2015 LX with 175k miles. It started doing this last week.

I've done all the maintenance myself, according to the maintenance minder, with the exception that I've changed the CVT fluid every 30k instead of every ~50k.

Last week, it started making a sort of whirring or whining noise only when backing up with the wheel turned all the way in either direction. Now sometimes it does it when backing straight up as well. It seems fairly consistent, but not totally so.

I was able to record the noise, see attachment. Any idea what this is?

On an unrelated subject, has anyone had a valve adjustment done? How much did it cost them? Some fantastic person made a video and it doesn't look too bad, just time consuming - I think it's time though and I'm curious about what people usually get charged to decide if I should do it myself. Also, any other maintenance people recommend at 175-200k?

 

To answer your second question first, I had the injectors replaced last year on my '16 LX at 88K under warranty.

While they had the engine apart for the injectors, I had them do a plug replacement and valve lash as long as they were there, it was coming up on a 90K service anyway. Valve lash came to right around $300 with the gasket & labor, which is pretty typical around here.

Could you do the valve lash yourself? Sure. I did one on my previous gen Fit ('08 Sport). Not necessarily difficult but time-consuming - figure a good afternoon. It's easier to use a bent-tip feeler gauge instead of a straight tip feeler - saves your knuckles wedging the feeler gauges in there.

 

Lots of Nissan CVTs had a similar whining when the pump would be on it's way out for the transmission. These are EPS so it rules a power steering pump out. Time to take it to a shop or start saving up for a transmission by the sounds of it!

 

That's what I'm afraid of, but why only in reverse, and why especially when turning in reverse? It's also only while moving, which I assume also rules power steering out - sitting in place turning the wheel doesn't make a noise.

 

Yes these models have electronic power steering. If I had to take a shot at guessing, it could be an internal bearing failure for a reverse related component. That's what caused most Nissan CVTs to whine too. Nip that one in the butt head on. I wouldn't fool around with it too long.

 

Crossing my fingers, but just as an update in case anyone else has the same problem: I'm not sure what happened, but the noise seems to have gone away for good. I am not sure why. I did change the transmission fluid - which I keep changed even more regularly than the MM advises anyway - and it seemed to improve at the time and slowly get better until it was gone completely. I'm skeptical that's what did it but...it's not doing it anymore. Unless maybe it's temperature-related, and the summer heat is making a difference.

 

Did you change the brand/type of CVT fluid?

 

No, I have only ever used the Honda HCF-2 fluid.

 

Mysterious Whining Noise When Backing Up

This happened to me once. It turned out I had backed up over my first wife. Not surprisingly, the incident was mentioned in our divorce proceedings. But it appears that your issue may be different.

Good luck.

 

Nice try (laugh)! But your profile says, "2013 Base Fit MT."
As far as I know, all MTs have straight-cut reversing gear, so they all make whining noises.
There might be some specialty manual transmissions with helical gears for everything, but there's no way they'd use that on an economy car like Honda Fit.

 

For your 2nd question about the Valve Adjustments. I saw a few videos on Youtube showing this done on the 3rd gen Fit.

It looks pretty tough just getting the beauty cover off. There are so many hidden screws on there, it's looks pretty crazy! But before taking off the cover, you would have to take off the car's cowl. That one doable, but the plastic clips that hold most of down will have to be replaced after because they break easy. I think taking off the engine cover itself is pretty easy and installing a new gasket back on too. The valve adjustments from there are easy too based on what the people on the video said. It's just EVERYTHING before that point was hard to them. lol

I thinking will probably let someone else do this. If it's only a few hundred.