Yesterday I had to replace the driver's side headlight bulb in my daily, an 03 VW Jetta GLI. Remove the battery cover, remove two molded plastic cover pieces, and unclip the hood release cable from the fender. That gave me barely enough room to insert one of my slender hands and release the steel retaining bail from the bulb holder. Not a huge deal, but that is the sort of thing one deals with given the 24V VR6 engine being wedged into the Jetta. That and VAG's propensity to make things more complicated than any other car company.

After washing and waxing my wife's new Fit, I decided to look at what it would take to change a headlight bulb. Absolute piece of cake. In fact, that engine compartment is so clean and neat, VW (and many others) ought to go to Honda school. To be fair, however, our Pontiac Vibe has a similarly neat and accessible engine compartment.

Just thought I'd share some simple observations. Good day.

 

This is one of the reasons why I drive a Honda and probably always will.

 

eh I think the Fits bay is a little small compared to my xB's. It seems a little harder to get to thinks than it was in the xB

 

Of course the Vibe is neat under the bonnet, it's a Toyota!

 

I'm always somewhat amused when people think Honda's are all easy to work on. In the trade Honda's are considered reliable, but expensive to fix. For example try and replace the front brake rotors on a 94-98 Accord, most of the front end has to be removed. In fact some used car guys won't touch them because the brakes take so long to replace.

I've driven several Honda's over the years and I like them, but they due tend to be complicated. In fact, I now have my first Toyota (Tundra), and it's very easy to work on, and parts seem cheaper too. $35.00 dealer oil change Tundra, 46.00 dollars Fit, and the Fit uses less oil.

I heard a great quote once about Honda.
There is good and bad regarding the Honda Company.
The good, Honda is run by engineers.
The bad, Honda is run by engineers.

 

I haven't tried to replace a headlamp in the Fit yet, but on my '02 Civic Coupe, heaven forbid I have to switch the lamp on the side with the battery. The other side is wide open, but the side with the battery requires either manual contortion...or you have to take the battery out which seems way too much effort just to replace a lamp!

LOL....this reminds me of a short essay Kurt Vonnegut wrote about his experiences as a Saab dealer in the late 60's/early 70s:
Have I Got a Car for You! -- In These Times

 

ugh, if you like the fit try out my old car...93 buick lesabre. everything's in front of you with more than enough space. First time I changed the fits bulbs took maybe 30-45min, fender liners pissed me off lol...now though maybe 10-20min.

 

Driver's side headlight bulb on my -06 CR-V is a b*tch, and I have small hands. For maintenance puposes, I miss my first cars: a '61 Impala and '68 Roadrunner. I could almost climb inside the engine compartment to work on 'em.

 

I think RSXs are like this too. A friend of mine had an 02-03 I can't remember which, but he told me he had to remove his battery to replace his bulbs

 

I remember working on cars like that. They were so big, and the engine was so far from the fenders, that on more than one occasion, I HAD to climb into the engine bay to work on them.

To the OP, check out what it takes to change the spark plugs on a second generation Fit and THEN come back and tell us how "easy" it is to work on.

You will have to:
Remove the plastic cowl cover.
Remove the body cowl.
Remove the intake manifold and plenum (you'll need to do this anyway, as valve adjustments fall due at the same interval as plug replacements).
Now you can reach behind the valve cover, remove the 4 individual coil packs and change the plugs.
Reinstall all the stuff you had to take off.

Yes, I know you supposedly only need to do this every 100,000 miles, but on my last car ('02 Dodge Neon), I could change all 4 plugs in 5 minutes, and I had hydraulic lash adjusters-no adjustments necessary.

 

yah, it's amazing how some cars are designed without any consideration to servicing. some hondas place their oil filters in werd locations hard to gain access without making a mess removing it each time.

 

Compared to working on a VW almost anything is heaven! Add to that the fact that your Honda won't need repairs nearly as often as the VW and you'll be happy for years to come. And I'm not sure you have to remove the entire intake mani to change plugs on the GE, just the surge tank. It sounds like a lot but really isn't that hard.

 

I had a '95 Jetta 4-cyl. that wasn't too bad, but the oil filter was the most difficult to access on any car I've owned (about 26 I belive). I've also owned a couple of Chrysler 3.3L V-6 minivans: air filters were a 20 minute job instead of 20 seconds like many cars, and I always had the shop change the plugs 'cuz to get to all of them I think you needed to undo a motor mount and drop the engine down a bit, supported by a jack.

 

compared to my '88 celica all-trac (st165), the Fit has loads of space in the engine bay to work around. when i did a full exhaust on my st165 it took a total of 7 hours by myself working around the awd trans., transfer case, and rusted bolts. the dump pipe/cat delete was probably the WORST part - gashed my hand against a bracket and blood dripped onto my face as i continued to fight the rusted exhaust bolts -- good times

 

I'm just going by what I remember the service manual saying. I mention the manifold, because the book calls for valve adjustments at the same interval as spark plug replacements. The last car I owned that had to have its valves adjusted was a '79 Dodge Omni (with a VW engine).

True, it's not as bad as I make it out to be because I'll probably only need to do it every 5-6 years, but it's still going to be either time consuming or expensive (time consuming if I do it, expensive if I have to pay the dealer $100/hr to do it). One thing for sure, I won't be doing much experimenting with plugs.

 

My 94 Hyundai Excel had to have its valves "lashed" every 15K or so. Which wasn't too bad except I put nearly 200K on the damn thing (that car would not die) I just remember the first time I had to do headlights on my 04 Jetta, looking at the battery and thinking "this is not going to end well" That and anything with lug bolts instead of studs and nuts is forever and ever off my must-own list. Especially considering that the jack that comes with the car is known to all as "the widow-maker" I once heard a salesman refer to the jack thusly and almost choked on my tongue...

 

rsxs are terrible but i can change em in a minute