esafaeian

G'Day guys,
Hoping some of you can help me out a little. I've had my s2000 for about 4 months now and the engine makes a ticking sound which gets me concerned from time to time. The previous owner said he changed the TCT and said he thinks it's the chain guides that are noisy.

I had an s2000 in the past and that engine from memory sounded nice and smooth, whereas this one ticks quite a bit. My old S2000 was stock, but my new one has a HKS exhaust including high flow cats I think and an aftermarket clutch.

Here are some of the things I've done to try and help reduce the noise -

Swapped headers for stock ones - seems to have made it a little quieter.
Valve clearance - didn't really notice a difference and my mechanic told me the clearances were good anyway.
2 x oil changes (within 4k kms) with 5w40 synthetic oil - seems to quieten down the ticking initially after starting the car but the ticks do return.
Changed spark plugs back to oem recommended ones - nothing
Cleaned PCV, MAP and IAC with throttle body/carb cleaner - nothing, but the car seems to idle smoother
Compression tests - results over 200 and consistent (within ~ 5psi)

My mechanic said it sounds pretty normal and that a lot of Honda engines make similar sounds (he specializes in Hondas), he said if anything it might be noisy injectors and I put a stethoscope against one of the injectors and it does seem to be quite noisy (whereas I don't hear much noise coming from the block/head area).

I have recorded two videos below of what my engine sounds like, these were taken right after the car was started on a cold morning. The noise is most prominent when I'm driving next to barriers or other cars and the ticks seems to get faster with engine speed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6yN5N-W4yY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HzRgrse5cA

I feel like the noises are making me go crazy and keep reading horror stories etc and it gets me constantly thinking worst case scenario. I even ended up buying a set of cam guides, chain etc., I keep thinking back to my old s2000 and although I can't remember exactly what that one sounded like I do feel like the engine was quite a bit quieter.

P.s my car has done 135,000 km and apart from the noise it all seems to run fine. One other issue that it does have is that the temp gauge takes aaaaages to go up to 3 bars and sometimes it drops back to 2. This doesn't effect vtec however.

Please help! haha

Bruunz

Hey,

Your car pretty much sounds like mine. I believe it's a symptom of a lack of maintenance. If the engine didn't have oil topped regularly up and ran low, it causes wear in the valvetrain which results in the noise.

Cold start quite noisy but once it warms up it sounds better?

Mine is at 192K and i track mine without an issue. I wouldn't be too concerned other than feeling like you have an old car. It hurt my ego too.

Slow warm up seems like something else. Mine will be at 3 bars within 5 minutes regardless of how cold it is (sydney, aus).

esafaeian

Would changing the oil to the recommended Honda 10w30 FEO oil make it a little quieter?

Bruunz

I'm not sure. You can give it a go but i would wait till your next oil change. I don't think you will ever get rid of the sound though. I've just learned to accept it until i blow my motor and rebuild.

There guides about servicing your TCT but if that's been done already then it just might be your head playing with you.

cosmomiller

Not sure about the sound or how long ago the TCT was changed but if it is an OEM one it will fail again.

windhund116

Sounds pretty good to me. At least, those YT clips. If car has lots of miles, may want to consider Billman250 timing chain tensioner. I believe it has longer piston travel to compensate for older and more stretched chains.

Anyhow, very quick fix (less than 30 minutes). Quality part. Works well in my 2007. Noticeable drop in noise, at idle.

https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/537...#entry23850850

Chuck S

The OEM timing chain tensioner is notorious for failing and then failing again after repair or replacement with another OEM unit. You can probably get the Billman Gen-X TCT in Oz but note it requires a core exchange or you eat the cost of it. I've read enough good things about it to put it in my car as preventive maintenance when the car had less than 40K miles.

Honda spec oil is 10W-30 in North America (and I'm guessing elsewhere). 5W-40 is specified for temperatures under 0°F where I'll not be driving. Oil grade numbers and mineral vs synthetic considerations start to give me a headache. I've picked 10W-30 synthetic as synthetics don't thicken as much when cold and consequently flow earlier and lubricate better during start and warm-up.

-- Chuck

kukudm

It could be noisy injectors, as many people mentioned in this thread: https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/370...isy-injectors/

I recently had a similar symptom, slight ticking between 3000 to 3500 RPM. It gets more obvious when I'm next to another car, or rev to 3200 RPM in neutral and listen to it really carefully.

It is gone now, and below was what I did (not sure which one of these helped, but just for your reference)

- Oil change from 10W-30 (Mobil 1 EP) to 5W-30 (Mobil 1 EP)
- Noticed my oil level was right in the middle mark, even when engine is hot. Now I filled to the top H mark, when engine is hot.
- Re-torque spark plugs to 21 lb-ft
- Use a different brand of gas (I was mostly getting Shell 91, but switched to Chevron 91). You have a RHD, so I'm not sure what gas are you getting. So maybe try a different brand.

BTW, I do have a Billman TCT, so I could safely rule out it wasn't my TCT.

esafaeian

What does this mean? Billmans TCT isn't a simple bolt on job?

I use BP 98 octane fuel here, have always used it without any issues.

Edit: noticed my TCT has NTN-1 written on it, so guess it aint a Billman TCT.

Bruunz

Don't compare US octane with AU as the measurement is different however US91 is our 98 equivalent.

We don't have the luxury of different fuel here in AUS as i think there are only 2 refineries in the country and the brands just add their own additives. The fuel itself is basically all the same here.