Originally Posted by cupboardoflove

I have a Sport slightly below 90K miles. Starting this past weekend, my Fit would begin to stutter while idle. If I am at a stop light or waiting to pull out, my car would stutter for a few seconds before going back to normal. This does not occur when I am accelerating or actually driving.

After reading this thread, I brought it into the local Honda dealership and pointed out that it could be the ignition coils. They blew me off stating that if the check engine light wasn't on, it's not the ignition coils. Two days later after running diagnostics and test driving the car, they found no issues.

What happens on my way home from the dealership? The stutter continues.

Just to point out:

• I've had the battery replaced within the past year.
• All proper maintenance has been done on the car.

If the problem is the ignition coils, what's the easiest way to get them replaced in regards to someone who has never worked on a car before?

Originally Posted by derykisonder

Ignition coils are actually easy to replace, there's just one bolt holding them down actually. If it's your ignition coils, one major way to diagnose it would be with turning on your A/C and see if you get a misfire symptom or not. If you need to warm up the car and when you stop at a stop light/sign the car stalls then it's your valves actually.

Originally Posted by pccustodian

I'm a little late to the party here but I was doing some searching for my current issue and came across this (unrelated.) when I got my 07 fit used a few years back with 61,000 miles on it I had this same issue. When I took it for a test drive when I was stopped I felt the stutter I just chalked it up to the AC. A couple weeks later after I had purchased it the stutter got worse and the engine light was coming on. Took it back to the dealer I got it from and they told me to take it to Honda. Honda adjusted the valves and said the problem was still there. Replaced the coil packs and that fixed it. They were nice enough to throw those in for free even though I was the 2nd owner and it was 1000 miles outside the warranty and the dealer I got the car from reimbursed me for Hondas charge for adjusting the valves.

Originally Posted by cupboardoflove

I am glad to hear you got your issue fixed.

I just need to figure out where to take mine to get my problem solved since my local dealership doesn't want to help me.

Originally Posted by ikutoisahobo

You're from Vegas too? One of the few FF'ers from Vegas on this forum.

Which dealership do you go to, Honda West or Findlay? I've found Honda West better than Findlay.

Originally Posted by Xcentrick

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.

Originally Posted by bwb

I have a 2007 Honda Fit. Up until now it's been maintenance free, but I just recently moved to Michigan (from California) and it is the coldest the Fit has seen. Starting around Thanksgiving I noticed the idle being a little funny- when at a stop light every few seconds I would feel a "bump" on the break pedal. I believe this was the engine kicking in harder, although it didn't register as having higher RPMs on the tachometer.

This continued about the same, where it would happen every few seconds at a light. A couple weeks later I was driving on the highway (which, living close to school, I don't do often) and the throttle seemed odd as well. At constant speeds the engine would kick in a little harder and then stop. While doing around 70 mph per hour, the check engine light started blinking. I slowed down and it went off.

The next day I took it to the dealer. They couldn't confirm any problems, but thought there might be water in the gas tank (condensed from the rapid temperature drop during one of the snow storms here). However, they sampled the fuel and didn't find any water. I should probably mention I also went through two gas tanks between when the problem started happening, and when I took it to the dealer.

The dealer also tested the ethanol content in the fuel, to see if it was a bad batch. However, that looked fine as well. They checked the engine ignition coils and also couldn't find anything wrong. The mechanic did note the engine hesitating, but couldn't find the cause. They also noted that there were misfires into two cylinders, but they couldn't reproduce it. They still believed it could be water in the fuel tank, and said fill up and add some HEET.

I left the dealer and promptly filled up the tank. On the way to the gas station, the engine was running very bad - very rough idle while at lights. The gas tank had around a gallon or two at this time. This was at nighttime and around 10 F out. After filling up and adding the HEET, the engine performance did not improve that night. In fact, on the way home, the engine completely stalled while stopped at a light. None of the temperature lights were on, and the engine should have been warmed up sufficiently.

The next morning the engine seemed to be almost completely better, although I only drived it a couple miles to school and back.. but very little roughness in the idle. Over the past few days it's been mostly the same, although I've noticed a little bit of the brake peddle "bumping" while at a light.

Tonight I took it out a little farther down to Target. Initially it seemed ok, but then became worse, with lots of stuttering while at a light. This seems to be worse whenever the air conditioner is on (e.g. when the defrosters/defoggers are on as well), and possible a little worse when I don't have the climate control set to warm air. When I rolled down the window I could hear the engine "clicking" in and out every couple seconds.

Any ideas what this should be, and recommendations if I should take it to a dealer or independent shop?

I've searched this forum a bit and found references to replacing the coils (even if they don't show as bad), getting valves checked, etc... but those seem fairly costly with no guarantees.

Keep in mind that:

• Rough idles, especially when the engine is warm
• Has completely stalled out at intersection
• Idle is worse with air conditioner on
• Doesn't seem to have rough idle problems when fast idle is on. (e.g. when it's been sitting overnight)
• Misfires were recorded at highway speeds once, but mechanic was unable to reproduce it
• Engine has inconsistant power sometimes at highway speeds
• Gas tank has been filled a couple times now, and water remover added, with no improvement
• Fuel in tank sampled for water and no water found

This car has about 70,000 miles on it. Thanks for reading.

Originally Posted by edwardo33

Nice idea...but probably a lot more would be needed and not a simple bolt in. TCM, wiring, logic, possibly frame parts, mounts and linkages would most likely need to be changed/upgraded.