, then penetrating the filter all the way through with a screw driver and a small hammer, and using the screwdriver as leverage. It was so difficult that I kept second-guessing myself, thinking I had tightened it instead of loosening it.

There was some gunk on the oil pan body where the filter meets it, so I made sure to clean that off. Unfortunately, I didn't have my anti-seize with me - not sure where that crawled off to...

Oil: Pennzoil Ultra Platinum 5W-20
Filter: WIX 57356XP

I intend to try a ~5,000 mile interval with this oil and filter. Maybe I'll get the itch before that happens, but we'll see.

Unfortunately, I didn't snap any photos of the mangled filter. I did, however, get a great photo of the aftermath of changing my PCV valve last week. The valve was super tight. I didn't have gloves on me, so I risked it. Well, my finger caught one of the bolt heads on the exhaust manifold.

See the fun photos below. [NSFW / NSFL / yuck alert]

 

Yeah that filter was way too tight!! Should not need more then maybe a piece of rubber to help grip the filter while you take it off with your hand. The OEM filter has little triangles to help you keep track of how tight it is (3/4) of a turn I think. Great you got it off though, hopefully next time won't be like that. No need to use anti-seize and I would worry it might do something to the rubber gasket on the filter.

You planning on getting a used oil analysis done?

 

Yeah, it was pretty ridiculous haha. We did my buddy's in his '04 CR-V yesterday as well, and that puppy was on there really tight as well. It's just as difficult to reach, too, because it's higher up, above the lower cowl. We ended up jacking it up so we got more room in the wheel well. Reach through and did it from the side that way. It was silly.

I'm not getting an analysis done. I've never gone that route, so I don't know the first thing about doing it. I usually peruse BITOG forums for cut-opens, but I don't understand all the different things in the oil analyses.

 

would u happen to have any pics of the fumoto valve installed? was looking for something from the side view, im back to considering one and im worried about ground clearance since im lowered. also, what position did the lever end up in? i know they make the SX version to determine the lever position, but it seem like it might hang a bit lower...and the valve would have to point to the passenger wheel with the SX.
thanks!