Ah crud. My 08 has just started with this problem. Last thing I did was an oil change and I changed the gap to OEM plug gap (I have changed to some platinums a while back). Tonight I'll set them to .044 and put some dielectric grease on then hope for the best.

 

I've had a problem with intermittant misfiring at constant revs, from 1500 through 2000. Started around 50,000 miles.
high octane fuel helped a bit.
I saw later on in th thread that someone had suggested using an electrical grease on the coil connections, so I had a go.
I have took off the plastic engine cover and the unbolted the coils that sit above the spark plugs.
I pulled the tube part off the top block.
The contacts at the top were very corroded, some even pulled out the spring that runs through the middle.
I used a wire brush (probably not the best thing), stuck the bristles down the top connection and spun it around to remove the corrosion. A small pipe brush might do better.
It seems to have fixed the stutter/judder/misfire and the fuel consumption is now over 50 mpg rather than the 43 mpg it was running at.
You have to do all 8 sparks, but worth the time if it works. Will keep you posted.

 

Pulling the coil pack from the tube and cleaning the connection sorted it for me.

 

Hey all,

the 07 gd3 is still running after 220k. Hopefully I can get a nice photo at 222222 (should be another couple weeks). Had the valve clearances adjusted a month ago, and now the coil pack problem is back. So considering I changed them last at 113k miles I guess you can deduce that a set of coils will last about 100k before they start to seriously screw with your head. Waiting for a new set from bernardiparts.com, these are the new hitachi packs so I hope I wont have to do it again.

 

OK Folks, Thanks for all posting and finally saved lots of us $$$ on this Coil Packs flaw. But, I am seriously consider this as a flaw design on Coil Packs Positioning, Should Honda be responsible for this and get a recall on it ???

 

Why is it a design flaw if coil packs and spark plugs last only 50k miles on average? Thats all they have to last per the feds.
Yes, we old farts pee on coil paks for costing so much to replace; in the old days $15 would buy new points and 4 spark plugs and even nubes could set and install them. Electronic distributors cost a lot more than distributors because of the electronics needed to meet emissions required. Spark plugs now are a good bit more costly thanks to Platinum and other exotics but frankly I have a hard time as an engineer justifying coil paks. Yes, I knows they cost manufacturers less but the harassment to buyers just doesn't make the quality standards today.

In short, they're not a design flaw but merely the result of cost squeezes in a highly compedtitive market.
In truth Honda has driopped back much in their product development. If the Fit has used the 1800 cc HX engine theres little doubtg the Fit would test 32 and 42 on EPA tests. TYhedn there's the CRZ debacle. If sochuiro were still there you can bet for Fit that it would have at least 1809 hp and hydrid motor of 12 hp which would still show 30 and 40 mpg at EPA. A junior Porsche hybrid for the masses. Right now Hyundai has surpassed Honda as manufacturers of leading edge automotive vehicles. Well that's my rant today. Lerts go to the track. cheers.

 

I don't have the problem yet but my 08 Fit has ~55K miles. I'll pull the coil packs this weekend to see how bad the crud is and give them a clean. If a little elbow grease and a little dielectric grease will clear this up, why wait until I have a problem.

 

If it ain't broke don't fix it. When coil packs fail its overwhelmingly an electronic failure not crud. If it starts then clean the contacts. but not until it does.

 

When they did away with points, condensers rotors and the need for dwell meters and timing lights they moved the gas caps from under the rear licence plate and people had to pump their own fuel... My knees are ruined from squatting down to check tires and put $1.50 worth (5 gallons) of regular in people's cars... When they came out with catalytic converters I had to start wearing synthetic shirts and trousers because the sulphur dioxide fumes in the exhaust would rot out cotton clothing... The flat rate for repair work in those days was $10 an hour and people thought that was robbery...

 

NO! I'm doing it. Its a design flaw and I am doing this as preventative maintenance.

You are welcome to wait until the coil packs fail to do anything about it.

 

Took about 20 minutes to get the packs and plugs out and back in. In addition to regapping the plugs which I wanted to do anyway, I inspected the contacts inside the pack and gave each a little zotz of contact cleaner. I saw a little oxidation on the springs inside the tube on the pack but nothing I had reason to be concerned about in terms of imminent failure.

I reinstalled the gapped plugs with a little anti-seize. I noticed there's some white grease around the boot and on the body of the plug which I assume is to help the boot stay sealed around the plug.

All that was on an 08 Fit with 55k miles and no sign of coil pack failure (yet).

 

Indead, it is the coil packs !
What I did toally fixed my stutter issue.

I didn't replace anything, either coil packs, or spark plugs need to be replaced. All I did was to buy a $4.95 Permatex 67 VR dielectric grease. Applied a thin layer with Q-tip within the inside of red rubber portions. with a little bit extra remained around rubber rims so that when you insert back coil pack to position, those extra grease would be automatically applied to ceramic portion of spark plugs, which helps insulation of moisture and eletric pulse.

Easy DIY job, the only trick is to get on the 4th coil pack due to the position, it is hard to operate, but you can still do it just takes more time.

For your refrences, here are 2 links that helped me a lot :

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/fit-...oil-packs.html

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/fit-...?ref=ccm-int-2




cheers

 

Pulling out spark plugs to check their condition is a habit of mine I acquired when riding 2 stroke motorcycles 45 years ago.. I have a little over 50000 miles on my car and have had the plugs out about 4 times and have replaced them twice... I have the coils out now to cover them with DEI Reflect-A-GOLD.. I'm thinking that since the new Weapon R race header can't be wrapped like my old header applying the Reflect-A-GOLD might keep the coils from being cooked when on boost or when idling while waiting for a signal light to change.. Honda says not to use anti seize compound on spark plugs because when they are tightened down to spec torque they will be to tight and strip the threads out of the head.. I use the stuff but after I get the plugs finger tight a quarter turn with a ratchet wrench has worked well for me on aluminum and iron heads. A pipe cleaner and electric contact cleaner for cleaning the pots on guitars and amps is what I use to clean the contacts..

 

Same here. ~58k mile '08. I used a wire brush and gave everyting a good scrub. I did not apply anything other than copper anti-seize to the plug threads.

I hope the intermittent rough idle (~500rpm) is cured. :fingers crossed:

 

OK guys, Previously I said by applying dielectric grease on coil pack fixed my problem is not totally right. The stutter came back after a few days. But I found another thread that people recommended to re-gap spark plug to 0.035, which was shortened from factory recommendation. So I did that, now it fixed all stutter and rough idles right away. I tested a few weeks so far so good.

So I have concluded that it is the weakened coil pack caused the problems, by shortening gap to compensate the weak coil, since a shortened gap needs a lower voltage to spark. Which makes sense.

But, I think it might be better to replace coil pack then reset spark plug gap to factory specs for best performance . There are too solutions here, either replace whole coil pack, or maybe just the coil pack boots ??? Anyone have done this before or any suggestions ? As it is way cheap to just replace coil boots.

See boots of Beck/Arnley 175-1058 Coil On Plug Boot

image below so you get an idea what I am talking about :

Any inputs welcome:

 

Replacing both coil pack and plugs is the way to go if your Fit has more than 40k miles on them. Just think of it as normal maintenance equivalent of new plugs and regapping the distributor.

 

Thanks for reply, but you didn't answer my question: When coil pack gets bad, is it most likely just the coil boot portion needs to be replaced ?

Also, you mentioned "regapping distributor", what do you mean ? As far as I know about Honda fit since 2007 version, it uses Coil-on-plug tech, so there is no distributor as you mentioned, please confirm !!!!!!!

 

Yes, the intention was comparing the replacement of coil pak and plugs with in the old days changing spark plugs and re-gapping the distributor. Instead of $15 its now $150.
As for the boot over the plug it has nothing to do with coil pak failure and need not be replaced unless its damaged. The reason for the grease is to provide a better seal that prevents stray current leakage. And yes that can assist deterioraing coil pak performance..

 

My 07 fit Sport first started with jerks / hesitation under constant speed / accelerations above 50 mph. More recently it started stalling in stop and go traffic and while shifting to reverse. Somewhere between the two I started noticing the engine rpm dropping to 500 and staying there at idle. No codes during this period.

Finally it has started throwing the P300, P301, P302 and P303 codes with the CEL lights on. Lately it has shifted to the Flashing CEL and I have stopped using the car altogether. This can consistently be simulated within half a mile of driving.

Reading the forums for similar symptoms I narrowed on the plugs / coils and or the valve clearance.

I pulled all the plugs out and had someone crank the starter while I checked to see if there was any obvious in the sparks. It looked fine to me. Then again the car never had a problem starting up. I wonder if the coils are turning erratic at higher rpms? I moved the coils one over to the right with the last one move to the first on the left and the codes are now P300, P301, P302 and P304. Will check to see if it is consistently throwing P304 instead of P303 now. Is it possible that 3 of the coils are bad?

I have checked the vacuum lines to see if there were any leaks.

I notice that the air filter looks like it was dipped in oil. Will try replacing it in case that is choking the air flow.
I have tried the fuel additive as well as seafoam sucked in through the brake vacuum line.


Any other advise?

The car will be 6 years old in September with around 56K miles on it. I believe warranty stops at 5 years and 60K. The catalytic converter was replaced under warranty with out any explanation about what caused it to fail.


It is amazing to reading about many dealers inability to diagnose and fix in a timely fashion.

 

Have you replaced all spark plugs ? I would say first do this as it's cheap, and most like it will work