^^I love it when a plan comes together. Glad to hear it.

 

And you did it the DIY way and saved big bucks.

 

My wife has a '08 Fit (L13A i-DSI) that recently starting bucking and jerking while driving, mostly after the car was warm. After poking around the web (especially on this site) I decided to check the coil packs, so after disconnecting/driving/reconnecting them in sequence it became very clear that the aft #2 coil pack was acting up. I drove the car for a week with that coil disconnected and it drove just fine. Bought a (new) replacement coil via E-bay, installed it and all was well. For a week. Yesterday the car stalled in traffic (with my wife driving solo) about 8 times. I test drove it this morning and barely made it back home. I was convinced it was something different this time, because, really, how could it possibly be the coil pack again? Different symptoms altogether. Just for grins though, I disconnected aft #2 and what do you know? Purrs like a kitten again. Don't know if I bought a bad coil or something in the car is killing them. I'm tempted to not bother replacing it this time...

For those of us lucky enough (full sarcasm intended) to have two plugs per cylinder, it's easy to isolate a bad coil pack without having to buy a new one.

I had problems with the EGR valves on my wife's earlier '02 Civic Hybrid and her '05 Jazz (in the UK) so I initially started there. Pulled it, WD-40'd it and reinstalled after soaking overnight and no luck. Then I bypassed it (made a gasket with a beer can that left the rectangular port blocked but the round one open). No joy there either so went after the coil packs.

 

We've seen numerous customers who had to replace coil paks when the engine began misfiring. More than a few who ordered aftermarket replacements had to replace those replacements. The only source we havn't seen failures are those from Honda though they are too damn expensive. The life of coil paks run pretty close to plugs: 40 to 80 thousand miles. Its the first fault that shows on fault code readings. And yes, generally we replace all 4 coils and plugs and get no come-backs.
There are other faults that yield misfiring including spark plugs so we replace those when we replace coils. Those who fail to understand even modern vehicles require maintenance just like changing oil and filters are those who have prolonged problems.. Haven't seen a misfire from a bad EGR - yet.
get a fault reader and see what it says, its the best $50 tool you can buy.
good luck. and ps search this site for the hundreds of posts on your problem.

 

Fits in others than USDM areas DO have misfire problems from EGR problems and a couple of threads are on here about the problems with English version.

 

OK guys,

My 2007 Fit Sport had all the same symptoms. Stuttering bad at stoplights while in drive or in park, worse with AC on. Dead miss once in a while at cruise speed on the freeway.

Put in fuel injector cleaner first. Missing returned soon after.
Put in new plugs, first aftermarket, then Honda recommended. Missing still, getting worse.
Bought one Honda coil pack, changed it from cylinder 1 through 4 until the missing quit. Ok for a while, then missing returned.
I was getting ready to buy 3 more coil packs, then I talked to a Honda mechanic at an airport bar. He told me what to do.

Remove coil packs one at a time. Look for discoloration on the red or blue boots. Wipe each boot off carefully, then apply Permatex DiElectric grease with a q-tip around each boot liberally. DO NOT get any on the inside lip or inside the boot. That would really cause misfiring. Take a small wire brush, and wire brush the coil pack bolt, especially under the bolt head. Then wire brush the brass coil pack sleeve that the bolt goes through. Carefully put the coil packs back in place, making sure they bottom out. Take extra care with number four, as it does not seem to have the same amount of slack in the wiring. Tighten all four bolts. Don't over tighten.
Start it up and Viola! Unless you really do have a bad coil pack, which is rare, sputtering is gone.

I did this on my 2007 Fit, and all done. One year has gone by, over 13 thousand miles, not one miss.

 

^^Thanks, Crash.

Still, I'm a little confused.

1) It seems to me that I have always put dielectric grease on spark plugs before installing either spark plug wires or coil packs. You seem to be saying not to. Please clarify.

2) Pictures would help me on this. It's not clear to me where you are putting the grease and wire brushing the coil packs.

Thanks again!

 

Sounds to me as if the ground to the coil (provided by the mounting bolt) is getting intermittent. That's what the wire-brushing achieves.

If that's the case, may I suggest cleaning the bolt contact surfaces as stated, then coating the outer areas of the bolts with CONDUCTIVE grease. (Available in the electrical sections of Home Depot type stores.)

Marrk, the dielectric grease goes around the outside of the coil pack "barrel". It would then resist water (and corrosion). So, this procedure cleans any tendency to arc aside from the sparkplugs, resists new corrosion, and assures continuity to the plug and the electrical ground (provided by the mounting bolt).



Ha, my Mom told me that hanging around in bars was a waste of time. Guess this story proves she was wrong.



BTW, the OE coil-packs in our old Acura never missed a beat in 185K miles/12 years.

 

Hey, everyone

Having same stuttering and misfire issues most have had (no stalls though) on my 08’ fit sport. I’m new to forum after reading this thread and using some of the methods mention, I Could use some help and advice?

History on the issues and attempts to repair:

Around 56k miles (Feb 13’) I stated having the stutters and misfires (CEL twice) code each time indicated cylinder (4) was misfiring.
Googled it and came to the conclusion that coil pack was bad. Bought (1) from amazon since seem like only one cylinder was having a issue. In process of replacing Coil pack, I inspected OEM spark plug and seemed to be in pretty decent shape for just being at 56k reinstalled OEM spark plug back, used some dielectric grease on inside and top of Blue part of coil pack (RED if OEM) finished reassembly and ran some Lucas injector cleaner.
No Stuttering, misfires, or CEL till 67K miles (Dec 13’) Starting getting stuttering and misfires again in cylinder (4) CEL Would come on then go away after 24- 48 hours.
This time seems to be stuttering at lot more than before I replaced the coil pack. So thought ok should have replace the spark plug(s) when I changed the coil pack.
Bought some NGK Iridium Spark plugs replaced original Spark plugs in cylinder 3&4 swapped coil packs with cylinder 3&4 (So the Newest coil pack is now in cylinder 3) Would have done all 4 but ran out of time and Light. [Note: I did notice the new coil pack that was in cylinder (4) had some orangeish brown residue around the opening of the blue part of the coil pack, don't know if this is something or not]
Anyways ran fine for about 100 miles and got CEL today checked and its a cylinder (4) misfire and is now stuttering here and there again.
Totally lost on what to do next before I take it in the the shop (which in don't know who I can trust most of the time lol)

I know this thread has been going for a bit now and hasn't been and update for a few months but any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

 

Set some time aside and read this Topic:

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/fit-...+speed+stutter

But, the quick answer is:

1. Perform Valve Lash adjustment (you can Google the procedure)

2. Replace coils.

3. Replace plugs.

You already did 2 and 3...

 

Is it just me, or has everyone else noticed how dumb it was for Honda to recommend no valve adjustment ("unless the valves sound 'noisy'") until 100,000+ miles?

 

^^^ It's just you, Marrk.


But seriously,

in the 1990s Honda's car ratings were lowered by some consumer magazines because their recommended maintenance costs were higher than other makes. I remember that our 1990 Accord had a 6000 mile valve lash check interval.

It seems they fixed that simply by sharpening their pencils. For example, the B-series engines in the Gen1 CR-Vs had the same "100K unless noisy" recommendation in North America that the Fit has now, while the rest of the world was told to get in there and check those clearances every 30K.



Honda paid for a LOT of new cylinder heads on 1997 - 2001 CR-Vs as a result.

+++++++++++++

BTW, mirroring the findings of Fit owners here, that Accord we had DID have out-of-spec valves clearances at first. But by the third or fourth check, I rarely had to actually adjust the valves, they held their adjustment well.


Those experiences are what led me to check my valve clearances on my own, on both the V and the Fit. I now do it about every 50K miles on each vehicle.

The Acura TL (3.2L V-6) we had, I only did valve clearances once at ~ 120K miles, and they were fairly close to spec.

 

Hi Everyone,

My wife's 2008 Fit impacted and ran over a deer a year and a half ago. We had $6000 in damage to the front end components (radiator, condenser, bumper, hood, wheel wells..etc).

We we got the car back after the repairs and it was running rough. Gas mileage was poor. When warm it would randomly hesitate (studder) on idle, gas mileage was poor 14L/100km in city. It would randomly stall at a stop light (about 4x per month).

All this time we were taking it into Honda for regular servicing but they could not find any issues.

In the last 6 weeks it got worse, stalling 3 times per week, periodically hesitating going up a steep hill, engine would lug then just cut out for a second then continue on again. The lugging was like it was in the wrong gear going up the hill. Then the engine light finally came on. The code was P0301, P0302, P0303 P0304 - Misfire on each 4 cyclinders.

We took it into Honda. After swapping out 2 coil packs at a time they diagosed that all 4 coil packs were defective. Got the Honda Coils for $84.15 CDN each. Labour was $128.88.

The mechanical guys out there: I wanted to know if you believe my issue of 4 defective coil packs at the same time could be related to impacting the deer at 70MPH or getting the vehicle underside powerwashed to remove all the bits of deer, blood and fur .

Thanks

Joe

 

Yokiebear,

That's a hard question to answer I think. That kind of impact is not of high enough frequency (power spectral density level in so far as how small electrical devices are tested for shock) to mess up a small component like that, but the water may have been a factor. Regardless, those packs would likely have failed soon without the deer problem. Good luck.

 

It's only conjecture without actually seeing the used parts at the time of removal,

but if the powerwash was pointed at the "wrong thing" it's possible THAT is what caused all the coils to arc: "Moisture where none was before"

 

Thanks CTCT and Carbuff2 for your insights. After striking and raking over the deer the whole car was limping (steaming) all the way back from the US to Canada.

Lesson learned: Deer vs Honda Fit. No contest - even in death the deer wins.

Secondary question: Would the bad coils cause poor gas mileage 12L-14L/100K (18MPG) or is that another looming bill (fix) I should be saving for?

 

Anytime you get a misfire/hesitation your engine isn't running up to it's peak efficiency. So yeah, it COULD.



A year and a half of mis-firing could have affected the catalytic converter, and/or the main O2 sensor...if the fuel isn't burned (misfire) the cat works overtime trying to clean it up.



I'd fix the coils first. Inspect the plugs. Adjust the valve lash. THEN, do the Idle Learn Procedure ('cause some repair shops don't do it) and evaluate the fuel mileage from there...at least three tanks of fuel on a properly-running engine.

 

I replaced the trans switch on my 2008 fit (80k miles) when i felt stutters at a light or while driving. I didnt get a check engine light but had autozone do a scan and still got a code "Error code: p0847". Once it was replaced, it drove fine around the neighborhood and at stoplights and stop signs.. once i drove at a highspeed at about 60mph on the freeway it began to stutter.. is it possible to have a bad tran switch AND coils and spark plugs???!!! What should be my next move?? HELP!!

 

I replaced all coil packs and spark plugs at the same time and it stopped all stuttering.

 

Any luck with this? I read this in a later post as well!