I JUST bought a 2010 Fit. 5 speed manual. Got it Monday. Tuesday I took it back due to tire noise on the front drivers side. We test drive an automatic transmission for comparison and no noise. They keep it over night and then tell me its normal. I wish I was kidding but they told me to play the radio.

Question: Is there really more road noise on the manual transmission than the automatic or am I being feed a line?

Thank you in advance.

 

My A/T is fairly noisy. Just the usual road noise from a small car. I'm thinking of having the undercoating done and later to insulate the foot wells. They might be right about it being normal.

 

Thanks for the reply but again, we took an A/T on the exact stretch of road and no noise from there. I also paid extra for "Sound proofing" ($200).

Unless some one can definitively say that Honda makes the manual inferior to the A/T, I think I'm being lied to.

 

What about rotating the tires? And seeing if its just one tire or that side of the suspension?

 

What sound proofing did they do?

The manual transmission should be as quiet as the A/T.

 

sounds like they're lying to you.. telling you to turn up the radio isn't going to fix the problem, that's BS.

can you explain the noise? if its a metallic rotational sound then you've got a bad wheel bearing. i had to replace the front passenger's side because [apparently] the GD's have poorly packed bearings. when i researched the problem it turned out to be a pretty common thing, there were quite a few other GD owners who had the same problem. a good way to check is to turn off your radio, put the windows down, drive up to 40+mph, put it in neutral, and listen for the noise.

 

There are a couple possible differences - but none of them would have an effect on a specific corner.

First, the gearing is tighter on the MT - so at a given speed rpms will be slightly higher. That doesn't mean it's any louder, but it's a different engine pitch.

Second, what are the wheel/tire packages in question? The 175/65-15 tires may have a different volume level than the 185/55-16's. HFP rims with their even larger tires will sound a lot different.

 

The sound itself is like:
RrrrrRrrrrRrrrrRrrrrr

Kind of like a low growl. If you never heard it, you can really hear it at 40 mph. Once you have identified the sound, you can hear it at 20 mph. The sound starts as a low slow growl and picks up in pitch and speed as you go faster. I would say that it could be tire noise or bearing.

This dealership also told me something else that makes me think that they are lying. It took them weeks to get the manual transmission because no one has them. They don't sell them so they don't get them. On the very day that I happen to leave it with them, "a young woman with the exact car comes in for an oil change". This woman whom I have no way to know or see, "agrees to ride with the service manager in my car and agrees to let the service manager ride in her car". This woman agrees that this noise is normal. The service manager then tells me "hers was actually louder". This allows the sales man to say "hers would be louder because he (meaning me) has sound proofing".

Me thinks I've been had.

Who can I complain to if the salesman and service manager are no willing to help?

 

I would get a credible second opinion.

 

i would go to a different Honda dealership, the one you've been taking your Fit to is clearly full of shit. i would get a second opinion. if another Honda dealership says there's a problem and fixes it under warranty i would file a formal complaint to Honda of North America against the other dealership that was clearly no help at all.

also, maybe it's just me but the $200 sound proofing sounds bogus. can they tell you what kind of sound deadening product they used?

 

What you can do is to switch that front driver side tire/wheel to the left rear(kind of like early tire rotation) then drive your fit and see if the noise is transferred to the rear. If it did, you may have a bad tire and of course it's under warranty and the dealer should replace it with a new tire.

 

A bearing on my 350z made that RRRrrrrRrrrrRrrr sound before, I got it replaced under warranty. I'd suggest you look into that!

 

Another option is to shift the car into netrual after reaching a speed of 50mph or so. Be sure to release the clutch fully. If the noise continues then its probably a tire or bearing...not related to having a MT. Be sure to do this with no traffic.

And Yea, you probalby got a $200 undercoating job, with very little results..another dealer ripoff.

 

You don't think it could possibly have anything to do with those body plug things that are installed under the car? It was discussed a while back- there's four of them and some people like me are missing all of them. Maybe you're missing one on that side? Long shot, but maybe???

Dan

 

It might actually be the "sound proofing" that is the problem. Could be that they inadvertently got some of the material onto a rotating part that is now rubbing. May be why they didn't want to fix it since it would not be covered under manufacturers warranty and they would probably have to eat the cost to fix it.

 

That's a classic tire noise sound, but the fit does have a lot of tire noise due to its design (and the good undercoating does not seem to help). I would rotate that tire to the other side and see if the sound follows the tire.

One other thing you can do is ride as a passenger in your car and see if that makes a difference on your perception of where the sound is coming from. When I drive my fit it sounds like the road noise comes from the driver side front, but when I move my body to the middle to right side it changes. The body plugs mentioned may also be a factor! Look up the PDI checklist on your fit and feel under there and see if the plugs are missing.

 

To be clear as to my root question:

Why would the manual transmission make a gear/tire noise that the AT does not?

It seems like I'm being told that Honda makes an inferior manual transmission.

 

You and I both test-drove automatics and bought manuals. At any given highway speed, the engine in the automatic is turning slower than the engine in the manual. That's just the way it is.

I do not, nor have I ever had, the sort of noise you describe. The Fit is a noisy little critter, but the noises are engine hum, tire noise, and the relative wind. If you are hearing something else, there's probably something wrong. You paid for a warranty when you bought the car. Go talk to the service manager and keep after him/her until they hear what you hear. Honda wants you to be happy. Let them make you happy.

Why should you have to bother with rotating brand new tires or mess around with this problem? That's why you bought a new car in the first place—so you wouldn't have to do that.

Cheers.

 

Yeah. Thanks. That's pretty much how I'm gonna have to go. I understand engine noise, this isn't that. I understand road noise, this isn't that. I just finished a 1600 mile road trip with it as the driver and passenger. The noise stays in the same place. I'm inclined to think that is more like a gear sound (not grinding just slapping maybe?)

I'll probably change the left front with the right rear tomorrow to try that.

I have a problem with the service manager at my local dealer. He lied to my face. When we test drove, I pointed out the sound and after some listening, he flat said that he didn't hear it. I didn't protest or raise a fuss. After some long silence between us, he later volunteered that he did hear it but then added that it was normal. I don't agree that it's normal.

I'll post updates as I get them.

 

I only skimmed but didn't see an answer. Same exact tires on both?

Dan