I bought a 60k mile 3rd gen fit, 6MT and had the car for one day before it all went to hell. Bought it solely because my job was forcing us back into the office and I had a short amount of time to buy a car. Low mileage, honda, no record of accidents. Seemed like a grand deal. It was As-is but I've bought as-is cars before that were fine, will probably never do it again now.

First day I drove the car home (100 miles, went off without a hitch). Second day I hop in and go to drive to work. I didn't notice, due to being unfamiliar with the car, that the engine temp light was on. To make a long story short, I noticed this when I got to work and immediately shut the car off. A coolant hose had been cut by a bent radiator core support that was acting as a saw on it. (remember, no record of accidents in this car's history). I pay to have this fixed, get the car back, and it's driving like garbage and maybe 30 minutes later, check engine light. This was after I had the people who fixed the radiator core support do every check I could think of on the car. Headgasket is fine. Compression is fine. No significant fluid leaks. Nothing is amiss according to them. The check engine light ended up being like, 4 or 5 different codes. Misfire on cylinder 3. Cat not working (not required in my state, so whatever) and other electronics codes stemming from the first two. I brought it back in, to a different shop this time, had them hold it overnight and again, do all of the checks they could think of. They concluded the injectors may have build up and that I should try running an injector cleaner additive for a few tanks. I did that and while it seemed to improve things initially, my drivability problems remain. Still has check engine light but it's just the cat issue now, so maybe it did work but the drivability issues are unrelated.

What has popped up most recently, and that I'm most concerned about, is shifting into 1st or 2nd, unless you go eeeeextreeeemely slowly off the clutch, clunks into gear like you dumped the clutch. It seems to get worse the warmer the car gets. And as it gets worse, low rpm acceleration comes with a sort of gurgling/rattling noise. I don't really know how to describe it. This car is killing me. I financed it because I had to, had no other choice if I wanted to keep my job. And now I'm on the hook for 13 grand and spent my entire savings trying to get this thing fixed up, only for it to still feel like it's going to break down at any moment. If that happens I am screwed, beyond a shadow of a doubt. I live in a city with on-street parking only and it'll get ticketed indefinitely if it dies on me and I can't fix it/get it fixed. But also, I can't get rid of it as my credit union holds the lien. There's no recourse to have the used car dealership help either.

Sorry for this life story but i'm legitimately at wits end here. If anyone has any idea what I should look into, I'd appreciate it. I don't know where to start and apparently neither do the mechanic shops I took it to. I can't endlessly spend money trying to get this diagnosed and I just don't know what to do.

If it helps at all, here's a tl;dr list of what happened.
1: Lower coolant hose broke due to bent/damaged radiator core support
2: I drove 20 miles or so with no coolant (but on one of the coldest days of the year, and at highway speeds).
3: Got the support repaired, got the car checked out twice, both shops told me the car was good. Compression test, leak down test, etc.
4: Suddenly, problems that seem like they stem from the transmission/clutch, out of nowhere.
5: These problems are extremely rough 1st and 2nd gear engagement, no amount of clutch skill can prevent this from happening. It only doesn't do this if you let off the clutch for 5+ seconds, as slow as possible.
6: Accelerating right after clutch engagement from 1st or 2nd causes a sort of rumbling/girgling/ noise that I don't really know how to describe. It goes away completely at higher RPM and the car drives completely normally at highway speeds. No power loss, no nothing.
7: This leads us to where I am now, terrified the thing is going to break on me for good any day now. I need to keep this car on the road for at least 3 years.
8: These symptoms start off mostly absent when the car is cold started, and seem to get worse the longer I drive it. It's intermittent and sometimes bad to the point that I'm stalling on slight inclines like someone who doesn't have 10+ years of experience with dailying manual cars.

Any help, guidance, etc would be much appreciated. I've been in a constant state of severe stress over this situation.

 

Sell it and buy another car.

 

a loose /broken engine mount ? try rocking the engine back and forth,that could make the clutch squirrely

the 2015 's have injector issues....POSSIBLY thats the cat glowing red hot from bad injectors....is the fuel efficency ok on the dash ?

 

Setting aside ethical concerns about trying to sell a car you know has issues, what advice would you offer the OP for selling such a car without losing most of his money? Alternatively, if he followed your typical advice (= junk it), what advice would you offer about finding another car for free, as the OP clearly indicated that most of his savings are tied up in buying and trying to repair this car? At least he bought your recommended M/T, right?

To the OP:
1) You indicated you bought the car As-Is, but it would be worth a bit of time to investigate the Lemon Law in your state, along with the business you purchased from (i.e., complaints with the Better Business Bureau) as it feels like you may have been scammed. It seems unlikely that all these problems would occur, in a matter of days, to a low mileage Fit. I have no idea why a cat would be bad at your mileage. Was the code for something like the O2 sensor? I'm also confused that the issues appear or get worse as the car gets warmed up.

2) Did the mechanics replicate the shifting issues you're having? A glazed or contaminated clutch will "chatter" or feel like it's skipping (as opposed to slipping) instead of fully engaging. Could that be what you're feeling and hearing? Shifting problems might be more evident in lower gears because you don't have the momentum of the moving car helping you along.

How would the clutch be contaminated? Maybe you have a minor leak of the rear main seal which is getting a small amount of oil on the clutch/flywheel. Maybe the leak gets worse as the car warms up, meaning more oil on the clutch/flywheel. Maybe you don't see the leak because it's minor and the problematic oil gets burned up on the clutch/flywheel surface.

3) If there's no evidence of a problem with the clutch, change out the M/T fluid and bleed the clutch. It won't hurt (at 60K you're due for this maintenance) and if you're lucky maybe it will help with the shifting issues/noise.

4) Confirm that the mechanics checked your motor and transmission mounts. Bad mounts can cause all sorts of noises and vibration.

5) Regarding your misfire, it's not uncommon for spark plugs to get loose in Fits, at least on the Gen2 Fits like mine. This can cause a misfire, damage the coil of that plug, and eventually damage or ruin the head. I would ask the mechanics if they checked that all spark plugs were tight and torqued properly. There are lots of posts here about this.

Hopefully some of the better Fit mechanics here will respond with additional advice. Good luck.

 

A car is a depreciating asset. You never get back what you put into a car.

In this case it's best to cut your losses right now. Sell or junk the car. And find another one.

Oh and about getting a free car, you were kidding. Right?

 

The fuel efficiency is alright but probably a little lower than before it overheated. Averaging like, 37 to 39 highway. I don't think it's mounts but I'll check regardless.

 

to Drew21 (i can't figure out how to quote reply again even though I just did it. Been about 15 years since I've been on any forums, lol).

To point number 1):
Lemon law in my state explicitly excludes as-is cars. If you buy them the risk is entirely on you. I'm from a state that requires a 30 day warranty and return policy and didn't realize that the state I now reside in doesn't have that.

2)
Mechanics didn't even notice the shifting issues, which makes sense. If you shift gingerly and slowly, they're barely noticeable. They're also barely noticeable until the car warms up completely. I'm guessing that during their drives they took it easy and didn't get it warmed enough to experience the issue. I imagine most mechanics would try to go easy on a client's car, as well. I do agree that it sounds like it might be contamination. I haven't really experienced any skipping per say. It feels more like you let off the clutch as fast possible at low RPM and almost stalled/pressure plate bounced back off. This occurs if you let off at any normal rate. You can only avoid it by spending 3 to 5 seconds slowly and smoothly letting off. The noise on acceleration immediately follows this. I know it's not the engine (and probably not engine mounts either) because I can rev it out in neutral and this noise does not occur at all. On the flip side, I can make the noise occur briefly by putting it in first with the handbrake on and letting it pull against the handbrake a little.

3)
Will do. That was my plan as well, maybe the trans fluid is just extremely low. It needs it regardless, like you said.

4)
I'll ask them next time I take the car in, when I get paid next.

5)
Will check the plugs and coils. Reason I haven't is that the vehicle history says the spark plugs and coils were changed right before I bought it. I've only had the car for a little over a month so they should be new. But I guess they could be torqued incorrectly.

Solid advice. I hope I can get this sorted soon.

 

I agree with the sentiment whole heartedly and would sell the car right now if I could. But alas, my credit union holds the lien and I can't get rid of it (either by junking or by selling) until the lien is paid in full. That's $12500 remaining. Only way I could do it is by finding someone willing to pay that, and then turning around and using the money they gave me to pay off the loan and get the title to give to them. Getting someone to agree to that is a long shot, I feel. And even more of a long shot is finding someone willing to pay what I paid when I thought the car had no problems, now that the car clearly has drivability problems. I bet I couldn't get rid of it for less than half of what I paid. I think the plan right now is going to be do what I can to fix it, and if it does break in a way I can't fix myself or pay to have fixed, I'll have to find a solution to pay off the loan and junk the car.
It's an unfortunate situation all around. I have some pretty severe bad luck with cars it seems. Worst part is my buddy desperately tried to convince me to buy something new or at least still under warranty. I told him I couldn't afford it, and that used cars were fine if you do your due diligence in checking them. I should've listened. I'd have been broke but now I'm broke AND dealing with car problems.

 

The OP stated that: "...I'm on the hook for 13 grand and spent my entire savings trying to get this thing fixed up..."

If we take him at his word, he doesn't have bags of money laying around to buy another car, so junking this problematic car would leave him with (checking calculator: 1 - 1 = 0 cars). That doesn't seem ideal considering the OP indicated that he needs a car for his work commute.

Maybe he can trick someone into buying a car he knows has problems and get back much of his money. I consider that unethical, but it would get him the funds to purchase another car. Problem solved (for the OP, not for the next person).

He could advertise his car honestly and sell at a significant loss. Now he's rushing to find another car with considerably less money in a market with inflated used car prices. So, he's shopping at the very bottom end of available vehicles, making it more likely that whatever car he can quickly find will have issues. And... we're right back where we started with the OP having a potentially unreliable car that he doesn't trust.

Finally, there's the old "thoughts and prayers" and hope for a free car. Hasn't worked for me yet but maybe it will work for the OP.

Cars as depreciating assets - Most new cars are a depreciating asset. The ones that aren't are at the top (e.g., hyper cars) and bottom of the market (if you're a DIY person and make them better than you found them). Five of the eight used economy cars I've bought and sold in my life were sold at a profit. A couple times I doubled my purchase price, even after accounting for parts put into the car. We have two cars currently. Our 2014 Nissan Leaf EV could probably be sold for right around what we paid for it 2.5 years ago. Based on the prices I see every day I could sell my 2010 Fit Sport for double what I paid for it four years ago, which would put me at six or seven out of ten cars sold at a profit. But, I can't find equivalent cars for our needs in the current market for prices that I can stomach so these are good enough for now.

 

You're going to spend more money fixing a car that's in lousy condition in the hope of selling it to pay off the lien on it?

Throwing good money at a car at this point that isn't even worth fixing makes no sense to me.

But that's just my warped thinking.

 

Accurately summarized. I can't really legally sell it or scrap it with a lien on the title. And morally, I'm not willing to pass my problems onto someone else. My options are essentially fix it and use it, or don't fix it, drive it until it breaks, and leave it sitting while I scramble to pay it off. (Not a great idea considering I live in a major city with on-street parking, it would get ticketed relentlessly and eventually towed for sitting indefinitely). Could also do a voluntary repo with the lien holder if it does break. Also, my thinking here is that the car isn't necessarily hopeless. I don't think anything was initially wrong with it besides the bent radiator support. Everything else stems from overheating. It could very well be the case that this is a sub $1500 fix (once i find out what is causing it) and then I'll have the car until 150k+ miles. If that's the case, it's completely worth it for me to fix it. If it's not the case, I'm in the same situation I'm in now. It's gonna cost me money either way, I feel, so I might as well do the thing that gets me to work. I'll try a few more places to get it diagnosed and figure out what to do from there.

 

Hey Leftknee23,

I think my 2015 Fit 6MT (86k miles) has these same issues as yours:

5: These problems are extremely rough 1st and 2nd gear engagement, no amount of clutch skill can prevent this from happening. It only doesn't do this if you let off the clutch for 5+ seconds, as slow as possible.

• Mine is not as severe, but I also have noticed that letting off really slow will make it not happen. I mainly hear pops/clicks when engaging the clutch in 1st. It's almost like it's torque dependent.

6: Accelerating right after clutch engagement from 1st or 2nd causes a sort of rumbling/girgling/ noise that I don't really know how to describe. It goes away completely at higher RPM and the car drives completely normally at highway speeds. No power loss, no nothing.

• I think someone on Reddit told me this is normal until you hit about 2150rpm or so. I believe they said it was because of the engine just having a lack of power below this RPM level.

Listen to the sounds in this video I took (watch from 1:59 to 2:30) and tell me if it sounds familiar. I don't have a solution yet, but you're the first person I've encountered who has a similar issue to me. I'm purposely giving the engine less gas in 1st gear and also shifting early to drop RPMs low to make the sounds more apparent.

You Tube

 

I have none of these issues or problems with my 2015 EX Fit manual transmission .

From what it looks like to me is that some of you guys don't know how to drive a manual transmission Fit.

 

That video reveals nothing unusual that I can hear. I have a '15 MT w/ 62,000 miles and the shifting is definitely not smooth, especially the 1-2 shift and clutch chatter when hot, but overall seems close enough to normal for me.

OP....just drive it because what else can you do given what you've told us about your financial situation?