I had an insight an accord and a crx..normal clutch wear on all 3, but with my fit this is my second replacement in 8,000 miles. my mechanic said HONDA only made 10,000 units(clutch kits) for pre-100,000 mile clutch jobs and when the DEALER re-did my clutch the first time they didn't RESURFACE my flywheel. I KNOW HOW TO DRIVE CLUTCH/manual so spread the word, my mechanic said the clutches were inferior and I should send the bill to Honda Motor Corp

 

Hi,

I simply gave up and traded the car on a different brand. No more Honda's for me. Countless trips to the dealer and always the same line...

They all do that.

I had several people tell me that Hondas are great cars unless something unusual goes wrong then nobody can fix them. Whatever the real truth about my former Fit, I am done.

Good luck,
Gene

 

Just read thru this thread.

I gather that the clutch damper is designed to act like the clutch delay valve on the S2000. On the S2000, the clutch delay valve is located on the slave cylinder.

My chatter issue has been present from the start, and is not temperature related. I am up to 50k miles, and it seems to have gotten worse in the last 10k miles. Someone in this thread suggested adjusting the pedal position. Has anyone had any luck with that?

I'm set up with a friend to bleed my clutch fluid today, but after reading this thread, I'm not too hopeful it will solve the problem.

BTW, my clutch doesn't feel like it is slipping and needs replacing. It just chatters on shifting, and smooth shifts are getting to be impossible.

Does that make sense?


EDIT: I also wanted to ask: Does a full clutch replacement and flywheel resurface solve the chatter problem, or is the problem still present after the new clutch is installed?

 

Wow, that sucks, GeneR. Sounded like you got a lemon. Probably the only real solution would have been for the dealer to replace the clutch/transmission, which I guess they weren't willing to do. Sorry to hear that you had such a crappy experience with Honda, that's not the norm. What did you end up trading for?

I guess a lesson is not to listen to any salesperson that says, "oh, that problem is probably just because the car is new, it'll break in." Insist on selecting another car that doesn't have that problem. I know for me, my brand new Fit was drifting consistently to the right, and they tried to tell me it was normal (due to crown of the road). I went back a second time, and a different technician found that the tire was defective and replaced it.

 

I had a private shop look at it this week. He said it was a-okay normal.

My own experience with the car is that, if I adjust my driving to suit the car, there is almost no problem. This leads me to think that, while the design may be an unhappy one (this whole clutch damper/clutch delay valve business), that doesn't mean the car is mechanically broken.

I think we are all used to driving normal manual transmissions, and this clutch system interferes with that style of driving. I think Honda makes the best dang cars in the world (for the price), but I am getting the impression that they are using clutch dampers or clutch delay valves on a lot of their models, which will make me think twice on my next purchase.

Are other companies using similar designs? Toyota?

 

Hello to all the aftermarket parts suppliers .... where are you ?
I have been waiting for 4 years for an aftermarket device to replace the damper with a nothing. Has anyone tried it? I recall having seen such a nothing device for BMWs. The market for Hondas would be a lot greater!

The following is a comment on drifting as noted in a previous note.
I had my old Civic all fixed up to sell and the prospective buyer came back from his road test and informed me that the car needed an alignment, it drifted to to the right. I checked it and he was right it did drift quite a bit. I then tested my Legacy, just back from an alignment, and my Fit. The Fit was straight as an arrow the Legacy drifted, but less than the Civic. The garage checked the Civic and concluded that everything was OK before doing a road test. Guess what ... it drifted to the right. They then swapped the front tires from side to side. Guess what ... it drifted ... to the left. When they swapped the fronts to the back it went straight as an arrow.
Problem solved and at no cost. Can't say that very often. The alignment guy told me that this happens but passes without notice. He suggested doing a test on all sets of new tires immediately after installation. It is possible to refuse a set.
Cheers
I go straight

Rod

 

2 clutches in 6000 miles. iv'e been driving manual trans for 15 years

 

I have been driving my Fit for 5 years and just over 38000 miles without ever hearing or feeling clutch noise or chatter of any kind... My wife's 95 GMC Sierra's clutch will chatter at times usually after not being driven in months. It has over 120000 mile on it.

 

1 clutch in 6k miles might be a defective clutch.

2 clutches in 6k miles sounds like the car just doesn't agree with your driving style.

 

You went for the automatic, huh?

 

Yep, just another owner chiming in here with clutch chatter. I bought it (07 Sport) used with about 23k on it and am at 30k now. It goes away once the car warms up. I'm thinking this won't be covered by powertrain, but I'm going to ask them about it anyways.

Otherwise, whatever, car's still a lot of fun.

 

No, I bought the first Fit I could find with manual transmission in July 2006... It slips a little bit once the front tires hook up and would probably be completely shot if I had super sticky tires on it.. I try not to give it full throttle until the clutch is fully engaged because the right front tires wear down so quickly if I'm not careful... When theses little cars are putting out around 175 HP and gobs more torque you need to be gentle with the clutch.

 

You guys are adorable.. you think the Fit clutch chatters? Try driving a solid hub disc or a twin/triple plate.

Those make a ton of noise. Guess what? It's completely normal in 99% of cases.

Mine has chattered from day one, has several afternoons on a roadcourse under its belt and ~31k miles on still grabs just fine.

As far as the CDV, on the GD3's you can delete it as it sits between the slave and master. On the GE8s you can use an Omni Master, or just live with it. I believe there is a Honda CMC that you can use as well.

 

So how wide spread is this issue? Or as per DiamondStarMonsters, non-issue? Is it happening on the recent models (10s and 11s)? Or just the older ones. I was considering a standard but really do not want to deal with potential non-warranty type repairs the next 3 years.

 

Coming up on one year and 16k miles for me and have had not had any clutch related issues on my 2010. Had a few clutch drops/hard launches, 1-2 chirps in there as well. Still feels like it did when it was new.

 

Bought Jazz end of August 2010- 3,000 on clock. Manual clutch just went suddenly,3 days ago- no warning. Have only done a further 3,000, so 6,000 altogether. It is not even a month since the warranty ran out. My husband has been driving for 60 odd years and has had to replace a clutch about once. It's not his driving. To replace the clutch we have to pay £615. This does not seem fair practice. Anyone else been treated so badly?.

 

The Honda warranty in the UK seems to be 3 years or 90,000 miles.

Your Jazz is over 3 years old with only 6,000 miles on it?

Perhaps you should contact the regional Honda customer care center (centre?) and ask for a "good will" repair.

Their phone numbers are on this page.

 

Come to think of it, I had a pilot bearing on my clutch replaced at approx. 27k mi. No trouble since then.

My issue with smooth clutch engagement is, I now think, not a clutch failure problem. It is a throttle control + clutch + fuel mapping problem. The car is too lean at idle, I am guessing.

 

Just chiming in with my two cents, a 'happy honda' owner here. Got my '07 in august 2006, and being young I drove the piss out of it. I was great at smoking up the clutch with burnouts and just torturing the thing in the snow. I've NEVER had a problem (other than blowing up the tranny at 99,958km's, thank GOD for warranty,) with the clutch, no chatter or anything. I know everyone says they drive like a granny and are nice, but I'm realistic. I know I drive it hard, there must be issues from the factory with a lot of the people posting here, because up until a few weeks ago (125,000km's,) the clutch has been perfect. It's on it's way out now, and I'll be replacing it as per normal maintenance.

As for the CDV, here's the easiest thing to do: find a local hydraulic hose company that makes SS braided brake/hose lines, tell them what fitting is on the MS, what fitting is on the SC, measure how long you want it to be, and voila! New line WITHOUT the damper! Or if you want to go EVEN cheaper yet, just get a SS hose made with female fittings on both ends that will essentially replace the space between the two hard lines (from the damper valve to the SC hard line.) BAM! Or even just get a cheapo soft brake line made. Or find two female/female fittings and buy a generic brake line to replace the space between hard lines. Easy as pie, lots of options.

Just some ideas from a mechanic.

 

^^Hi, Totally'. Good to hear from another Fitster who drives the snot out of his car. It's the only way to have fun. Good to hear also that our clutches are robust.

I wonder if your Canadian fuel mapping is as lean as ours down here. I think the tricky clutch engagement has to do with how lean our American cars are at part-throttle opening — lean in order to meet our emissions regulations. Does that make any sense?