Is your car out of warranty? My warranty covered all the cost. good luck.

 

For me this is getting expensive. So far under extended warranty I have had coil pack 1 & 2 replaced. I have until 75k and the other one(s) are again acting up... or may be the replaced packs have gone bad. I have heard a rumour that Honda Corporate knows about the problem but is unable or unwilling to tackle the problem. I have 70+k miles and am considering getting rid of the car if it gets any worse... after all the coil packs are over $100 ea. If they are proven to be unreliable if replaced then...
If people knew about this problem on the '06 thru '08 Fit when they bought a used car they wouldn't buy it. Just like anyone looking out to buy a Prius with 85+k on it... who would??
With my scanner: not one code!

 

No codes ever came up. I did take the car to Honda while is was under warranty and explained the issue but they ignored it. The car is way passed the warranty now (nearing 100K)

I bought all 4 for $300. It seems that the stutter is gone. I hope its for good. I'm interested to see if the gas mileage gets better too because its seemed to get worse over time.

 

I can see that I need to stash some money back for the inevitable coil failure....

 

Does anyone know of the cheapest place to get the ignition coils from that ships to Australia?
I've got a 2002 GLi, it has 8 spark plugs, does this mean that I need 8 ignition coils? Or just 4?

 

8 plugs require 8 coils

 

In my case it was the EGR valve that caused the stuttering by the way.

I put a metal plate in between the valve and the manifold and the stuttering went away. Now I am gonna clean it and have a go again.

 

try Amazon, Autozone, or Advance Auto, NAPA, or Reilley's. They may have an Australian supplier otherwise any savings will b killed by shipping.

 

I just want to report on what happened with my 2007 Fit Sport in case it helps or gives someones else an idea on fixing this.

Bought the car in 2006 summer, so Ive been driving it for about 4 years, only have around 70K km on it.

Couple months ago May 2010, when started to use A/C more, I started noticing the stuttering when idling at red light. One time, the CEL came on and the "D" gear light started to flash. Took it in to Markham Honda where I bought the car (in Ontario Canada). They checked the error code but the advisor said they found nothing wrong, and suggested may be gas cap was loose (not possible since i always do 3 clicks or more, and its already down to < half tank so the light would have shown earlier in that case). Further more, they suggested transmission oil was dirty which might be problem, so I agreed to change it. Around CAD$100 was charged for diagnostics.

Started to follow this thread. Had some time off from work, so I had an idea to change the spark plugs, got some Bosch platinum +4 once (ones with 4 electrodes at the tip). The hiccup at idling was completely gone, but then it started to do that at highway speed when cruising. Got annoying so changed back to original Denso ones after re-gapping to a narrow gap as someone reported good results in this forum. Then, it got really worse and hiccup happens very often even without A/C.

Took in to Markham Honda. Reported a EGR valve failure, replaced for like CAD$400 (parts+labour). Took car back, same as before. Talked to advisor who was apologetic. Left car with them for 2 days and got courtesy car. He said he would get the best senior mechanic they had on it.

Called me on second day, said that it really was the EGR system having an issue, but they found a lot of carbon deposits all throughout the EGR system hoses, and had to take them all out to thoroughly clean, which he said took them a long time to do. Was not charged a cent for that or the courtesy car.

Now i've had the car back for about a week and not had the problem once. Also gas mileage seems to have improved a bit from before.

Did i need to replace the EGR valve? may be not.... I guess I am lucky that they finally got someone who knew what they were doing to take a look, and I am happy with the end results now. I am just curious why so many 1st gen Fits have this, is there an inherent design flaw with the EGR system or coil packs (which was not my problem, they said they inspected all my coilpacks and they were fine)? Btw, they suggested the cause of the carbon deposits may have been bad gas in the fuel system at one point, which may be possible when I went out of town and gassed up at small town gas stations a couple times....

 

I noticed the same issue... stop at a light and the hesitation once or twice. Only think I change was the spark plugs to NGK iridiums from the stock DENSO

 

Do any of you guys that have this problem use premium fuel????

 

Yup have the same problem you do. I just bought my fit a month ago. And I do a lot of freeway driving. I was concerned when it happened as well. It feels like it hesitate right before a shift really odd. And also happens when I'm coming down a hill. It will shift into a lower gear but hesitates right before. Other then that the car is fine.

I 've never experienced this in my other Honda before (98 Honda Prelude). I can't explain it either. Dealer looked at it and could not find any problems??? Unsure of what to do as well.

Thanks

 

I used to regularly gas up with premium (91 octane fuel). And usually at Petro-Canada which has "Tactrol" additive claimed to clean fuel line deposits. Not long ago I read an explanation on octane, and on "myth of high octane gas" (google should return lots of hits), and I bought the explanation that higher octane absolutely does nothing for your car if its not designed for it... so started going back to regular (87) always. then the problem showed up... appears a lot of ppl start to experience this around the 70K km or 45K miles interval.

If someone can post a DIY on cleaning all the EGR related components, it may fix the issue for some...

 

This may be construed as being off topic, but what ever.... My owners manual says that 87 octane fuel is the lowest you should use.... That doesn't sound like they are recommending that it is the octane level fuel to use to me... I can see how if you take a lot of short drives in the colder climate you reside in there would be a tendency for there to be carbon build up..... I am anticipating problems like you have described due to engine modifications.

 

ISSUE FIXED

I bought some NGK V-POWER (they dont have it in stock for the FIT, so I got the 1998 civic ex..they should be the same plug but diff gap). $2/plug.

UPDATE: Get the ZFR6F-11vs ZFR5F-11 the 6 = colder plug

I gapped it to about .50 (factory recommends .55 i think). I think the cause of the hesitation at stop lights (idle) was the huge gap of the plug (harder to spark...to save gas?).

Well not only does it solve the hestiation/stutter but the AUTO SHIFTING is WAY smoother.

Before 1st -> 2nd gear was always rough when I was light on the pedal, as if there was a lack of power, creating hard shifting.

I do notice with AC on the RPM is slightly high than before.

Some background info.
Before these plugs, I was using new NGK factory iridium plugs with .55 pre-gapped for last two weeks

 

subscribed for interest. my fit is 2 years old (almost three) and i only have 12,000 miles on it. it's been in storage for about a year. if i may have this problem, i can always look back at this thread. thank guys.

 

Of course, its not tough but does involve skill in knowing just how much 'slip' is involved in the shim when the gap is correct. It takes a bit of practice to judge the difference between too tight and too loose.

As far miles between checking valve gap were your other cars typical Detroit with self-adjusting hydraulic valves or other hondas?. Unlike Suzuki, Honda has never liked hydraulic vales. Suzuki valves on the other hand are good to 12,000 rpm without adjusting. Neat little hydraulic buckets,
Going moe than 30,000 miles without checking valve clearances is a truifle risky on mechanical valvesetups.

 

Someone mentioned reducing valve clearance to drop the stuttering. Tried reducing clearance to 045 to 050 and indeed found the stutterng quit. Perhaps the coil packs don't generate the voltage expected so the spark is weak.
Certainly is a cheap solution and mpg not changed enough to notice a difference.

 

Changing valve clearance won't cure a weak spark problem which most of these issues appear to be. Decreasing plug gap will temporarily fix the problem because lower voltage is required to create a spark but the voltage from the coils will continue to degrade. Who knows how long it might last? If you've gotten 70K+ out of the coils as they are, you may get another 20-30K with a small plug gap. Sounds pretty cost effective to me.

Don't be surprised though when the stutter returns.

 

Quite true. thats what we told the customer. However, the coils might be weak to begin with, they're eectronic, remember. and it could forestall his needing new coils for some time. He's on our list so we'll see.