Anyone had their catalytic converter replaced in response to the stutter? I'm on my 4th visit to the dealership. None of the previous trips helped at all. Now they say the catalytic converter is bad. I mentioned the coils but he said they're fine. If this doesn't work I'm going to insist he change them anyway.

Wish me luck!

 

what are your symptoms and what have been done?

 

In March I had the intermittent stutter when idling or at constant highway speeds. It was troubling but not consistent. Took it to the dealer, and they changed the spark plugs and cleaned the fuel line and sent me home. The car stuttered on the way home, so I took it back. They kept it for 3 days and put a few hundred miles on the car. Said they couldn't get it to mess up and it wasn't throwing codes so they sent me home. Of course I had no trouble getting it to act up so I took it back for the third time. They kept the car for 5 days called the Honda tech line and decided to change the air filter. Suggested I switch gas stations (which of course I had tried before I ever took it in).Two days later it stuttered again, and again and again. I put up with it for a few months till it stalled on me - twice. This problem was making me hate the car I love so very much, so my husband convinced me to try taking it to a different Honda service station. So I did, along with a very thick envelope with the service statements from the other dealership and highlights from this thread suggesting the coils might be the culprit.

They called me yesterday afternoon and said that they looked at the coils but that it was the catalytic converter that was bad and that can sometimes cause coils to go bad. I don't know about this, but it is covered under my warranty so I approved the work and we'll see what happens when I get the car back.

Hope I don't have to bring it in a 5th time.

 

I have a hard time with believing the converter has anything to do with stutter. Spark plugs, bad gas, coils yes. The problem is with igniting the charge.
OK if the converter is really plugged maybe but you'd have much more of a problem. All the ones here had bad coils though we did see one 'improve' with >045" gap.

Plugs, gap (too wide possibly even at .055'), coils, or bad computer timing but not converter.

 

Two days after replace ALL my coils, so far the stutter is gone.

Previous symptoms were hesitation/stutter during idle (about every 5-10 seconds) also around 55mph on incline highway.

 

I have driven more than 1,000 miles since having the following work done (not sure that all of it was directed at the stutter, but I wanted to list it all, just in case) and no more stutter!

-swapped out the coils
-new catalytic converter
-adjusted two loose intake valves
-bled cooling system
-released air pocket in cooling system

If you live in the Baltimore area, take your fit to Norris Honda. Ed Merriken is awesome, and has dealt with this stutter issue before. Stay away from Anderson Honda, they don't know what is going on.

 

Great news that you got your problem resolved!!

I don't see how the coil packs are connected to the catalytic converter in any way. The converter is downstream of any sensor so the only 'feedback' would be due to a clogged cat. A clogged cat wouldn't cause the car to stutter, maybe lack power or give poor emissions performance.

Anyone have any ideas how this might happen?

 

It was the coil that fixed it.

 

I had the same issue last fall @ 115 k. Took it to the dealer- he replaced the spark plugs which they told me the car did not agree with ?(i had Bosch Iridium in there for 15k w/ no other problems) and one coil pack. The Fit continued to have stutter issues- I ordered 3 more Coil Packs and installed them myself- 10mm socket, a packet of dielectric grease and 15 minutes. The third coil pack from the left was very discolored- pinkish brown- which i feel may have been the bad one. I now have 140 k and have not had a stutter issue since replacing all the coils- $350 if you do it yourself. Hope this helps

 

We have 85,750 kms on our 2007 Fit (AT), and we were also getting the stuttering problem. Thanks to all who have shared their symptoms and troubleshooting - it helped me a lot.

For us, it happened when the RPMs were below 1000 (e.g. at stop lights). It also happened at 100 km/hr (about 60 mph), like some others have mentioned.

I replaced the spark plugs first to see if it would make the problem go away. The factory plugs were NGK Iridiums, gapped at 0.055". The replacements were Bosch Fusions, with the 4 prongs.

Since I had the coil packs out anyways, I decided to test their resistances. I wanted to test across both coils in each pack, but I was only able to get resistances across the middle and left leads. They were:

pack #1 - 1854 ohms
pack #2 - 1764 ohms
pack #3 - 1803 ohms
pack #4 - 1804 ohms

Does anybody know the acceptable resistance ranges for these coil packs, and how to take the resistance across the second coil?

Anyways, with the new spark plugs the stuttering has gone away for the last 2 weeks. For now. I'm worried about coil pack #2 and coil pack #1, though.

If the cylinders for pack #2 or pack #1 have been misfiring, would the computer store that?

Thanks in advance.

 

So the first time they replace coil #1 and everything was good for the past year or so then #2 just went bad the past week and went back and had them replace that. hope the other ones don't go out after my warranty expires...

 

I had similar sypmtoms in my '92 accords, both of them needed the EGR *ports* cleared out. The valves were fine, but there was a serious amount of buildup in the intake/EGR ports. If you google it for the accords, you'll certainly see what I'm talking about.
Point is, my Fit started stuttering a bit today, I'm thinking it may be related. There are 94k miles on the engine, so buildup is almost a certainty. Has anybody with unresolved hesitation pulled their intake to see if the anything was particularly jammed up? I'll probably pull mine apart this weekend and check it out. If I remember, I'll let you know the results.

 

Never got the intake off. Problem stopped after I replaced my ignition coil on cylinder 2. Which went out completely on me about 2 miles from home.

But, when I finally get the intake off, I'll let you know how it looks in my EGR port.

I can see how diagnosing that would be a terrible terrible thing to have to go through without it being completely shot though.

 

I am posting the following to possibly assist anyone else who is experiencing this stutter issue. I found it helpful to read some of the posts in this thread when I first started noticing the problem, so perhaps by adding my experience to this thread, it will help somebody else.

I currently have 98,000 on my '07 Fit AT, and have been dealing with the stutter for the last 8,000 miles or so (we drive our Fit about 800-1000 miles a week lately). I searched the net for threads like this one when it first started happening, and confirmed my suspicion of ignition issues. I tried decreasing the gap and that helped for a couple thousand miles or so, but the problem simply progressed as I expected it would. This week it got to the point that there was excessive vibration in between the stutters while stopped in gear, so I decided to go ahead and buy new plugs and coils. I did all four because I figured it was simply a matter of time before they all went bad, if they weren't all bad already. Twenty minutes and $320 later, the Fit runs like new again. I noticed the new coils have a small vent on the side opposite of the receptacle that the harness plugs into. I am wondering if Honda is aware of the coil issue, and had the vendor redesign the unit to dissapate heat better.

 

The hole could very well be a vent to allow heat to dissipate.... I have wrapped my exhaust header and put louvers on my hood to lower the temperature under the hood mainly too lower the intake air temperature but hopefully it will also extend the life of the ignition coils as well.... I only have 34000 miles on my 2007 model I bought in July of 2006 so I may not have the ominous coil failure problem for a few more years.

 

My fit also started to do it but only at idle! My spark plugs are denso IK22 that are about 30k miles old so i don't think it is a Spark Plug Gap issue as they come at something like .030 - .032... But my valves are due for an adjustement anyway... Don't ask me why, but apparently exhaust valves that are too tight can cause missfires so i may want to check it out before before giving 500$ to Lallier Honda for 4 coils...!!!

What about retrofitting 4 coils from Okada Projects from a S2000 into a GD3 Fit!??

MArko!!

 

Exhaust valves that don't close will cause poor idling. And can burn your valve(s) so do not delay valve adjustment unless you want to replace valve(s). Plugs aren't indestructible; they can drop considerably in performance in 10k, much less 30k miles.
Whoever said the engine designers of the SRT4 Neon might get a chuckle out of BMW.

 

....Dave Coleman at (RIP) Sport Compact Car told it...

Project MINI Cooper S - Project Cars - Sport Compact Car Magazine

Go check under the dyno chart before whinning....

Marko!!

 

I and some at BMW think that's false.

 

...MSD ignition coil listed for a Neon \ SRT, Eclipse, and... mini!!

https://optionsauto.com/prodinfo.asp?number=MSD-8229

... a Neon engine...

http://www.allpar.com/neon/images/neon-sxt-engine.jpg

...a mini engine... (...not so stock...)

http://image.eurotuner.com/f/8404288/eurp_0712_05_z+fireballed_2005_mini_cooper_s+engin e_view_mad_mod_head_garrett_gt3071r_turbo_75_mm_th rottle_body_hks_blow_off_valve.jpg

...a quote from wikipedia...

In 1997, Chrysler Corporation and Rover Group (then a subsidiary of BMW) formed Tritec, a joint venture to design a new small straight-4 engine for small cars. They built a factory in Campo Largo of Curitiba, Brazil to manufacture the engine. When BMW sold Rover Group, BMW retained the stake in Tritec.
It is also called the Pentagon engine. Production began in September 1999.
It is a modern engine with an SOHC 16-valve head, electronic throttle control, and meets Euro III emissions requirements. There are three versions of the engine, 1.4 L, 1.6 L, and supercharged 1.6 L.

....marko!!

...no offence buddy!!