We've seen these comments on here for all the years the car has been on the roads. Quite frankly, it's getting really silly. Why? Let's take a look at what we're dealing with here .....................................
We have an extremely high strung, high output engine in this car. Traditionally, how does an engine builder do this? You'd have to go back to the days of muscle cars in the 60's and 70's. People would put in 3/4 race to full race cams. Those engines idled like crap and had to be artificially held at higher rpms just to get a smooth start or guess what? They would stumble and bog and be a real bear to get going.
The engine in this car has the modern day equivalent of those high race cams of yesterday. Honda has done an amazing job at making this thing streetable. VTEC made it possible to, in effect, have a full race cammed engine WITHOUT having the terrible idling problems that old full race cammed cars used to have. HOWEVER, even with that having been said, the cams and induction system of this engine are STILL very aggressive in the lower rpm range. Under certain conditions, it will STILL act like it has high race cams.
You want this "FIXED"?????? Then what you'll get is an engine that will pull strongly at very low rpms without the bog and hesitation, but then, you won't have an engine that will top out at 240 hp with such small displacement. You'll have a very docile small displacement engine that runs off idle under load in the hottest ambient temps imaginable without any issue whatsoever, but the output would be something like what you would see in a 4 banger Cavalier or Toyota Yaris. You'd have an S2000 that put out 170 hp or less.
So, an UNEQUIVOCAL ...................... NO!!!! Mr. Honda, PLEASE DO NOT FIX THIS THING!!! THERE IS NOTHING TO FIX!!! Screen some of your potential S2000 buyers and send them to GM or Toyota. They're making the rest of us look bad.

 

normal! enjoy the car, ignore all the noises.

just smile and move along

 

I personally didn't find a lot of the problems as problems. A lot of owners worry about the clunk, the vibrating shifter, the vibration when the engine starts, the noises from the front, etc. Maybe it's because I've only driven very few cars, I always thought that these characteristics are normal in a sportscar ... I would, however, find these things very problematic if they come up in my parents' German breed saloons ...

Believe it or not, I actually like some of those characteristics .. and actually find the car a little too tamed (of course not squeaking noises ... but more like the clunk and the vibration) When a passenger asks me why this and that, I just say, "Honda's cheap."

 

Seriously, if you go drive a Spitfire or an MGB around the block, the S2000 will feel like the Accord you had before in terms of refinement and quiet. I'd tell a passenger "that's what cars are like before you soften them up", but that's just me

 

Mine does it frequently when coming off trailing throttle. Temperature is not a big effect. You step on the gas, the car reacts, and then it stumbles a bit, then goes. It has nothing to do with launch rpms or anything like that, so I doubt it is a "newbie" problem.

Back in January, here's the view of so many learned S owners. Many seemed to think it is a trait fo all S2000s.

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?act=S...dpost&p=6972845

I have not yet had time to make a trip back to the dealer to see their reaction.