Hi,

what do you guys think of the sound of this engine? Time for a valve lash? This is a used car and I'm just looking to see if i should buy it. It has 100k miles (167k km).

 

That is some heavy ticking. Probably so. Im more upset with how bad that engine bay looks. Plenty of oil seepage, dirt, and rust. How's the underside look? I have 195k on mine and its nowhere near as bad looking under the hood.

 

I know. I'm in Quebec, Canada so it actually looks not so terrible. The hood has some rust around the weep holes. Bottom of the car looks surprisingly good! Exhaust very clean and suprisingly no leak. Nearly all used honda s i ve tried have an exhaust leak.

I noticed the oil stain first thing. Also a rather generous dab of RTV where the valve cover seats. dunno if that is factory or if someone's been in there. It does seem to be very concentrated around the oil fill cap and there is no sign of squirting or running down the engine. Even the top of the coil closest to the fill cap has some oil stain. I suspect it is someone that tended to fill their oil without a funnel or cleanup, just took the jug and went for it, even if it splashed. Taking it for inspection at a Honda dealer in ~1 hour.

Thank you so much for your opinion advice. Very helpful for me because I only have experience with 1st and 2nd port injected engines.

 

Is there a "Carfax" equivalent in Canada ? If you could find out what services have been done, you could decide on what you would find out what you would do on your own if you buy it, and offer less for the car, to cover those costs.

 

I did get the carfax.100k miles seems pretty low for a lot of cars of this vintage. It had 25K miles in 2018 so it seems it was driven a reasonable amount since (about 10K miles a year). Aside from the last odometer reading and change of ownership, there is nothing more as far as maintenance in the Carfax. This is par for the course it seems; i saw a 2009 GE that was a total shit bucket and it had tons of service information including rustproofing. Guess they rustproofed the car with butter because it was all rusted out.

Right now I'm waiting for a honda master tech to finish up on pre purchase inspection. The body is in pretty rough shape but it's not rusted out. I believe it had permanent rust proofing installed when it was purchased.

This car definitely doesn't have the pep and steering of the GD or GE but with the heated seats, amazing MPG, backup camera (and newer vintage), I'm thinking this one's a steal. Plus, the Honda rep at the dealer is petitioning Honda Canada to pay to fix my failed clear coat on the Orchid White Pearl.

 

That's chain noise my guy. The thwobthwobthwobthwob is valves but the ththththththththt that sounds sort of like a bike cassette is 100% timing chain noise - not normal. Inspect A.S.A.P. Probably a worn guide, maybe stretched chain. Wouldn't run it much longer like that.

 

I had a Honda Master tech look at it. The engine was missing 2 quarts of oil which could explain the sound. The master tech said the engine sounded fine and that the noise was because it was a direct injection engine. I'm gonna put my faith in his opinion for now.

I've listened to VTC actuator actuator rattle and I haven't heard it. TIme will tell I guess since I bought the car. It was a lease for the first 4 years or so so I'm hoping that any teething problems were fixed under warranty at the time.
.

 

My fault. I listened on my laptop, I think the speakers are fried 😂.

Yeah no you're right that sounds normal. Good luck man I'm about to hit 200k on mine.

 

Still, thank you very much for your feedback. I still think that I'd like to try and do the valves tappet clearance, inspect the valves for carbon and do the ziptie cleaning technique if it looks kinda crunchy while I'm in there.

My biggest concern is that the engine has 50% on the maintenance minder and was 2 quarts low on oil. Assuming the person filled properly at last change, that's a whole lot of oil burn in ~3000 miles. I'm thinking that might explain why the engine cover was so stained with oil. Someone was perhaps topping it off frequently. I've heard that the 2015 piston rings are paper thin. I had the dealer put in two quarts so I could drive away and I will do a full fluids service over the weekend (oil, MTF, coolant). I did notice MPG go down considerably after the dealer topped off the oil to the correct level.

Perhaps the 2015 is an oil burning type engine? My GD3 never burned a drop between oil changes and I thrashed that engine at every chance. I'm fearing all that oil blowby will cause excessive coking in the valve seats. I guess time will tell.

 

These motors shouldn't be burning oil, nor should any of course but any consumption especially at that rate Id look into. My RMS started leaking before 130,000 mi and I switched to Mobil 1 EP High Mileage, solved the issue. Just hit 200k today. Did replace valve cover gasket @ approx 150k?

Fwiw if you can access a walnut blaster the finnegaling around in the valves is a world of difference. I tried the zip tie method and it was bad enough I bought a blaster. YMMV. Keep in mind any changes in smoothness in the plumbing causes tumbling and air flow is far less efficient. Same as choking a hose on a cylinder.

Good news is these motors are easy to rebuild so should the day ever come...

Good luck man, be well

 

NO.
Check for oil leaks and don't assume that the previous owner actually filled it up. All kinds of idiots in this world. Keep an eye on your oil level, checking it frequently. Two quarts is kinda a lot to lose.

 

2 quarts low at 50% life is a LOT.

 

I have a feeling my fit fills the oil itself, i never add any. obviously it would be filling it with gas...the oil always smells gassy...i do alot of short trips, so no one to blame but me and Honda

 

All Hondas have oil-burning engines if you skimp on oil changes. The anti-coking oil additives get used up, piston rings get jammed by carbon build-up in their grooves. Jammed rings = compression blow-by (oily mess into the intake via the crankcase vent) and excessive oil entering the combustion chamber directly from the crankcase.

 

well, hopefully some of the carbon clears up from some Italian tune-ups and running proper oil. I don’t even let the maintenance minder get below 15% because I’m on a “severe service” schedule. I got the car pretty cheap so if it can last 4 years, I’ve got my moneys worth.

just did the oil and transmission fluid today. I know oil was done on this car but I think literally nothing else was ever done (plugs, MTF, coolant) so yea there’s been some damage for sure but master tech gave it a clean bill of health. I can’t understand people neglect maintenance like that. I guess it’s a “cheap car” and they figure it’s unkillable because it’s a Honda.

 

Lots of people are reward-driven. Maintenance is a chore - they don't get any reward from it so they put it off. Buildup in the rings is a cumulative thing and is notoriously difficult to remove. There's some shade-tree procedures involving soaking the pistons in various fluids but the only real solution is prevention, or stripping the engine down and scraping it out manually.

 

No, they do it on expensive cars as well. People are just ,,,,people. I saw a video of a truck which was being serviced and getting an oil change probably for the first time since Moses parted the sea. The oil was coming out like molasses with lots of chunks. The techs had trouble getting it out because it kept clogging the drain plug. Not a case of an owner forgetting about maintenance, but an owner who just didn't care.

 

Who knows?... maybe someone went ahead and reset the maintenance minder without changing the oil?

Well, I guess you're going to find out how much it burns...

 

I just changed the oil (obviously not taking any chances). Also did the trans fluid and guess what, shifts better now. On a side note. I like the GK but I’m not crazy about the 6 speed. Shifter isn’t as buttery smooth as GD and GE IMO. Also the knob is hilariously tiny. Doesn’t bother me though.

im really worried about this dipstick. It’s so hard to read. You basically get one chance then you have to wait to get a reading. The basic wipe, reinsert and read is impossible… for me it tends to wet both sides of the tip with a gap in the middle (impossible). Also, both sides tend to be wet differently. On side can appear full past max and other in the middle of max and min. What a disaster, no wonder the previous owner didn’t realize it was low.

anyone figured out some mod to make
this thing useable? I’m thinking I might try and notch it or something.

 

[QUOTE=MTLian;1489162]I just changed the oil (obviously not taking any chances). Also did the trans fluid and guess what, shifts better now. On a side note. I like the GK but I’m not crazy about the 6 speed. Shifter isn’t as buttery smooth as GD and GE IMO. Also the knob is hilariously tiny. Doesn’t bother me though.

I never drove earlier model fits, but this is the fourth MT I've owed, and I would say my 2015, 118,000 shifts fine and smooth. Everything is still all stock and I basically will just shift lightly with my thumb and fingers, no problem. I don't know if you've gotten around to it yet, but I would think your clutch/brake fluid really need to be flushed if you haven't done so, which may help.