Man, definitely blowing it out of proportion. Xviper and muffin are right. If you look for possible flaws small or major, you'll never be able to purchase a vehicle.

 

05 here with 32k miles and no problems.

 

the only honda product you need to avoid because of transmission issues- and i mean SIGNIFICANT, deal breaking issues- is the Honda Odyssey, especially 1999 to 2005.

don't worry and enjoy your S.

darcy

 

I have an 06 and 2nd will pop out in extremely bumpy prolonged engine braking situations from redline. Any other situation, including track use, and it is perfectly fine. It has never gotten worse since I bought the car 30,000 miles ago. It's basically a non-issue for me, just a quirk of the car.

 

XVIPER - Your opinions and advice are invaluable. I for one have gotten much info out them over the years. Don't stop now bro !

ShortShift - If you pass up a good looking '04 / '05 it'll be your loss. I had an '05 and it was flawless. Only reason I no longer have it is that I traded it on a beautiful new Laguna Bue '08. It too is flawless !

 

so many sensitive people here. i don't think the OP is blowing anything out of proportion, he just asked a question. I think a valid one. Case closed though, as all of us here haven't even had the problem, granted we are a small portion of the 04-05 cars. I've been on the forums since 07 and haven't even heard of this issue, so that usually means it wasn't a big deal.

OP if you haven't figured out by now, you're probably good with an 04-05.

i forgot to mention, while i haven't had any problems with my 04 and 75K miles on the ODO, i purchased my car with 9K miles in 07, so i have no idea if the previous owner got the TSB work done. I can't imagine a lot of people here are the original owners either, so there could be a chance some of these cars actually did have the work done with previous owners and didn't know it.

 

If there was an 04-05 with the problem, it has probably been long-fixed by now. We're talking about a 7-8 years old issue.

 

MY05 w/56k miles would occasionally pop out of 2nd gear when going from 1st to 2nd but only when the car was cold. I switched to Amsoil trans fluid and it hasn't happened since.

 

I have a 2004 that used to pop out of 1st gear when cold on occassion. I switched from Honda MTF II to Amsoil MTF and it hasn't happened since (two years). I'm at 66K miles now. It never popped out of 2nd gear with any fluid. Shifting from 1st to 2nd when cold can be a proplem if RPM's aren't high enough (babying it). But if I take it up to to around 4K RPM in 1st, it drops right in to 2nd. My VIN is 636 for MY04, so it's an early one.

I can understand your concern when buying a used S2000 and anticipating further expense. Take a good test drive, and if possible have another S2000 owner with you to look it over.

I have a 100K mile extended warranty on the drivetrain, so I'm probably a little more relaxed about tranny issues than most. If the previous owner has a similar extended warranty that can be transferred to you, that would be nice.

 

Got my 04 with 97k about a year ago. It used to pop out of second gear occasionally when it was cold outside. Switched to Amsoil Synchromesh and since then not a single issue. Good fresh tranny fluid is the key