Disappointed in Honda, Bad O2 Sensor

I bought my brand new S2000 on April 16th 2006. I only have 4,600 miles. My malfunction light came on April 17th 2009. Contacted service department where my car was purchased and was told warranty has expired. No exceptions. Three years or 36,000 miles. To make a long story short. I took car to a different local Honda service center and they contacted Honda customer service to see if any thing could be done. They gave me an 80% goodwill discount which has me paying $65.00. I'm more upset that the sensor went out at such low miles than I am with the warranty issue. Even if I had the same problem at 30,000 miles. I'm surprised Honda didn't completely cover the warranty. My car is garaged kept and never been driven in rain or snow. Would like to know why sensor went out in the first place. Was looking to purchase another Honda product for my business. But I'm not to happy with Honda right now.

This post has been edited by 2kool on May 6 2009, 10:08 AM

dang 4,600 and the sensor is already dead? Do you have any mods?

No. Everything is factory stock. Have had 2 oil changes and replacing brake fluid (Honda recommends) when my sensor arrives. Only things I've done since purchasing. Just don't understand how the sensor could be bad with such low milage. I hope this isn't the start of more problems.

That's rather unusual but there will always be some malfunctions when it comes to things. Honda is not known to be "crap quality products" but there will always be exceptions in life.

When a car sits they have more issues than if they are driven 1000 miles a day. . O2 sensors to go bad especially if you only put a few miles on it at a time. What happens is the car runs ery rich when started and cold , if you only put a few miles on it the car is not able to properly run and the carbon from unburnt fuel builds up on the O2 sensor. I have an Accord that is 19 years old that has never had a check engine light on. My S2000 CEL came on after I disconnected the O2 sensor to put a Megen test pipe on it. Other Hondas I have owned had over 300k miles with no big issues.

Drive the car more and after it is good and hot you do need to hit vtec regularly to keep a really hot flow of air through the CAT to blow out the carbon

Thanks for your input. Your theory makes more sense. I wish Honda would have explained it to me in a similar fashion. I would of been more understanding. Not that I'm still happy spending almost $30,000 on a new car and have the O2 sensor go bad at such low miles. But I do feel better after your post. Now all I have to worry about is the top dry rotting from sitting in my garage to long. : ) Thanks again for your info. I truly appreciate your comments and suggestions.

In the garage is MUCH better than in the sun . MY01 still has the original top on it . BIG suggestion from me though , look into the convertable top problems and deal with the bad spot on the frame for the roof so you do not have the cuts alot of 2004 + owners have to deal with , I am dealing with the replacements of the top for the 06 now , this will be the 2nd time the top has been replaced .

I do not agree with the dealer not covering 100% under warranty though. That is

same thing happened to my Zanardi. 1999 and 17,000 Miles. O2 sensor died after its been garaged for over a year.

yup i agree o2 sensor was most likely varnished over from sitting so long

I think it was the dealers fault. ONE DAY out of warranty totally does not make it right to ignore you.

2006 drivetrain warranty is 5/60 no?
i feel like an 02 sensor should be part of the drivetrain but knowing how shady the dealers are about warranties...

Powertrain warranty doesn't list 02 sensors as covered last time I looked in the warranty book.

The dealer does the work, they do not set the warranty policy from Honda. Honda will not pay the dealer for doing the work if the car is out of the 3yr/36K.

80% coverage is better than nothing, which Honda is not required to do.

I know of several people that have had Warranty work done with cars WELL out of factory arranty, Im talking years out of warranty, ABS modulator hat was 4 years out of warranty and was replaced as a warranty replacement on an Accord for example.

I thought our CAT along with the sensors in it were warrentied for about 80 thousand miles. I believe they are the Emmissions control components?!

Check your state laws concerning emissions controls........the dealer is stonewalling you

I'd also contact the Honda Zone rep; point out to him the Honda is portraying itself with a "green" image and maybe a local news team might be interested in a "green" company not taking care of an enviormental issue

not everyone/everything is perfect. things fail this is life.

you live you die

replace o2 sensor move on

couldn't have said it better myself.

I bought my 07 brand new, and in about 500 miles the O2 sensor became faulty. I brought it back under warranty and they stated that some cars on the East Coast had that problem due to slightly different weather conditions or something. They replaced it no problems. I believe there's actually a voluntary recall for this.

Probably due to lack of use. They make the warranty 3 years for a reason. If you went back 5 days before the warranty was up and they refused to honor the warranty you'd be pissed, right? 3 years means 3 years. fix it and move on to life's next curveball.

sorry to hear that man, but there are always % break downs....somebody makes a mistake somewhere in the asembely line etc..
good luck.

Honda doesn't build O2 Sensors. Bosch or Denso does. Can't ask them to make better ones if they've commisioned out the component to someone that specializes in sensors.

Check the last page of your Manual, and it will list out your Federal Emissions warranties and the covered components.

Getting things covered outside of your warranty period are heavily contigent on your relationship with the dealership and/or service dept.

If you just go in for warranty work, but do NONE of your service there, you're less likely to get any shoulder to cry on when you have an issue out of warranty. "Goodwill" is just that. You get it when you give it. You can't expect a dealership to go to bat for you if they basically have no service history or relationship with the owner. As enthusuasts its hard to understand, since we like to work on our own cars and the knowledge we possess about them usually exceeds the people working on them.