2015 Honda Fit wouldn't start after for 20 minutes
 

Hi Everyone.
My 2015 FIT has 47k miles. Recently it started fine, I drove 5 miles, parallel parked, and after 5 minutes, the car would not start. The battery was replaced this year so the battery should be fine (AAA battery). The FOB battery is fine per Honda dealer. Oil is at 50%. Tires are inflated. All the interior and dashboard lights were fine but I didn't check the radio. The original start/stop red switch WAS REPLACED in August 2020 after failing and the car didn't start then for 2 days and I was finally able to start it and drive it to Honda where it was repaired under Extended Honda Care warranty. NOW the same thing is happening again. When it wouldn't start a few days ago (Nov. 2020), the dashboard lights had a STEERING WHEEL AND EXCLAMATION and the words STARTER SYSTEM illuminated. I called Honda to ask for help from a service advisor, he told me to call Emergency Roadside Service to get a TOW but before the tow truck arrived, the car suddenly started up again. Took it to Honda in Portland. They said all diagnostics look fine. No idea what might have happened. All I did was parallel park into a tight spot on top of a pile of wet (unraked) leaves. Any advise? Dealer says all PCM codes are fine. Thank you.

On the pushbutton start Fits, I believe the circuit design is inadequate to buffer the load at startup. As a result, both the start switch and starter are prone to premature failure.

Since you've already had the start switch replaced, my guess is that the starter is now going.

Many times, either the start switch or the starter are replaced, only to find the other was the real culprit.

In your case, you have to work backwards. The battery should be load tested and evaluated before anything else, because if it's the problem, it needs to be replaced. I know it's a new one, but weird things happen.

Then the diagnostics on the start switch and the starter can take place.


ROTTBOY'S Comment:
Exceptional advise! I would go the same route. Eliminate the simplest which may be unexpected. Batteries on Fit's are really small and prone to go prematurely. Hoping that is the OP's problem instead of the starter items. Good show bargainguy!!!

I started having problems with my 2015 key start, manual LX in October... 6 years to the month I bought it. A couple times it was dead first turn so I cleaned off battery terminals and was fine for a while then at convenience store one day I had a hard time and finally got it after about 10 minutes. No problems for 2 weeks then gradually more and more. I thought of the starter but was in denial. It had only 67k miles with 85% highway, point being I believe it's been started less times than the average car with that mileage, Sometimes I'd have to do different things to get it to start. My battery was 6 years old and reading a little low so I swapped it and that didn't help. Always dead at first then click sometimes from the starter that tested bad. I replaced with NAPA one and it's been fine so far, no problems. Now I'm seeing this is common problem. I wish I took the core apart now to see if I could see anything inside out of curiosity but oh well...

Hot starts (starting the car while the engine is still hot) sometimes indicates engine loss of compression. Are you also seeing gas mileage impacts or power issues?

No, the engine's fine, runs great, mileage, idle, etc. After that first hard, hot start the problem started getting random hot or cold when it felt like it and was getting worse. Funny, it hadn't rained here for months and the weekend I wanted to change it outside it rained the whole weekend so I went ahead and winged it the whole week using it just to get to work and back and at that point it only fired up once right away but it made it through. The whole dilemma was crazy from start to finish but I digress. This was the first and only problem I've had with the car and I didn't get stuck but still not happy with it going out so soon.