Honda Fit Valve Springs Recall

[Vikas]

Honda will recall =certain model year 2009 and 2010 Fit vehicles in the United States due to problems with lost motion springs, a component within the engine’s valvetrain.

The recall affects 97,201 Honda Fit vehicles, the company said in its announcement. The vehicles’ lost motion springs could bend or break over time, causing unusual engine noise and could potentially cause engine damage or stalling. No crashes or injuries have been reported.

Honda (NYSE: HMC) will begin notifying owners of affected vehicle in March and encourages owners to take their vehicles to authorized dealers when they receive the mail notification.

There were 763 new Honda Fit vehicles registered in Hawaii in 2009, according to PBN research. Data on the number of 2010 Fit vehicle registrations in Hawaii was not immediately available.

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I like how they describe the effect of the broken valve springs like "unusual noise" and/or "engine stall". This is going to hurt Honda.

 

[Hootbro]

Honda must have a good damage control PR department. They have been putting out their fair share of turds the last 10 years or so.

 

[nfs480]

Originally Posted By: Hootbro
Honda must have a good damage control PR department. They have been putting out their fair share of turds the last 10 years or so.


Every car company has recalls fairly consistently, their damage control PR department currently consists of Toyota.

 

[Trav]

I rather have them recall the car than just hope that nothing crops up and if it does blame the customer or claim they never saw anything like this before.

IMO not a big deal.

 

[Pablo]

Originally Posted By: nfs480
Originally Posted By: Hootbro
Honda must have a good damage control PR department. They have been putting out their fair share of turds the last 10 years or so.


Every car company has recalls fairly consistently, their damage control PR department currently consists of Toyota.


I usually don't get into basharamas, but that was fairly witty.

 

[sciphi]

We're waiting for our letter before bringing our Fit back to the dealer we like an hour and a half from us. I hope they give us a loaner if the fix takes longer than an afternoon.

 

[nfs480]

Sounds like my 2011 won't be affected, but i'll still be keeping an eye on this.

 

[jim302]

Originally Posted By: Trav
I rather have them recall the car than just hope that nothing crops up and if it does blame the customer or claim they never saw anything like this before.

IMO not a big deal.


Same here. There is no perfect car. There are just too many parts and too much pressure to keep up with the competition and keep costs down to avoid defects.

I would rather do business with a company that admits and fixes problems than one who tries to sweep them under the rug. Honda could have tried to blame the owners (for example, claim the car was raced or improperly maintained), but instead, they are fixing the issue.

Covering up problems and hoping they don't go too far out of control is a good way to lose a customer for a long time (and the customer will almost certainly tell others of their bad experiences). The Internet has made it much harder to cover up defects and get away with it. I can think of a few companies that have tried this. I won't say who because I don't want to start yet another brand bashing flame war, but let's just say there is a company that I won't even consider buying a car from for at least another 5 to 10 years.

It is hard to re-gain an angry customer. Keeping customers happy works better in the long run.

 

[sciphi]

We'll enjoy the Fit until the recall. Maybe it'll reduce the "bucket of BB's rattling" sounds while cold. Ours has always done this on cold starts, and I've written it off as a Honda thing.

Considering Honda allocated 80,000 Fits to the US for MY 2009, they're recalling every single 2009 Fit and the early production 2010's. I'm not surprised considering the L-series engine in the 2009 Fit was a re-design of the 2008 version.

 

[Vikas]

Why valve spring breaking is NOT a big deal? I do give lot of credit to Honda for proactively taking care of it assuming they actually replace them on all the cars. How many hours of labor Honda would typically pay for this job? Assuming all 16 valves and the valve gasket, this could run in to some serious money.

- Vikas

 

[nfs480]

It's not the valve springs, it's the motion lost valve springs, there's 4 of them.

 

[Blue_Goose]

My wife has a 2010 Fit. Fun little car to drive. Other than the wind noise from the doors I like it. During the warmer months she consistently gets close to or over 40 mpg. Going to go check the vin right now to see if it is included. My guess is yeas as she bought it in Jan 2010.

Heck I've been looking at Sentra's, I might just pick up a leftover 2010 Fit, have them do the recall work and use that as my 100 mile a day commuter car

Filling up for less than 30 bucks sure beats the 40 plus I'm spending now


Goose

 

[zanzabar]

Got our recall letter in the mail today. Looks like they will just replace them all, according to the TSB:
"The dealer will inspect and replace the spring assemblies in your engine if necessary."

By 'if necessary' I think it means if your engine was manufactured within a certain date range, so hopefully the don't just look at them and put the old ones back in if they look ok.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/49830452/Honda-Fit-Lost-Motion-Spring-Recall

Looks like a pretty big job, intake manifold comes off, rocker arm assemblies come out bench work, put it back together. Gotta be a 4-6 shop hour job eh?

 

[The Critic]

The job only bills out 1.6 flat rate hours. My friend already had hers done, but the dealer did want the car for 1 full day.

If your vehicle is affected, they pull the valve cover and check the date code. If the date code falls in range, they replace the springs. If not, they just put the valve cover back on and you are good to go. My friend's car was a very early build 2009 model and needed the springs replaced.

 

[zanzabar]

Wow, 1.6 hours. Well I guess that would translate to a 4-6 'zanzabar' hour job then.

Too bad they won't pay me to do it myself.

 

[Vikas]

Now you know why dealer mechanics *HATE* warranty jobs and why they overcharge customer jobs.

 

[sciphi]

We're scheduling ours to be taken in a few weekends from now. I'm planning on it being an all-day affair. Fortunately the dealer has a shuttle, and the town surrounding the dealer is full of things to do.