Gotta say I'm definitely disappointed in the so called Honda "quality" after some of the issues I've run into with my 2016 Honda fit. The most recent problem being the one in my title. No warning or indication anything was wrong, it simply stopped turning after being on cold A/C for a drive up the mountains. As the sun and temperature went down, I went to turn the heat on only to find I was unable to move my temperature dial to hot. Living in the North this is potentially a life or death issue! I'm kinda blown away to be honest be such a failure on a car that's not even 10 years old!

I've confirmed the dial and cable are working correctly - it is the blend lever / flap on the box itself that is binding when I go all hot or all cold. I can thankfully move it enough to the hot side to get some heat, but it will not be adequate for winter.

My question is has anyone that's run into this problem before managed to fix it without needing to remove the HVAC box? I'm obviously not wanting to go that route as it involves dash removal and the discharging of the A/C system. I'm going to try running a endoscope through the vents to see if I can see what's happening, and will probably cut open the side of the HVAC box if needed before resorting to other methods. I'm really hoping someone can tell me exactly what may be binding inside - thanks for reading and any help you can give. (If anyone has a link to a service manual that would be seriously helpful!)

Thank you,
TurboTom

 

My personal experience with car HVAC control problems in the past have included:

1) Cable ends that pop out of their fitting, either on the dial end or on the control end - this happened several times on a previously owned Toyota Yaris and was an easy (assuming adequate flexibility) fix. You say you've confirmed that the cable works so it sounds like this is not your problem.

2) Debris inside the HVAC system that restricts or blocks doors/flaps from moving (e.g., my fresh air/recirculation flap stopped working). At my location we have lots of small mammals which like to climb into the cabin air intake (a big open hole under the cowl on the GE8) and build a nice nest on top of the cabin air filter. This was such a problem on my 2010 Fit that I eventually fashioned a cover screen for the cabin air intake out of 1/4 inch galvanized hardware cloth, which seems to have solved my issues. On my wife's Nissan Leaf they chewed through the cabin air filter and deposited a nice store of winter acorns inside the blower motor while we were away for Thanksgiving last year. When she first turned on the fan her EV sounded like it a gas engine ready to throw several rods through the block.

I would start by pulling out your glove box and cabin air filter and looking for debris. On the GE8 at least it's easy to pull out the blower motor itself and you could look there as well. Once you have that stuff removed you may be able to approach the blend box from the side and see if there's debris inside.

 

Thanks for the response Drew21!

Follow up:

Ok, finally had time to dig a bit deeper into this. Looks like I was mistaken - the dial control is indeed the problem. I completely removed the blend box cable and realised it is moving freely and the knob control is screwed up internally. Car barely has over 100,000km. Relieved it's not as bad of a job as I was concerned it may be, but still pissed I need to fix this. Seen a few complaints and videos addressing this, hopefully Honda starts addressing it. Especially letting people know how they can get heat if it fails in the winter.

When I get around to replacing the control I will post a final followup to what I find and if the old control is repairable.



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Good to hear that you solved the issue. I have to keep that in mind in case same happens to my GK5.
But be assured, that no car manufacturer will make any moves for rather occasional minor problems in the products that are already discontinued.

 

I agree on the point, but completely disagree on this being a minor issue. Heat in a cold climate, especially in a remote area is critically important to have. Overall I don't get what's so great about current Honda's - the issues I've had make me realize they really aren't making them very well these days.

 

Even great quality cars like Honda will have a few lemons slip through their quality control checks.

What you probably have is a lemon.

Recent postings about 3rd Gen problems surprise me. With the exception of the start/stop button issue I've had none of the problems that have been recently posted. I have a 2015 EX stick. It runs with no issues or problems.

 

The single issue which he has mentioned here does not make it a lemon especially since the problem occurred on what is now a 7 year old car. The lack of heat in a cold climate is certainly a serious problem but apparently not serious enough for him to take it to a dealership right away.

 

 

Hi Tom, I have this same issue with my 2018 Fit. The temperature control dial became slightly harder to turn, when I would dial to heat, it would slowly recoil back to cold..so I had a feeling it was cable related. Upon getting a good look in there, (wearing my running headlamp like a proper nerd), I was able to easily get the heat working by manually flipping the little white lever (the one you described connected to the blue cable)then the heat worked right away. It is not a permanent fix but I was at least able to manually move the white lever to get heat. I was curious if you figured out the cable issue? My guess is it might be disconnected from around the inside of the temp dial itself. Didn't see a way to get to this without REALLY taking the car apart which I am very reluctant to do. Y'all know things never quite go back like they are supposed to.

 

My 2018 Fit Sport just went in for almost the same issue. $2,500 heater box replacement.


The hot/cold select knob no longer worked, felt like it was binding up. It was the flap or divirder inside of the heater box got jammed up or broke. It had to be entirely replaced by Honda. And yes we did pay for it out of pocket.

 

What a joke - just goes to show Honda is no longer standing behind their products.

 

Hey - here is my follow up of my situation.

So tried to go through Honda. Ended up more or less getting ignored by the 2 dealerships I went through. I escalated and tried contacting Honda support Canada and again was basically ignored. They recommended I bring it to a dealership to get it diagnosed at the full shop labor rate of 160+ an hour. I explained how obvious a problem it was (Plus 5 hours away from a dealership) and they finally agreed I could send a video instead and they would get back to me. ALL I was looking for was a reduced rate on the temperature control dial that was faulty, as there is NO way in hell I was going to pay their ridiculous prices for a replacement part that is potentially flawed as the original. Sent all the info they wanted and nothing but crickets. Was already disappointed with the quality, this just cemented my opinion that the service matched. /end rant.

ANYWAYS - so the part I haven't purchased yet is Base Heater Control Unit - Part Number 79560-t5R-A01ZA. Thankfully there are third party options out there as this is OBVIOUSLY an issue.

What I did to get the dial somewhat working again was to pull on the wire loop (or put a rod through it of some type to keep tension) to keep light pressure on it while at the same time moving the dial left and right until it "popped" back in and started to somewhat work again. Your success may vary. I would also advise wearing gloves as I think there is a sharp end on the wire loop that cut a good couple of grooves in my thumb before I noticed! The 2nd thing I did was to change the position of the cable to allow me to have some heat control over winter instead of it being jammed on max heat. I've attached a few videos below to show the problem and the "fix". Also attaching a video that gives an idea what is required to remove and replace the Base Heater Control Unit - not looking forward to it but it doesn't look too bad. Hope this helps!

Video showing the removal of the Base Heater Control Unit (About halfway in):

Quick video showing the lack of range:

Video I sent to a Honda support agent - didn't hear a peep back:

Temporary Fix:

 

Not a joke. We are way over Honda's warranty. And parts like this can break on all cars.

 

Yes, it is. Not sure if you are suffering from Stockholm syndrome or just like spending money - I can see you are out of pocket a fair bit of money on your car for things that IMO shouldn't be failing yet. I'm not looking to get anything for free but not paying 360+ for a part that failed due to a bad design or cheaping out of materials.

But hey - you do you boo.

 

Just curious which manufacturers you think don't use the absolute cheapest parts they can get away with, especially in areas where they're not visible like under the dash?

I've never had the money or the inclination to buy a new car, but I've also never been under the impression that any manufacturer guarantees anything past the time and mileage of a new car warranty. Parts fail. Metal rusts and cheap molded plastic parts fatigue and eventually break. If you think it's bad now, you must not have been in a winter salt area during my childhood (1980s-90s) when it was rare to see any vehicle over five years old without rusted out fenders and rocker panels.

Every one of us will get unlucky with some purchase we make at some point, whether its a giant TV or laptop computer that mysteriously stops working three weeks after the warranty is out or an automobile HVAC dial that fails after nearly a decade of use as is the case with the original poster.

 

Your point is valid - I went with Honda after having run Festiva's for a long time. They were cheap and made in Japan in the 90s when over building a part was still a thing in the manufacturing world. They also had their quirks, but when I paid 1000 for a car it didn't bug me much when something failed. When a 7 year old part fails on a much more expensive car that is a whole different deal.

I went with Honda after reading review after review that reported the quality was higher than much of the competition. I think the problems go to show just how low the bar has gotten for products in the world. We are truly turning into a throw away society and it just makes me sad. Holding manufacturers feet to the fire is what creates recalls and keeps the power in the consumers hands. I don't expect perfection, but some failures are a joke, especially ones that require 2500 dollar repairs because someone saved 25 cents per car using plastic instead of metal.

 

You just sound ultra cheap. And broke.

Random parts like this can easily break on all cars. I just chose to fix mine properly. So get off your high horse Karen.

 

Exactly. Ding, ding, ding.

 

How's your VTEC actuator rattle working out for you? Maybe 3rd times the charm...

 

You sir are a complete clown. Throwing a complete tantrum online because nobody agrees with your one-sided boomer logic. What the hell are you even talking about?

So now you want to try and pop shots off at OG members that have been through this all before. All because you are not a fan of Honda's parts quality. Maybe you should just turbo your way off this website. And sell that Fit of yours. Because nobody here wants to help any new member that acts like you. ~TurboBoomer~