The car has cooled down but the check engine light remains on, so it has coded and will stay that way till someone looks at it. Given what it has been doing over the last five days I'd say the transmission will go a few miles before acting up. Still waiting for a return call from the local dealer, Unicars Honda for loaner is about my only hope as there are no rentals available.


Day 5 of this mess.

 

Oh, Geez. Was hoping this was the end of it . . . maybe "lemon" DOES describe it?

 

Just off the phone with the local Honda dealer's service dept. and they'll need to rerun the whole sequence again and then call Honda as to the next step. Obviously new software and programming didn't work. Most likely they'll replace the solenoid rather than the whole unit.


He also told me that when the D light is flashing when the check engine light is on it's an issue with one of three internal components in a Honda CVT. Not his first rodeo with this. And that's disturbing.


I'll take it in first thing tomorrow and once it's diagnosed, use their lines back to Honda to authorize a rental since they have no loaners. Then, it looks like we'll have to drive 40 miles to Banning for there's nothing available for a week or so (resort high season).

 

All this CVT failure talk made me want to at least go take a look at the fluid level. I'll just pull the dipstick and, wait no CVT dipstick, WTF?

And we can't even check the fluid?!?

 

Sorry to hear that it isn't fixed. I wouldn't drive it at all. While not likely, they could come back and say that you did additional damage by operating it after the lights came on.

 

I'm rather familiar with what the little dear will do at this point and seven miles to the dealer is in its range....and they said it was okay. It won't do anything till the transmission gets hot. Although parading it around town on the hook is tempting.


I've never named a car I've owned but one comes to mind for this one:
'Hondalulu'

 

Two down, one to go, lemon law applies!

 

In California we're covered under the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act which is perhaps a little different. If the same issue arises twice and it could cause serious bodily injury or death, then the law applies and you can either get your money back or exchange it for a new vehicle. For everything else, it's four or more attempts at repair. The original issue must occur within the first 18 months or 18,000 miles, which ever comes first, subsequent mileage doesn't matter. Trade out or buyback isn't free, usage is on a percentage scale to 120,000 from the first repair attempt, which in my case is roughly 3% of the purchase price.


Along the process you must contact the manufacturer and when you're ready to exchange or have it bought back, send a detailed letter via certified mail. Representation would be a good idea at this point. What the problem is will have a lot to do with what how the manufacturer reacts and the case could go to an arbitrator and judge, or they'll simply honor your demand.


I'm not sure where my transmission issue falls; two attempts at repair or four, but I would think driveline failure on certain roads could put me at serious risk.

 

That sucks- the software update made everything look like it was fixed. Now if they replace one part it's still going to look fixed. Until it doesn't. Local consumer protection laws notwithstanding, this is where the shop should be making a case to Corporate for just dropping in a unit. Then you're good and Corporate can dissect the old one to find out WTF.

 

Sorry to hear that your car failed again.

However, not very surprising since dealer's first attempt was only to update the ECM/PCM and CVT oil change - which was probably instructed by Honda.

Burnt oil smell usually means a hard part failure as you first described. Honda should have known better. Hope they get it right this time.

 

Sounds like you're up to speed on the legalities.

It might be a good idea to mention your awareness to the dealer that does the work and also to Honda corporate. That might prompt them to give you better service to head off legal issues down the road.

A transmission failure can cause severe injury or death if it leaves you stranded in the middle of a freeway.

Suggest that they should do the right thing and replace the entire transmission as that unit has already been overheated twice and a burnt oil smell doesn't bode well for the other components in the box.

 

To the OP.
Not that I'm suggesting anyone become uncivil or act like a jerk.


But at this point I think what you communicate to the service department may be as important as what they communicate to you.


Have you politely and calmly let them know that at this point you've lost confidence in the vehicle?


Have you let them know that after now two failures and two over heating events, you'd much prefer a full transmission replacement?


Have you politely let them know that you are aware of the lemon laws and that you will pursue them if continued failures happen?


If you present the scenario as in...give me a new transmission now..OR if I have another failure it's going to be get me a whole new vehicle..they might be much more open to the idea of talking Honda into simply dropping in a new transmission.


I hate to say it, but sometimes the squeaky wheel (or transmission) get's the grease. But if you don't let them know how upset you are? Then they may try to solve the problem or placate you in the cheapest "step by step" manner, and unfortunately for you, every time this failure happens I think it is also hard on the engine. Not to mention the stress and time you are spending dealing with this problem.

 

The moral of the story is don't get you on the fit stuck in sand....

 

Update:
After running the diagnostic tests again it was determined by the dealer and corporate that the problem is internal ('B' solenoid sticking) and they are replacing the transmission. Once the unit arrives it takes a full day to put it in. Hopefully the car will be ready by the middle of next week.


On the customer service side of things they've finally stepped and addressed my need for a rental and for the time being there's a Jetta in the garage. I wasn't home but they told my wife that the Jetta is good till Monday, so I'll have to resolve that today to keep something till the Fit is ready. Locally, the local car dealers don't provide loaners and exclusively use rentals and even if they say there's nothing available, they reserve a few for the dealers.


In addition, corporate customer service has stepped up and Kia (or possibly Keeah) is handling it all and has been great to deal with. Yeah, Kia from Honda.


The more I learn about this transmission and the way it functions I would suggest to those of you that have a CVT equipped Fit to use the econ button a bit more sparingly and never on hills for it's counterproductive. The command structure between throttle, engine, and transmission is far more complex when that thing is on, and though it may not have contributed to this mechanical failure, it wouldn't hurt to turn it off for highways and hills. In trying to maintain a 40mpg average I had it on econ most all the time, but in the future I'll only use in town.

 

My experience with honda corporate customer service is also good. I reached out twice regarding my Accord break issues. They did something for me both the times. Even though I am not really that much happy with how my Accord drives (Though very reliable and never got stuck anywhere), I bought Fit based on this experience.

 

Would like to hear more technical detail if you know it… After 10K miles, I've settled into using ECON when there's snow/ice on the ground (the dulled throttle response makes sense then), but mostly off the rest of the time. Doesn't seem to make that big of a difference, and I like the zippier feeling with it off. I can feather the throttle myself to keep the fuel burn down…

es

 

This is excellent news. I figured that if it got to the point of opening the transmission they would replace it instead. I don't think that Honda wants dealer mechanics poking around in there.

I doubt that any combination of control settings would contribute to a transmission failure and an "econ" mode would certainly not encourage any slippage in the drivetrain.

Getting stuck could strain the transmission a bit, but transmissions should be designed to survive this without damage. It's not an event that is beyond the range of normal operation.

 

Best move: let the shop know it's got a history and they should check with Honda to find out about it. They'll get the story straight from Honda, rather than filtered through you from the other dealer and the customer service people.

Most shops that get told "I have no confidence in this car" hear "the idiots that I took it to not only couldn't fix it, but screwed it up worse." Now the shop has to fix a problem that's been clouded by another shop that clearly didn't fix it. My favorite is the customer pay jobs: "I already spent $800 on this problem" means nothing to us. You spent zero here. We not only didn't create any of the problems, but now we have to figure out what the previous shop(s?) screwed up in addition to the original problem. And we know they screwed it up because 1-it's not fixed and 2-you lost confidence in that shop, otherwise you wouldn't be here.

I know the OP wasn't being erratic by going to another dealer for service, you get stuck where you get stuck. But now it's at a shop that wasn't involved. Either the first shop's diag was incomplete or Honda's answer was wrong, but this shop is already going to know that because it's down again. Give them a fair chance to work on it.

In general, mentioning the lemon law is how you get the dealer to push the car out back and notify Corporate. That's between Corporate and the owner, and the dealer doesn't want to get in between the two.

Don't do it out of worry, do it out of common sense. If you're in a situation where you know the transmission is going to want to shift (or slip its belt around), let it do its job. I'd be downshifting in the hills, why would I tell my automatic not to? Hobbling a machine when you know it needs to work makes no sense.

I'm really glad they're putting a new unit. I'll bet Honda can't wait to get the old one apart to find out what actually went wrong. Enjoy getting your car back!

 

For hills it's a lot better out of econ and the paddle shifters are useful at times. On the highway I don't think econ does for fuel economy, I'd have to make the same road trip in both modes to find out. It does make cruise control more seamless though.


It'll take a full day to exchange trannys so if the unit comes within a day or two I should get it back towards the end of the week. Meanwhile I'm rather enjoying the turbo Jetta rental that's tiding me over. Huge low end torque and the multi link rear suspension gives superior ride and handling to other stuff out there in the compact class. With VW however, you pay extra for a lot of things that are standard in a Honda, model for model.

 

Mostly repairs!