When i drive with lights and AC the car have the same problems

 

I would check the spark plug gaps and inspect and change the coil packs order. If you see a coil pack with burnt damage then that is the one causing the problem. Also find the radio code and remove the battery cable to reset the random access memory. This way the ecu would have to rebuild the fuel and ignition trims and it might solve or throw a code so you can find it.

 

New spark plugs are in. Also ecu reset with the Honda HDS

 

The $20.00 is for what they call the coil boot, which actually is the plug boot. It is NOT the actual electrical coil that sets on top of the boot. HOWEVER, if you only replaced the boot but kept the original coils on, and got a fix, this would be very interesting as it could possibly reveal a voltage leak thru the boot thus the dialectric grease.

 

Seems like all the sites I subscribe to have been hit by ADvertizers.

 

You're not the only one. sam has taken care of the issue and banned the mofo('s).

 

i knw my civic used to do sumthing like that when i owed my 2010 civic sedan but it liek if it was down shifting or sumthing idk jsut saying sorry


but so far i have not notice that with my fit tho i got 2012 sport cvt with 3,400k so far love this lil car its beast and roomy

 

I will start by stating that intermittent electrical failures on a vehicle are one the most difficult problems to pin down, even if you run it up on a dyno and thru the computer. The CEL may or may not exactly pin point the issue and in many cases don’t.
Here’s my experience with the “stuttering” problem. At 117K miles my car started stuttering immediately after filling up at my regular gas station. I immediately went to the parts house and purchased a Lucas gas additive. I ran about 100 miles but with no improvement. Then, after reading all the blogs on this site, I saw that the majority of solutions seemed to be coil(s) replacement. From that, I purchased a new coil from the dealer.
I started by changing out the #1 coil, then ran the car but got no improvement. Then, I changed coils #2 and then #3 with the same new coil I had purchased, still no improvement. Before I changed out the #4 coil, I pulled the 1st three original coils and carefully removed both seals in all of them. I applied a very thin coating of dielectric grease inside the top seal housing, on the entire outer post and on the 1st inside 1/4 “ of the end that goes on the plug but NOT on the metal cap that fits over the top of the plug. Then, I put the new coil into #4 and went out for a test drive, under load. The car ran perfectly! So, to prove coil #4 was defective, I put the old #4 coil back in and took the car out again. Surprisingly, the car ran perfectly now even with all the original coils back in the car. I even ran it up near the red line in the lower gears on the road and it ran flawlessly. So, either the original coils(s) defect has corrected or it has intermittent failure which may reveal itself again or by applying the dielectric grease to #1 - #3, I have fixed the defect which was in one of coils #1- #3. My guess is the dielectric grease fixed the problem. Why? Because when spark increases it seeks the path of least resistance. If the original dielectric grease n the spark post (if any) has degraded, the spark will bypass and ground out to the block, usually intermittent or under load. This was so true of the high performance cars of the 70’s and early 80’s. So, I would recommend before investing in new coils, at least try the dielectric grease on the old coils, run them up and see what happens. Permatex 67 VR dielectric grease is just one of many.
Back to the new coil…. I noticed a difference in the physical characteristics of the new one. It has what appears to be a small vent hole in the housing which protrudes out slightly. Looking at the brand name they are the same, Hitachi. The 1st set of numbers are the same, CM11-110. However, the 2nd row of numbers are entirely different, 6802C on the old coil, 11823F on the new coil. I am going to try and find out what these mean. If Hitachi has put an engineering change into the new coil when they knew the original one was defective, this is a problem they should have revealed.
These original coil misfirings can cause serious injury, even death, to drivers who are depending on them to move the car forward, especially in critical instances, i.e. passing on a two lane road into on-coming traffic.
I will keep you updated on what my findings are as they occur.
Finally, if you need help finding/pulling out the coils, PM and leave me your name and phone #. I’ll RSVP.

 

So my Fit's been a champ (2007, at 118,000mi a few months shy of 5 years since purchase) until about 4 months ago, with a more severe issue cropping up in the last two weeks. It's a 2007 Sport with the auto tranny.

Starting in late November 2011, I began getting an intermittent statys-solid CEL. On multiple reads at an AutoZone near my old job, I always got an O2 Sensor error, with recommendation there could be a leak in the fuel lines, a failing catalytic converter, or a problem with the injectors & fuel mix in the cylinders.

Weirdly, the CEL would only come on between 1/3 and 2/3 of a tank as I ran through a tank of gas (I was a relatively heavy commuter putting 65-70mi on the car 5+ days/week, on a mix of about 60/40 highway/city conditions). It would remain on until I filled the tank +5-10mi more driving, and then shut off. I'd been getting my gas at the cheapest place directly along my route (a Hess station), and eventually someone at the AutoZone brought up it could be bad gas giving me free water and all the associated ills, and opined that Hess was "known" for having water in their gas. I started avoiding that Hess and getting gas wherever I could, so I would get a mix of qualities instead of a single bad one. Since the CEL wasn't staying on, I figured I'd ride out to my next regular service and ask for it to be looked at then. Well, it was off the next time I took it in for an oil change.

Jump forward. Starting Thu Mar 15, I started getting exactly the kind of stuttering described throughout this thread. Initially it was "skips" that I felt were misfires since it seemed like the engine had no power for the time of a small number of cylinder cycles, while between 2000 and 2500rpm and at highway speeds (especially near 55-60mph). But there was no CEL! The next day, while pulling out of the driveway, I got the steady-blinking CEL described here briefly, and picked up a bottle of dry-gas to clear out anything that might have accumulated in my tank (I had had one incident where I ran dry of gas and ended up severely fouling my fuel filter about a year prior). Afterwards, the stuttering seemed resolved, and the weather had turned warmer, but later that evening I ran into the same problem again, but now it was happening at idle, as well.
I used the car for about 10mi of driving on Saturday, without the stutters, left it alone Sunday, and on Monday, brought it in - only to have the CEL light up on my way, as well as having the engine stall out completely while sitting idle on the way to the nearest service station (not a dealer, since I'm WAY out of warranty). They couldn't find anything wrong outside of the CEL, which was throwing the same O2-sensor-bad-cat error as before. On discussion, since I was going through a tank of gas every few days, they didn't think it could be water in the gas as it would have been flushed through many times over. They said they couldn't be sure what was wrong and didn't know if they could get the OEM cat to do that replacement; they also said my plugs looked a little worn but not in need of replacement. I said that sounded right since they'd been replaced back at my 105kmi service in Aug 2011, which I'd done around 101kmi actual-miles, so these had something like 15-20kmi on them. They couldn't figure it out, and wished they had access to more detailed info from the diagnostics, so recommended I take it to the dealer.

The car sat idle another two days after the first service check as I was sick (I'm self-employed now and have a much shorter commute, and often can work from home), then I got it in to the dealer. They checked it over for about 4 hours and called me back: Needed new spark plugs and a new cat converter, $1295 for the latter, $200 for the former. I got kinda mad, but we eventually sorted out that because the diff Hondas need diff things at 105kmi, they don't include the plugs as part of the 105k service itself and just hadn't changed them. I took the car back, chatted with a bunch of gear head friends and decided to try some fuel-system/emissions-cleaner additive to clear up the O2 sensor problem if possible, and that sensor has gone off and stayed off for the duration of a 400mi round trip to MD, so that seems at least temporarily resolved. I also took a look at my plugs myself, and a check with other gear head friends and some pics online all agree I've got some significant wear, consistent with them still being original plugs. The dealer did say that the P0420 code for the O2 sensor was very unlikely to be the actual sensor failing but much more likely the catalytic converter, and that I was getting random-misfire (He quoted a diag code but I don't recall it) events as well, which he attributed to the plugs.

I had some hope, before reading this thread, that getting my plugs actually done would get things sorted out; now, I'm crossing my fingers but expect that (1) I probably have at least one failing coil and (2) I'm going to be keeping an eye on things related to the valve exhaust. The plugs and coils I can manage myself, the valve exhaust is beyond me & I'll have to take it in.

 

OK at 160K on my 2008, it started to stutter, most of the times it happen around 2500 RPMs and always upon acceleration. So had Vales ajusted, didn't solve the stutter. next heet gas gas treatment 5 bottles over a month, didn't solve the stutter. next had all plugs replaced. worked great for 3 weeks no stutter. then 3 days ago the stutter came back 3 time worst then before, I drove it for 3 days until finally a check engine light came on. this was the 1st time a light came on, so off to the Honda shop I go, They said my gas was contaminated, So they emptied my gas tank 250.00 then I got a call that it still had a light on and it was one of the coils that needed to be replaced so I did that. 180.00 Today I started to drive it again. 30 miles no stutter. But I am waiting, I love my Fit but this stuttering has me vowing never to buy another. The miles today at 187K. I hope it is fixed, but if not I will let you al know right away.

 

This is an interesting observation. One thing I noticed about my stutter was that it was really only bad in wet weather, which would indicate a voltage leak. Something else I noticed was that the dielectric grease was gone from the coilpacks I removed and they looked quite dry.

Something I wish I had tried first was replacing the dielectric grease in the boots before replacing all the coilpacks. But I was close to 100k anyway and already had the parts.

 

Been having the subtle stuttering issues at idle, and once in awhile a random backfire. 70k on the ODO. I pulled all my coilpacks and cleaned them out, added some dielectric grease, and it ran smooth for a few days. Today it started up again, and I'm sure it's because I didn't use a whole lot of grease and the heat caused it to evaporate. (I do a lot of freeway driving.)

Found these as the cheapest coilpacks that I can find:

Product Results Ignition Coil & Related Parts | Pep Boys

Going to see about getting one tomorrow and looking for the pack that seems to be the driest or discolored. After reading about the voltage shorting out and grounding to the block in all your posts, I'm wondering if you can just wrap your pack boots in electrician's tape and save some money, hahaha!

 

Or holy crap, go nuts like this guy I just found, OMG!

VWVortex.com - Coilpack fix with YTTRIUM OXIDE coating LOOK!!

 

Sorry to spam, but I just had an idea. The issue seems to be related to heat from the engine breaking down the insulating properties of the "coil-on" coilpacks. I just saw yet another solution for a different car where a guy made his own "rail" gasket out of non conductive nylon that ended up going between the engine and the packs, with holes drilled matching the engine block mounting holes for the packs. Why stop there?

Do you think you could disassemble your packs, buy a set of spark plug wires, and have your packs mounted completely away from the engine block on a little custom rail? Or would they cause too much resistance?

**EDIT**

I've found "Coil Pack Relocation Kits" but most of them seem to be made for muscle cars. I think you could probably build a DIY box from parts at Frys and rig something up.

 

I pulled my coilpacks again to see exactly how I could hook a spark plug wire to it, if at all. I pulled off the entire boot assembly and saw more dried up, fine, white powder corrosion type material. I also noticed that the exhaust manifold is directly underneath the row of coil packs. The intake manifold and throttle body was pretty hot as well. Not good for electronics.

Anyway, here are some pictures. It looks like inbetween they have some sort of a resistor or fuse. I couldn't see any markings on it, but basically it's a series of electrical "connections" just butted up against one another from the pack to the spring to the "resistor" to yet another spring to the spark plug. No wonder these pieces of crap fail all the time.


Just after pulling off the entire boot. You can see the residue inside the nipple, and on the spring in the boot.


Here is a closer look inside the nipple. It's just a little pointed pin for the next spring in the series to rest on.


Here is the spring and "resistor" pulled out of the boot. I assume it's a resistor because having read up on this stuff for the last few days, I've heard they use them so you don't fry your spark plugs too fast. Anyone know more about this?


Finally, a look inside the boot where the "resistor" sticks inside a little fuse type jack that connects to the final spring that goes out of the red side onto the spark plug.

I cleaned all the contact points I could get access to, and I don't see a way to dismantle any more of the coil pack. I loaded it up with dielectric grease and put it all back together. I'm not sure if the nipples where the boots connect would easily allow a spark plug wire to go on instead, but once I got rid of the stupid stock wire loom that houses all the clips going to the coil packs, splicing the wiring to extend it and place a row of coil packs somewhere else wouldn't be too difficult. If you remove the boots and use spark plug wires, you'd lose the "resistors" and I'm not sure how bad it would be, or if it would allow you to give your plugs a larger gap? Does someone with more knowledge have any ideas?

Thanks for looking!

 

Nice bit of detective work!


Perhaps the resistors control ignition noise, just as resistor type spark plug wires do...

 

You mean filter extraneous electrical current, to help prevent pre-detonation and pinging? That kind of noise? I wonder what happens if you remove them?

 

With the 10.4:1 compression ratio these little things have you might end up with upper cylinder damage from too much ignition advance... The sensor causes the ignition timing to be constantly adjusting with advance getting above 40 degrees when under a light load and instantly pulling back to as far 0 degrees when the accelerator pedal is pushed.

 

No...

I was thinking RF interference (that would make a BUZZ in the radio speakers, and possibly affect the car's computer sensor signals)

I was just guessing...these days, the resistors are often incorporated into the spark plugs.

 

Ok fellas, I finally got some good info on the little doohickeys. Turns out they are in fact resistors. It seems if you wanted to ditch that trainwreck of a failing coil pack boot you could go to resistor spark plugs, or resistor spark plug wires.

The guy explains the resistors here:
Randakk's Cycle Shakk - Honda GL1000 Specialist: GL1000 GL1100 Tech Tip#10

And on another page you see a dismantled coil.
Randakk's Cycle Shakk - Honda GL1000 Specialist: GL1000 GL1100 Tech Tip#27

I cringe at how many people have paid for valve jobs, multiple diagnostics, new spark plugs, and ultimately new coil packs with intermittent heat-related failure, when all they had to do was clean the resistors and contact points in the boot...