Savvas

Hello everyone,
I have just purchased my first s2000, 2002 65000miles. I sent it to the Honda dealership to check it before purchasing and they did not do a good job at all. I am going to list my problems one by one hoping someone that knows about them could help me fix/improve them.

1. Oil consumption. I noticed that in 1000 miles it has used about 2 liters of motul x-cess 8100 oil. Noticeable oil cloud under vtec and a lot of black spots on rear licence plate. I keep checking my oil level every morning before i take my car out and almost every day i see a noticeable difference. I am worried about the health of the car by now.
2. The car has the OEM alarm from what i have noticed and it is not functional, also found wires on the driver's side door (Right hand drive) cut then taped up with electrical tape.
3. Rear diff whine. While driving down the road accelerating at low rpm's you can hear a sound like someone is grinding metals on the back of the car.
4. Car does a loud clunking noise from the back of the car when accelerating in first after reversing the car and vice versa.
5. Engine opened up before (visible silicone on engine).
6. Second gear shifting sometimes grinds under hard acceleration.
7. RPM at idle seem to drop then rise back up again slowly while car is cold

And all of these are problems that Honda could not find before the car purchase. I am seriously thinking of reselling the car if the problems are too expensive to repair so please i require your assistance s2ki forum experts
Other than that the engine is nice and responsive, you can feel the vtec kick and takes some abuse without problems.

P.S. Have a great day
P.P.S. I am sorry if these problems are solved in other threads but i could not find specific answers about my specific problems.

Charper732

Oil consumption... Have the shop do a leakdown on the motor, that'll let you know the health of the engine( pistons/rings and valves). You should ALWAYS have this done when buying a used car. It doesn't cost much and it tells you a lot more than what just a compression test can.
Second gear grind....find a used tranny. It'll be cheaper than repairing the one you have.
RPM fluctuation can be caused from low comp...along with a ton of other things

Lawrenceh

For me the RPM going really low and then coming up is due to the MAP sensor. Sometimes the car even stalled. You should check that out. Clean it up and see if it helps.

Good luck and have fun!

Savvas

Thanks for the replies so far, i have one more thing to add. I just got done talking to the original owner of the car and he tells me that 22000 miles ago the car did not use a single drop of oil and everything was perfect, he babied the car, never drove it in the wet either. That leads me into thinking that the other owner that sold it to me has really ****ed up the engine and the whole tranny.

Car Analogy

Note there is a very informative thread on Things for New Owners which is a must read.

I bet the shifting thing is just a clutch adjustment.

You should:

1. Avoid all Honda dealers!
2. Gravity bleed the slave cylinder at trans. Flush if the fluid isn't clear. I'm betting its darker than stout. Turkey baster old fluod, wipe with paper towel, refill with fresh, drain at slave bleeder until comes out clear, while topping off MC to make sure doesn't run dry during drain.
3. Adjust clutch rod at pedal so there is zero play (all the play you need is built into MC). Trust me, zero play. Rod should just start to press MC piston durong adjustment.

Grip Hrd

I own an AP1 MY01, I get oil clouds as well, when I haven't hit Vtec in a while. Yeah, the AP1 has that oil consumption issues, unfortunately. However, I drive my car year round with 185k miles and still with it's stock clutch, So far, no complaints only the oil consumption, just watch it and make sure you have an idea where the oil level is. Hope you enjoy it

steelers743

Welcome to s2ki and congrats on the purchase, I know it sucks when you find something wrong with a new car but don't worry non of it sounds two crazy and there is a ton of information on these forums that will allow you to hopefully fix it on your own.

1. Oil consumption is common on early ap1s, I have heard people switching away from mobile 1 helped...if you are worried about engine health I would do a compression test, it is really easy and you can do it yourself
2. Not sure how the factory alarm works but could also be from someone self installing audio equipment to the trunk.
3. I would definitely change the diff fluid and see if that quiets it down, I wouldn't be surprised if it was never changed before and new fluids would make it 100x better
4. Search real axle tsb..you need yo tighten the rear axle that is 100% your noise. The axle nut from factory was to loose causing play over time, that clunk you hear is from the free play that has formed. If you tighten it that will fix your issue.
5. Again I would run a compression check on each cylinder it will give a good idea of the engine health.
6. Change your tranny fluid, also search the tsb to grease the shifter it could help, also change clutch fluid and check clutch play and engagement point.
7. Could be the MAF sensor issue, search MAF wack and try that out see if it helps.

I am not surprised Honda didn't find any of these things, they just want to make a profit on a car and if it runs then it passes their inspection. I would say most of these issue could be fixed with new fluids and some simple wrenching,

Savvas

Thank you all very much for all the feedback. I guess its time to start wrenching and get the fluids out as a start

rpg51

Please post the results of the compression test and leak down. The quantity of oil you are burning would be quite concerning to me and I would hop on that issue fast and figure out why you are burning that much oil. It can be a lot of different things - some significant, some not so significant. Is the engine noisy?

bgoetz

I don't know that I am quite as optimistic.

1.two quarts over 1k miles is excessive and the smoke is very concerning. Like suggested a leak down/compression test is a good place to start, but I am concerned by your description given the miles. Especially concerning is that you think the engine has been "opened up". At those miles and your description I would bore scope the cylinders as well, my gut says there could have been an "event" that caused scoring.

3. Maybe the diff fluid will help but if it is actually grinding something is wrong. I don't know if I would jump right to the diff though, that describes a tailshaft bearing in the tranny as well, which given your shifting problems doesn't seem to be doing well.

With what you described I would have ran away from that car, but now you own it and if your a decent honest person you sell it in an honest manner and take your loss or you keep it and make the most of it. if you do keep it, given the sorted history I would replace the retainers and change all of the fluids at a minimum.