so i was driving about a week ago and for some reason was unable to shift into gear. i pulled over off to the side of the road and once idle, was able to put the car into gear. i thought it was maybe just a fluke.

this morning on my commute into work, i noticed while the clutch pedal was fully pressed, there was a little noise, and when i shifted out of 2nd gear, a small grinding sound. i thought it was weird and figured i would look into it when i got into work. then about 2 blocks from work, sitting idle in 1st gear, the clutch slipped and the pedal was on the floor, and could not put it into gear.

any idea what could have caused this? 103k miles, mostly highway. never driven fast, flat city with no hills...

 

Our Fits have hydraulic clutch linkages - like the brakes, there's a master cylinder attached to the clutch pedal, a hydraulic line, and a slave cylinder at the clutch lever. The whole assembly transmits your movement of the clutch pedal to movement of the clutch lever on the bellhousing, which engages or releases the clutch.

Sounds to me like you've lost enough hydraulic fluid that things have stopped working. Check the reservoir for the clutch system under the hood to see if it's empty.

The short-term solution: refill the reservoir with fluid, and bleed out the air in the line. The long-term solution: identify the source of the leak that caused the fluid loss in the first place, and fix that - until you do, you'll need to constantly check & refill the clutch reservoir.

The two most likely sources of leakage are the seals in either the master or slave cylinder, which wear out over time. It should be relatively easy to replace either one. Next most likely culprit: the couplings at each end of the hydraulic line working loose, but these would be really easy to check and tighten if they're loose. Least likely: a failure of the hydraulic line itself.

 

the repair shop i pushed it into this morning was a tire and small repair shop mentioned they thought it could be the synchronizer inside the transmission, but when i called a transmission repair shop he was saying something right along the same lines as this. thank you for your reply! have a great weekend

 

Yep, I've driven enough older cars with hydraulic clutches - mostly old 1960s and 1970s era Volvos - to recognize the symptoms.

Compared to those, getting to the same parts on the Fit is a breeze: it's all reachable from inside the engine compartment. The slave cylinder on the Volvos could only be reached for bleeding by crawling under the car...

 

I suggest taking your car to where I get mine fixed.
Honnaman Automotive
5505 Chantry Drive
Columbus, OH 43232
(614) 575-5150
Dan is the Owner and so far he is the only Honda mechanic that I trust.
I haven't had much luck with Roush Honda and Lindsay seems like they want to upsell services that I don't want.