This Honda Fit is a piece of E36 M3!

Just had the Fit towed ($150) to the dealer.

At 15 or 20k miles, the blower fan stops working. No big deal I guess. Honda has a TSB that says a resistor goes bad. TSB effectively says "Replace entire fan assembly." Long story short: Have to fight with dealer to replace fan.

At 32k(?) or so, bring car in for oil change. Service writer says "You missed your 30k service."

Me: "I was unaware there was a 30k service."

Service writer: "Well, the most important part is the transmission service."

Me: "Um. You know it's a manual, right?"

Writer: "Yes, but the fluid needs to be changed every 30k or it'll void the warranty."

Knowing the book says otherwise, I say "berkeley it - knowing my luck it'll have trans problems, and they'll give me E36 M3." So I take it in the ass for $300-$400 worth of bullE36 M3 "service" (tranny fluid, 'cabin air filter,' etc.)

In the meantime, I had to take the car back 3 weeks ago for a bad TPMS sensor. Again, they give me E36 M3. "Well, you've put 'off-brand' tires on it."

Really? Bridgestones are an "off-brand?"

Anyway, they tried to ding me for $350. I fought & won.

NOW: Yesterday we're on the way home. I get about a mile away from the house, look in the rearview and notice the rear window is covered in something. Get about a half a mile from the house and the car is making a godawful howling/grinding noise in gear. I throw it in neutral and coast home.

Pull the car in the driveway and there's smoke pouring out from under the hood.

Back of car, underside of car, and driveway are covered in tranny fluid.

Wonderful. I'm running under the ASSumption that this must be somehow related to the "service" they performed. What say ye, GRM? The ONLY thing I can come up with is maybe because 99% of the cars they bring in are autos, they filled it with ATF? Overfilled it? Is it even possible to overfill? Any honda I've ever owned basically has "Fill to top of hole" as the "capacity."

Anyway. I'm berkeleying pissed. I bought a brand new car so I wouldn't have to deal with E36 M3 like this.

Service (manager?) called at 2pm to tell me they "wouldn't know anything until morning." Great. Rental is $50 a day, so I'm already in $250 best case.

Oh, and the car has 36,260 miles.

Find a cheaper rental.

Thanks. That's incredibly helpful.

Sorry, no real assistance to offer, but thanks for sharing. I've been looking at a Fit as an eventual replacement for our Odyssey. Kind of bummed to hear they aren't bulletproof. I always figured they were the new, 4 door version of the old, indestructible Civic hatch I loved so much. Perhaps not . . .

Car dealerships make pimps and drug dealers look respectable

Keep receipts of said rental and demand dealer reimbursement. Seriously, I've never been to a dealer that actually made someone rent a vehicle when theirs was in for warranty work. I personally would refuse to pay a dime as well. Contact managers, owners, honda america, etc.

Some friends of mine just went through this with Nissan, and they finally made it to the vice CEO of american operations before everything was taken care of in full. (Leased car in dealer body shop for 7 months waiting on a correct part that had been replaced 5 times with the wrong one, refusing rental coverage, refusing to allow getting out of the lease, etc)

In reply to poopshovel:

Isn't the powertrain warrantied for 5yrs/60K miles?

oldsaw wrote: In reply to poopshovel: Isn't the powertrain warrantied for 5yrs/60K miles?

Supposed to be! We'll see. The whole experience with this dealership has sucked ass.

Second on make the dealer pay the rental. If they wont, call customer service and they almost always override the dealer.

Then, find a different dealer. That one sounds like a major ass hat- not all are that way.

Sounds to me like it's time to pitch a fit. Get it fixed and move it on down the road. In 32k miles it shouldn't need anything other than oil changes. I would certainly raise enough stink to get them to cover the rental.

Any chance of finding another dealer?

Look carefully at the paperwork from the trans service, make sure the part number billed out is for manual trans fluid. Not sure what your car takes, but see if the stuff dripping out is the correct fluid. If the owners manual dosen't call for a service at this point, even more so if they put in the wrong stuff, call Honda America customer service. Did a plug fall out of the trans?

definatly find a different dealer... your's is worth your time.

I am interested to see what happened to the transmission. ATF is not bad in a manual. BMW specifies it. I am betting they never torqued the fill or drain

kazoospec wrote: Sorry, no real assistance to offer, but thanks for sharing. I've been looking at a Fit as an eventual replacement for our Odyssey. Kind of bummed to hear they aren't bulletproof. I always figured they were the new, 4 door version of the old, indestructible Civic hatch I loved so much. Perhaps not . . .

Well, so far, I'm running under the assumption that this is a E36 M3ty service department problem. Can't seem to find anyone else who's had catastrophic manual trans failure.

I've owned a lot of manual hondas, and my theory with transmissions has always been "Treat it like a sore dick." (Don't berkeley with it.) And that's served me well. When I do axles, I don't drain the oil. I'll check the fill hole after they're done and top it off if necessary. The only car I've ever had trans problems with was a 97 Exploder, which I had a shop replace the filter and fluid in per someone's suggestion. Immediately started having problems...epic battle with shop ensued.

Generally speaking, I love the car, but I'm definitely disappointed that this is the 3rd time it's gone back to the dealer in 2 years/36k miles.

Sorry about your troubles. That's E36 M3ty!

Sounds like the dealership is a piece of E36 M3, not so much the car. I would find another dealership to fix the problem and then do the maintenance yourself.

Gearheadotaku wrote: Look carefully at the paperwork from the trans service, make sure the part number billed out is for manual trans fluid. Not sure what your car takes, but see if the stuff dripping out is the correct fluid. If the owners manual dosen't call for a service at this point, even more so if they put in the wrong stuff, call Honda America customer service. Did a plug fall out of the trans?

Good call. Will do. I jacked the car up last night, but got hesitant about pulling covers and E36 M3 to look at the trans, thinking "wtf am I going to see anyway?" I guess the plug being finger tight and working its way out is an entirely likely scenario.

What year is it? Fit Sport?

As far as the stealership goes: This is the closest one at 33 hwy miles away. Next closest is 50 non-hwy miles away, and made me wait 2 hours for a scheduled oil change the ONE time I went there. In the meantime I watched one of their techs go flying out of the shop in a customer car with the other guys laughing, and they forgot to reset the maintenance minder, which took another half-hour. Next closest one is an hour and a half away, and sales weasel left a bad taste in my mouth when I drove all the way out there to look at a GSR a few months ago.

Woody wrote: What year is it? Fit Sport?

2011 Fit Sport.

poopshovel wrote:

Woody wrote: What year is it? Fit Sport?

2011 Fit Sport.

This surprises and disappoints me. I hope to own a Fit Sport some day soon. I suspect that you just fell victim to a crappy dealer.

Demand a new trans is installed. You lost a fill or drain plug, this one certainly took serious damage to the gears and bearings being run low/empty. BTDT when a dipstick fell out of the Izuzu box of my sunfire. It was loose before, after that it was running on a mix of Lucas trans fix, STP, and 20w50 to keep it somewhat quiet.

BTW, you should change the fluid in a manual trans every 30k or so for best results, though most manufacturers dont recommend it to keep claiming their cars have lower maintenance. Maybe sooner on the factory fill to get all the break in wear out.

My Elantra is looking more and more like the automotive Abe Vigoda.

I haz no helpful crap, just thought I'd rub in the salt. 122K and nothing has failed.

No helpful suggestions. Sorry to hear you're having such difficulty with them.

I'm lucky, my FORD dealer has free loaners. On the Fiesta transmission fluid change, ready for this ? Every 150000 miles, both transmissions. that is 150K. Honda may be different. Check your owners manual.

At this point you might want to contact the area rep for Honda if they messed up that badly.