my fit is still under warranty, and yesterday there was a weird knocking sound coming from under the engine area when i coasted at slow speeds. My fit is pretty much stock beside the rims, so i took it in to get it checked out.

the guy said there would be a $95 diagnostic fee to figure out what it was.

my question is, if your fit is still under warranty, you still have to pay a diagnostic fee?

 

i get that noise too, and I think its normal

 

i dont think its normal, i've had my fit for 34K miles now and this is new...i can feel the clunking vibrating to my pedals and with the windows rolled down it sounds like either a socket wrench noise or some kind of weird rubbing

 

ah ok, thats a lil different

 

probably the fact you have rims.. if they find that its not the cause, they would give you the diagnostic fee back..

you are talking about FACTORY warranty, right?

 

yea, i mean the factory 3year 36K miles...

i havent had this problem with the rims, ive had them for 7 months or so...i thought it might be this but didnt find it so, but i did think this could be the problem....there goes 100 bucks if it is so...haha

 

Take it to your dealer. Warranty work and checks should be free there.

 

The dealer will make you sign for the diag fee up front in case the noise is caused by something not covered in the factory warranty: either a modification you made to your car which voided the applicable part of the warranty, or you ran over something or were in an accident which resulted in the noise you're hearing. The diag fee is to cover their asses in that scenario, but if the noise is caused by something that went wrong with the car itself then the diag fee is waived and warranty covers the diag and repairs.

 

werd. my dealer would probably look at it for free since it is under warranty.
but i would probably give him/her more specific info as to where and how the
noise can be reproduced.

 

yeah dealership should look at it for free because it's still under warranty. I'd just take it to another dealership, there are lots around the tustin area.

One question.... does it make a clunking sound when u accelarate or tap on the gas hard? I'm trying 2 see if u had the same problem i did.

 

They'll all make you sign for a diag fee. Like I said, it's to cover their expenses for the technician's time and other overhead in case the noise is caused by something you ran over in the road.

Let's say you bring your car in, the technician spends an hour or two diagnosing the noise and finds that it's caused by a tree branch that you ran over and is now lodged in your suspension. You say, "Oh, thanks for clearing that up. I'll go remove it myself," and leave. Well that's not covered under warranty, so Honda isn't paying the technician for the the diag time. Unless the technician has a fantastic service manager the dealership isn't going to pay the technician for the time he spent on your car, because neither you nor Honda forked over any money for the diag. Now the technician, who doesn't make an hourly wage or a salary like most of us and instead gets paid by the job regardless of how long it actually takes him, is out an hour or two of his time that he couldn't have spent making money on another vehicle. How is that fair?

This is why all dealerships make you sign for the diag fee even though the car is still under full warranty. It will probably be covered, you most likely will not pay a cent, but the diag fee is there for improbable (but still possible) events such as the one I described. It's a fair system.

/former Nissan tech